Studio

We design spaces where people can thrive.

For over a decade, OYO has been challenging convention to reveal the true potential of space. Ultimately, the spaces we aim to design are those that enable people to thrive.

Our work explores new, meaningful ways people can live and work together. In pursuit of this, we regularly break with preconceptions of what space should be. We ask what it could be. Our work is often described as surprising, innovative, robust, community-driven and highly performative.

We approach every project with a holistic view - what we call ecosystem thinking. This way of thinking ensures that there is a balance created between social, environmental and economic sustainability in our designs.

We start each project by collaborating closely with our clients, defining the project’s spatial purpose - the positive impact the space should have on those that inhabit it.

We believe the best spaces provide the setting for people to be at their best.

We are OYO.

OYO is a Ghent and Barcelona based architectural collaborative, founded in 2011 by Nigel Jooren, Eddy Soete, Veroniek Vanhaecke, Lies Willaert and Ferran Massip.

Our studio is a 25-person strong, multidisciplinary team of designers, architects, urban planners and consultative specialists. We believe in the value of operating an open framework for ideas. We are thinkers and builders, balancing both beauty and pragmatism in what we create.

For over 10 years we have designed International award-winning projects of all sizes and purposes. We’ve done this from a studio space we transformed at the waterfront of Ghent. Envisioned as an ‘urban living room’, our Ghent studio also periodically hosts open-house sessions. More recently, we opened our Barcelona studio, as we continue to manifest our aspirations of creating a positive global impact.

Our clients are ambitious. They are individuals, organisations and municipalities that are excited by the potential of their projects, and are looking for something beyond what’s expected.

On every project we promise original thinking, intense collaboration and sustainable design that lasts.