APUA was created in 2025 by two friends, Filippo Muzi Falconi and Boris Grisot, who first met while working at Domaine de Boisbuchet, a cultural centre for art, design, and architecture in France.

They bonded over a shared affinity for working with raw, natural materials. They both valued making as a way to connect with the world, a curious hands-on exploration of how transforming matter can deepen our relationship with the surrounding territory. They also shared a fascination for archaic artefacts, narratives, and the imaginative journeys these objects and stories inspire.

Drawing from their experience at Boisbuchet, where a temporary, self-organised community forms each season around making and exchange, they wanted to create a space that carried the same collective spirit of curiosity, experimentation, and mutual learning.

Today, Apua is an open collective that has grown and evolved as new artists have joined, bringing their voices, inspirations, and imaginaries, leading to an experimental ground for further growth.