ARGO, the architectural practice founded by Irish entrepreneur David Campion that specialises in digital construction and climate intelligence, has launched Apollo, a new division specialising in Modern Methods of Construction.

The division has been created in response to client demand for digital tools to be deployed from concept to completions in one package.

Apollo will be exclusively available to ARGO clients, and the company believes it has the potential to become a game-changer for the construction industry.

It will use underutilised Digital Twin technology to construct a building from a 3D virtual environment to deliver more intelligent, resilient and cost-effective buildings.

The company's team of project managers, quantity surveyors, engineers, architects and architectural technologists are fluent in digital construction and help to eliminate the need for cumbersome, labour-intensive building sites.

Apollo has several projects in the pipeline, including the $15m Saint James School of Medicine Medical Campus on the island of St Vincent.

Phase 1 was completed in August, and the second phase is slated to commence in the first quarter.

The building was unscathed by Hurricane Beryl earlier this year, and it has been designed to act as a Category 5 hurricane shelter.

Campions owns and leads ARGO, which has a team of more than 40 across offices in New York, Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica and St Vincent.

“I believe that Apollo will have a big impact on major hospitality, residential, educational, commercial and transport sectors," said Campion.

"It will help to achieve greater efficiency in the construction process, taking the sophistication of digital construction and other innovative technologies including AI and AR from the design studio to construction sites to safeguard the delivery of projects to turnkey.

"As such, there’s multiple benefits to the Apollo approach. Not least, being able to consider Design + Build, System Build and MMC as procurement options, enabling works contracts to be tendered early, even before the design is completed.

"Ultimately, we improve the cost and buildability of projects as they develop, shortening their time to completion and safeguarding construction budgets. The digital twin process also allows us to deliver buildings to net-zero goals for our clients. I believe that this is the way of the future.”

ARGO is leading the design, and Apollo is leading the MMC strategy and implementation for a $300m 500-unit residential product in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that covers 150,000 square metres.

The firm has developed projects of more than 20m sq ft in the Caribbean and Ireland. Projects under construction include the $350m Mandarin Oriental in Grand Cayman, the Canada Life headquarters in Barbado, Secret Bay Resort in Dominica, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar engineering facility in the Bahamas, and Citywise Education and Community Centre in Dublin.

ARGO previously launched a centre of technical excellence in 2017.

Photo: David Campion. (Pic: Supplied)