Architects’ headquarters might soon change location

The headquarters of the Architects Association of Macau (AAM), currently at the 2-storey Villa at the Avenida do Coronel Mesquita in Macau, might soon relocate, the Times learned from a source.

Contacted by the Times on this topic, the president of the AAM, Architect Christine Choi said that “there is currently no official announcement to be made on this matter,” leaving to a later time any announcement related to the potential move.

According to the information collected by the Times, the government, which owns the land as well as the building, may be interested in reclaiming it for an undisclosed purpose.

The same sources indicated that the government officially informed the association of its intentions in around October this year, giving the association a period of six months to prepare for the move.

The Architects’ Association headquarters has been located at this premises for over 25 years, since November 1998, which, according to the AAM official website, has been provided free of charge by the government for the use of the AAM.

A review made by the Times of the government official records on the building and land shows that the whole quarters includes six different plots from the numbers 2B to 2I (AAM headquarters is located at 2F). These plots were registered under the Macau territory property back in 1995 in a dispatch published in the Official Gazette on April 20, 1995 by the Office of the Assistant-secretary for Transports and Public Works José Manuel Machado.

Under the current statutes, the AAM has existed since January 1988 although it has its origins in an earlier organization, the Macau Association of Architects in Private Practice, which is eight years older.

The quarters where the AAM headquarters is located is comprised of several villas with the numbers 2B to 2E, including older constructions with houses in a Portuguese colonial style. These seem to be currently unoccupied and show some signs of decay and abandonment.

The second part of the quarters (2F to 2I) is occupied by more modern constructions that are, apparently, all in current use.

Although the area has recently drawn attention from the government and particularly from the Cultural Affairs Bureau which has presented and developed several revitalization projects for other villas located in the same street, there is no information or disclosure from the government on any intentions for these particular quarters.