Barbados-based business looking to tap into US billion-dollar industry

By Marlon Madden

Managing Director of the design firm ARGO Development Studio David Campion wants to see more sustainable and environmentally-friendly architecture across Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean.

He made this point recently, as he spoke of the expansion of his company into the United States, where he said it was now positioned to tap into billions of dollars of investment for the region.

“I think sometimes there is a lazy response to creating buildings in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean where it is more about delivering a space and accepting it has to be air conditioned without actually stepping back and saying ‘how do we deliver an environmentally-conscious building,’” said Campion.

“Sometimes the option of just designing a rectangular box and filling it with air conditioning is the path that contractors and architects are choosing mainly because perhaps it’s budget driven by clients,” he said.

However, Campion said where possible, people should seek more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly buildings of high quality. In doing so, he said there were several steps to consider.

“The four steps are, design intelligently, optimise opportunity for trade winds, reduce the amount of heat coming into the building so your air conditioning load becomes less, and maximise the use of renewable energy such as photovoltaic systems,” he said.

He explained that “building a cheap box” could result in high operational costs and environmental challenges down the road.

“If I step back and brief my architect to design in a very intelligent way to reduce the use of energy, I might pay more initially to construct the building, but will recover the cost after a number of years through lower energy bills,” he explained, while noting that smart buildings have a critical role to play in conserving energy use.

Campion, who is the founder of ARGO Development Studio, lauded Barbados for its thrust in the area of solar power and photovoltaic systems.

To date, ARGO, an architectural practice specialising in climate intelligence and digital construction, has developed over 20 million square feet throughout the Caribbean and Ireland. Its current projects include the $500 million Apes Hill Golf Resort and Community Development in Barbados.

The design firm, which was started in 2013 and focuses primarily on designs for the hospitality industry, is headquartered in Barbados and employs 44 people throughout the organisation, split between Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ireland and New York.

Campion explained that the focus of the company was on making buildings more intelligent, sustainable and environmentally-friendly, given the kind of analysis that goes into the design.

He said the efficiency associated with the designs could result in up to 20 per cent cost savings over more traditional means of delivery.

The company recently announced that it was expanding into New York. Campion told Barbados TODAY this will allow ARGO to tap into billions of dollars worth of investment for the Caribbean.

“New York for us is about identifying opportunities. There is US$12 billion worth of investment into the Caribbean and Ireland annually into construction-related industry. That breaks down to about US$4 billion into the Caribbean and US$8 billion into Ireland. We wanted to see if we could intercept some of that investment on US soil,” he said.

“We have existing American clients that we wanted to better connect to for projects in the Caribbean and setting up a New York design studio seems to be a sort of natural progression for us to better connect the business opportunity,” he said.

ARGO has announced the appointment of international architect Michael Casey, to head up their brand-new, New York Studio, as design director and new business strategist.

Campion said the company’s diverse workforce was a plus.

“Our passion for climate intelligence and digital construction puts us at the forefront of the industry.

“We have an advantage of working across timezones. So it allows us to offer clients a 16-hour work day with team members from Barbados and Dublin. That bit of time difference becomes important to clients who want to engage us for time-sensitive projects,” he said, adding that the opening of an office in New York this year was “too good an opportunity to turn down”. 

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb