EN | IT
Every project begins with two things: the place you already have, and the life you want inside it. The work is the translation between them. Most clients come to us with a building that already means something, an apartment with original detailing, a heritage shell, a farmstead in the Langhe, and a clear wish to keep what makes it matter. We read what is there, keep what counts, and carry it into contemporary daily life.
Founded in Shanghai in 2016, Q•A Studio is now an Italian architecture and interior design practice with offices in Torino and Dubai. We work mostly on residential and heritage projects across Italy, in Europe, and the Gulf; the Shanghai-era projects remain an active part of the portfolio. We collaborate with international clients who renovate, restore, or build from a distance, working in Italian, English, French, and Spanish. Wherever a project stands, the process always starts the same way: by reading the place, its history, and the people who will live or work in it.
Architect · Politecnico di Torino, Visiting Professor
Michele founded the studio in Shanghai in 2016. He studied in Torino and Barcelona, and earlier worked with MARC in Torino, Sou Fujimoto in Tokyo, and NOWA in Venice and Sicily, on architecture, interior design, and urban regeneration. The early Shanghai years were mostly hospitality, retail, and workplace projects across China.
As more of the practice moved to Italy, he opened a second office there in 2023. He teaches as a Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Torino and directs SOU, the School of Architecture for Children, which brings architecture to children in Italian cities.
Architect · Istituto Marangoni Dubai
Lorenzo trained at Politecnico di Torino. He joined the studio as Q•A's Italian operations grew, leading the firm's residential and heritage work in Torino and the Langhe. His projects sit at the intersection of contemporary daily life and Italian architectural heritage: the kind of work where an Art Nouveau fresco discovered during construction becomes a design event, not a complication.
He teaches at Istituto Marangoni Dubai, where he brings the studio's working method (read first, propose second) into the design classroom. He has also taught at Politecnico di Torino. Lorenzo handles client relationships and project leadership on the Italian residential book; many international clients buying property in Italy work directly with him to navigate the contractor, regulatory, and material-sourcing ecosystem on the ground.
Both principals teach: Michele at Politecnico di Torino and SOU School of Architecture for Children, Lorenzo at Istituto Marangoni Dubai and Politecnico di Torino. Across the studio's history, we have also taught at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China. The teaching work is not a sidebar; it shapes how we read each new brief.
2024 · Città di Torino Architecture Design Prize | 2022 · Luxury Lifestyle Design Award | 2020 · AD Magazine, 100 most influential young designers in China.
Torino · Via Amerigo Vespucci 66
Dubai · Warehouse 45 8 A Street, Al Quoz
info@q-a.studio