POLO.

Building robust resilience

We create robust designs which grow out of present-day demands, yet incorporate the spatial qualities to endure long into the future.
Most designers will admit to occasionally fantasising about creating for eternity. But at POLO we understand that today’s brilliant idea might sometimes turn out to be tomorrow’s costly mistake. This is why we always consider and anticipate a specific design solution’s eventual obsolescence.

This is a necessary modesty. We design in layers of longevity. A structure should perform its function for generations to come, but a wall may be overpainted every few years. We calculate ecological footprints not just in the here and now, but over the total anticipated lifespan of a built space.

The structure or “casco” is to be durable in time and functionally flexible: an intelligent ruin. This does not imply a generic “one size fits all” approach. The search for resilience leads to a base framework that makes a place — be it a plot of land, an interior or entire city district — fit for purpose, yet simultaneously opens it up to a field of future possibilities, both envisioned and as yet unimagined.