Creativity counts

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Marcello Rodriguez Pons, board member, HCP Architecture.

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HCP’s principal objective is to produce design that is sympathetic to environmental and humanitarian needs supported by the advances in technology.

CEO Middle East meets HCP Architecture & Engineering board member Marcello Rodriguez Pons who explains why the architectural firm sees growth amid the slowdown in the Gulf.

With Latin "blood" and German "order", based in Malaga, Spain for the last seven years Marcello Rodriguez Pons, born in Argentina, is an architect and urban planner who successfully designs and develops master plans for towns and new cities, and creates individual buildings as components within these.

For that to be achieved the general focus of the design has to balance the social, environmental, engineering and economic needs of each project.

He is board member of HCP Architecture & Engineering which develops architectural and urban planning projects and construction for the entire world, putting into practice a comprehensive style of working, resolving projects of different sizes and styles from the very beginning to the end. For that, professionals with vast experience are needed so as to achieve excellent results regardless of the complexities of the given situation.

HCP is an architectural and engineering studio founded in 1985, currently employing more than 100 professionals, dedicated to projects offering creative solutions and covering different themes including mainly dwellings and resorts, but also sports centres, hotel complexes, skyscrapers, master plans and infrastructure projects. The principal objective is to produce design that is sympathetic to environmental and humanitarian needs supported by the advances in technology.

Why do you think you have been successful as an architect?

Success is something difficult to define and measure for me as an architect; I leave this word for journalists and critics. I prefer to put things on another way, simply by defining the way I understand our work and role as designers in architecture, which is something people like and feel comfortable with. I imagine the space I'm designing, how light affects it during the days and the seasons, how people would use it naturally without being forced to, that all gives me a lot of elements to polish the project and draft better and better solutions. The only key for the success you are mentioning is work, work and work.

The last years have made ourselves expand worldwide a company because of international design competition awards. These are some of our last achievements:

2009 First Prize Competition for the Master Plan in Amwaj Park District - Bahrain, for office buildings, commercial areas, a hotel, and 500 residential units.

2008 First Prize in the Competition for the development of the Master Plan, Marina Design Project of Dannat Resort in Al Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

2007 First Prize in Town Planning Competition, Master Plan, Marina Design Project of Porto Vista Marina & Resort in Vlora, Albania. The project components are a 1,000 berth marina, hotels, commercial areas, golf course and 6,000 residential units.

2006 First Prize of the Competition for Master Plan up to detail design on phase one of Grand Natal Golf in the city of Natal, Brazil. The master plan is a seaside 17.5 millions sq m plot with five golf courses and 30,000 residential units and 3.5 million sq m of built up area.

2006 First Prize of the Competition for Master Plan and Technical Design of Marina Park in Constanza, Romania. The project components are offices, hotel, commercial and 3,500 residential units.

What does the GCC represent for you as a company, and why did you decide to establish here?

We have been working in the region for quite a long time, mainly in Bahrain where we have our branch office for the Gulf, but since last year we also started to work in KSA. We have been doing concepts and feasibility studies for various GCC companies for some time, with quite a lot of success.

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