Mission Statement

The Environmental Design Centre (EDC) is an architectural and urban design studio committed to the preservation and enhancement of the environment through the practice of creating spaces which respect and coexist with their surroundings. Whether working on the design of a single room or a hospital, we pay full attention to the site in which a building is to be placed: we champion responsible design that carefully studies and addresses local conditions, for every site is different and unique. We believe that design must be more concerned with the details of space and its relationship with its immediate environment than with size.

At EDC, we are concerned with all aspects of design for man-made objects: from a screw to a house to a city. We firmly believe that the one activity that shapes our world the most and has the greatest impact on our environment is design. Design is actually an a-priori fact to production, so it will determine not only the morphological aspect of objects (form and function), but their life span and final destiny on this planet, paramount issues that affect in a very direct way the fragile ecological structure of our one and only natural habitat—Mother Earth.

We aim to create environmentally responsible, functional and beautiful buildings. We believe that when humans come face to face with beauty, we experience a naturally rewarding feeling.

In the first stages of the design process—conceptual design and design development—which require constant communication with the client, we try our best to develop all projects with the actual art of designing and drawing by hand, since just like processed food, computer-generated design cannot thoroughly fulfill human needs: it is too far removed from real human experience.

We at EDC strive to avoid as far as possible the use of pollution-generating energy to achieve climatic comfort, and to create beautiful buildings with the smallest carbon footprint possible, using low-embedded-energy local materials, environmentally friendly technologies, bioclimatic strategies, careful site planning and accessible design principles.