rcdp arkitketar
Mission & Approach
RCDP Arkitektar was founded in response to the growing demand for affordable housing in Iceland’s capital region. In 2018, we produced the winning proposal for a central Reykjavík site: economical homes for first-time buyers, designed to meet ambitious ecological standards. That project reflected the values we continue to pursue today.
Architecture must be sustainable, durable, and economically viable. Buildings should be built to last not only in materials and construction, but in adaptability, program, and long-term value. Affordability, quality, and climate resilience must go hand in hand.
Our approach is practical and straightforward: architecture as problem-solving. We strive to find beauty in utility and clarity. We design for the user, the city, and the future, creating energy-efficient buildings with a minimal carbon footprint, adaptable spaces for changing needs, and healthy living environments that feel natural and welcoming. We emphasize cost-effectiveness, because unaffordable solutions have limited scalability.
Every project carries a responsibility to its surroundings: to make its immediate context a little better, to strengthen community life, and to leave a legacy worth maintaining. Real sustainability lies in buildings that people love and work to preserve for the next generations.
Our work spans affordable housing, adaptive reuse, urban fabric repair and neighborhood masterplans. We engage multidisciplinary, project-specific teams to add value through design that is context-sensitive, socially responsive, and climate-resilient.
Our ambition is simple: projects that age gracefully, enrich the public realm, and that prove more rewarding in real life than in image. Making the city better, one building at a time.
Founder
Rafael Campos de Pinho graduated in Architecture and Urban Planning from EA-UFMG in Brazil (2004), receiving the Grand Prix at the Opera Prima competition for graduation projects. He later completed an MA in Real Estate at the University of Barcelona, and gained experience at the internationally renowned Icelandic firm PK Arkitektar.
After a long sabbatical and a stint in Advertising - where Rafael collaborated with leading agencies in Brazil and Europe and won numerous awards, including two Cannes Lions - he shifted his focus back to architecture, taking an architect-developer approach.
With a low-cost housing development in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 2016, Rafael began shaping the core values of his new practice: building for ordinary people, designing at a human scale, and creating neighborhoods that endure. Since then his work has included affordable housing, adaptive reuse and innovative public realm and neighborhood plans in Iceland, Spain and the United States. Rafael is also a regular collaborator with Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company in Miami and Fabric Urban Development in Minneapolis.