Arcadia designworks

Sustainable Philosophy

Since it's beginning, ARCADIA designworks (Ad) has produced designs for buildings and manufactured products following the basic tenet that each project is a means of enhancing both the lives of people and the earth on which we live. Our architecture has taken advantage of reused, recycled and bio-derived, sustainable materials and our product and packaging designs have specified locally produced, chemically inert, eco-friendly materials. We try to maintain a general awareness of the basic chemical composition of the materials we design with, including an understanding of the manufacturing processes used in it's production. We are dedicated to designing 3-dimensional objects that have a limited "carbon path," not simply the adopted static nomenclature "footprint."

In addition to being cognizant of a materials carbon use and content, we continue to conduct research, with assistance from chemical scientist and engineers from local universities, on the toxic chemical content of building and manufactured materials. Products containing substances proven to be toxic (carcinogenic or mutagenic) and therefore detrimental to the earth, human beings, flora, and fauna, through extraction, industrial transformation, post industrial use and/or disposal are not specified, used
or promoted by Ad's designers.

In particular, Ad has been conducting on-going research on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used as a coating on steel wire mesh used in fabricating lobster traps. Ad discovered tangible evidence that phthalate DEHP used as a stabilizer in the production of PVC, which is also used in products such as building siding, raincoats, and shower curtains, can cause degenerative disease in the organs of laboratory mammals. This research on phthalates, combined with the danger of dioxin produced during the incineration of PVC, influenced our company to apply for federal grant funding to develop an alternative lobster trap material. Ad also made considerable progress in identifying sources for wood and paper materials for the design of products and packaging that follow Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification practices.

Our responsibility as architects and industrial designers is not only to design, imaginative, useful buildings and products, but to be aware of the materials used in their construction and production and their effect on the greater environment in which we all share.