AIM Architecture: Architecture with positive impact on cities

By Malin Norman

AIM Architecture is a global design studio with offices in Shanghai, Antwerp, and Chicago. Founded in Shanghai by architects Wendy Saunders and Vincent de Graaf, AIM has grown from Asia to Europe and the US, bringing together a diverse team of designers, urban planners, and strategists.

With roots in architecture, interior design, and urban planning, the studio works across scales and cultures – from flagship stores and boutique hotels to cultural venues and urban masterplans. Its mission is to activate streets, spark culture, and create places that strengthen the social fabric of cities.

After many years of shaping cities across Asia, AIM opened its Antwerp office two years ago, reconnecting with Europe and expanding its cross-continental perspective. This international footprint has become central to the studio’s identity, enabling AIM to bring fresh cultural insight and local sensitivity to every project.

Cotton Park. Photo: ©Dirk Weiblen

Designing across cultures

At AIM, design is always rooted in context. The studio approaches each project with curiosity, spending time to understand the cultural, social, and spatial dynamics of its surroundings. Working across geographies has shaped AIM’s design ethos: it blends global perspectives with local specificity, bringing new ideas while staying deeply connected to place.

This mindset is supported by a multidisciplinary team of architects, interior designers, urban planners, and strategists who collaborate closely across AIM’s offices. Together, they develop spaces that are bold and human-centred – spaces that activate their surroundings and invite people to gather, move, and connect.

“Every project is an opportunity to foster community, to create places that bring people together, spark dialogue, and strengthen the urban fabric,” says Wendy Saunders, co-founder and principal architect. “For us, designing for people is not a tagline, it’s the starting point.”

Taoxichuan Hotel, guest room. Photo: ©Wen Studio

Futuristic flagship store concept

A project that demonstrates how AIM activates and transforms places into meaningful destinations is ZARA in Nanjing, China. Located in Nanjing’s bustling Xinjiekou district, the 37,000-square-foot flagship – the largest ZARA store in Asia – marks a pivotal moment in the fashion brand’s evolution. The project sets a new precedent for retail: immersive, spatially dynamic, and fully woven into the city’s public realm.

More than a retail space, it redefines how fashion interacts with the city. Designed as an extension of Nanjing’s urban landscape, the store creates a natural dialogue with its surroundings. A monumental staircase spills into the street as public seating, blurring the threshold between store and city.

“Together with the redesigned streetscape and entrance plaza, we extended the brand experience beyond the retail floor, welcoming passersby to engage with the store beyond shopping,” says Saunders. “The new design invites public interaction, weaving the rhythms of the street into the store and opening up new ways for visitors to engage with the brand.”

Zara Nanjing. Photo: ©Seth Powers

Giving back space to the community

In AIM’s ongoing collaboration with the Chinese cosmetics e-tailer HARMAY, the team has taken its community-centric design to the street. HARMAY Fang, Shanghai, completed in 2021, showcases the future of shopping.

In an area where locals have lived for decades and recently mix with a vibrant young tourist crowd, the mission was to bring back customers to stores, by creating strong storytelling and valuable in-store experiences, but also to give back space to the community.

“By opening up the ground floor to the public, the corner building has become a place that the community can call their own, one that fits and welcomes all,” explains Saunders. “The new public plaza beneath the store is now a place where everyone can come together, a place where the old and new Shanghai meet, creating something unique, activating its new connections.”

Mixed-use spaces and porcelain power

In Cotton Park in Changzhou, China, AIM has transformed four disused oil tanks into a lively mixed-use space for the local community. The adaptive reuse project combines sustainability, culture, and community – turning industrial relics into a vibrant public hub. “With Cotton Park, our goal was to show how former industrial sites can be reimagined as meaningful places for the city,” says Saunders. “Rather than erasing what was there, we transformed these oil tanks, once part of the city’s industrial fringe, into a lively cultural hub.”

AIM Architecture: Architecture with positive impact on cities

Another project that is deeply rooted in its context is Taoxichuan Hotel, part of the Unbound Collection hotel by Hyatt, which is located in Jingdezhen, China. The city has a tradition of crafting porcelain, and the hotel is a tribute to the technique and experience of porcelain in the heart of its birthplace. Saunders adds: “Like the long and fascinating life of porcelain, it’s a journey toward the unknown, the unexpected, an urge to find the truth, and all the encounters in between.”

With a bold vision rooted in cultural curiosity, AIM continues to redefine the relationship between architecture and the life around it – crafting spaces that spark connections, inspire communities, and transform the cities of tomorrow.