Pre-crafted Properties | Portugal

by DC Venture Capital Partners

Precrafted homes by the world’s preeminent architects, artists and designers. Our desire to make high-design attainable for everyone. Revolution is a collection of limited edition, pre-crafted properties, including homes and pavilions, introduced by Robbie Antonio, who is known for bringing in celebrity-branded developments. The project unites over sixty- one (61) of the world’s top designers to create an exclusive series of prefabricated, livable spaces. The homes are available in different regions in Portugal.

With a network of cutting-edge technologies and cost-efficient productions systems, Revolution is democratizing high-design and architecture by introducing designed spaces in exclusive collaboration with industry leading creatives.

Revolution Precrafted addresses the most common pain points in real estate, property development, and design:

Speed | Quality | Designer Brands | Cost Efficiency | Global | Flexibility | Technology

PHILIP JOHNSON | ALAN RITCHIE

The firm of Philip Johnson / Alan Ritchie Architects has been recognized as one of the most creative and innovative architectural firms for over half a century. The firm’s philosophy is founded on the belief that understanding the client’s desires, needs and goals is an essential first step in generating designs that are functionally and aesthetically successful.

MODERN GLASS HOUSE

The original Glass House, designed seventy years ago by Philip Johnson as his home in Connecticut, has become a classic representation of modern architecture. It is now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States of America.

The Glass House was not only Philip Johnson’s private residence; it was also his viewing platform for the world. The primary function of a house is to provide for the basic need of shelter. The beauty of a glass house is that it becomes a framework for the viewing of one’s surroundings. The modular glass house was inspired by the original but has been reimagined as a series of modular components that can be pre‐fabricated and shipped to any site.

The design follows the principals of the original by introducing a typical window bay and structure that becomes the outer skin of the building. Alan Ritchie sees residing in a glass house as an enhancement of the living experience by being immersed in your natural surroundings.

DAVID SALLE | AA STUDIO

David Salle and A Studio make a veritable duo. David Salle stands to be one of the most important figures to define postmodern sensibility, while AA

Studio incorporates uncompromising design fundamentals into every job, and specializes in projects that balance form and function with a bold, yet elegant flair, which has become its trademark.

BILLBOARD HOME

The idea was to make a house and studio complex for an artist (himself) and his family. The views are relatively unobstructed, and the house is designed to bring as much of the view inside as possible. The structure is intended to support a life both active and contemplative: reading, writing, painting, outdoor activities, socializing all have designated area.

In addition, they wanted to dedicate entire exterior walls to the “function” of pure image: images drawn from a “palette” of painting fragments can be digitally printed on the metal cladding of the two solid end walls, creating startling imagistic interventions in the otherwise predominantly horizontal landscape. The house is an image in the landscape; an image inside of an image, like a small painting inset into a larger one. The design concept began by looking at a modular element that fits inside of shipping containers, that can also be combined to create pleasingly proportioned living spaces.

MARMOL RADZINER | KRAVITZ DESIGN

Kravitz Design, Inc. (KDI) was founded by Renaissance man and legendary music icon Lenny Kravitz, and touts a portfolio of noteworthy ventures.

Collaborating with Marmol Radziner, who creates projects that engage the surrounding environment and take a warm, textured approach to modernism that is elegant and timeless, has given birth to a sexy, sinewy design, that is as iconic as its proponents.

INSTRUMENTAL HOME

The Instrumental Home is a free-standing enclosure that includes a living area, kitchen, one bedroom and one bathroom. The interior space maintains a constant connection with the outdoors by the use of full height glazing. The kitchen and living area and bedroom open up to large exterior decks, facilitating a seamless indoor-outdoor living experience. The exterior trellis provides a delicate cover for the decks while filtering light into the interior spaces. Like the spaces themselves, the materials are an elegant palette of metal panels, wood flooring and aluminum doors and windows. New York City-based design firm Kravitz Design, Inc. conceived the Instrumental Home’s interiors with the goal of creating an efficient, indoor/outdoor living space.

Go Big Or Go Home: Democratizing High-Design Architecture For Every Man

by Gerald Burwell, Vie Magazine

The splendidly superb strokes of a painted masterpiece, the svelte details of a hand-hewn marble sculpture, and the perfect play of space and light by a master architect. Anything that rises above the common or mundane – these are the qualities that inspire passion within Robbie Antonio.

Antonio- a man of pedigreed education land a connoisseur of good taste-is a seasoned global real estate magnate with millions of square feet of commercial and residential development as testament. Despite his meteoric rise all by the age of forty, Antonio felt that something was missing-that he had some desire of unknown origin incubating within him. It wasn’t until 2015, following a week of intense thought, that Antonio had a sudden flash of brilliance: an asset-light business model consisting of a symbiotic network of master fabricators, delivery methods, and installers. Revolution Precrafted would be the world’s first online business of its kind-a catalyst for bringing luxurious creations of world-class architects and designers to the doorstep of everyman.

THE PORTRAIT OF ROBBIE ANTONIO

What image comes to mind when you think of a strikingly handsome and cosmopolitan billionaire hailing from the Philippines with an MBA from Stanford University? A global disrupter akin to visionaries like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may not be your first thought, but you’ve not met Robbie Antonio.

Antonio is the visionary and founder of cutting-edge Revolution Precrafted -a global supplier of prefabricated homes, museums, pavilions, glamping structures, pop-ups, condo-tels, and furniture, exclusively designed by more than eighty of the world’s top architects, artists, and designers. The start-up is officially the Philippines’ first unicorn-a privately held start-up company valued at over $1 billion. To help paint a better portrait of Antonio (and, he is no stranger to having portraits made of himself), he was named Philippines Real Estate Personality of the Year for 2018, which comes as no surprise since his circle of friends and associates includes jet-setters Lenny Kravitz, Margot Robbie, Eric Trump, and Paris Hilton.

Robbie Antonio, the son of Filipino real estate mogul Jose E. B. Antonio, was named among the Philippines fifty richest people by Forbes in 2018. Antonio attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics, and then successfully pursued his MBA at the Stanford fraduate School of Business. Shortly after college and during Antonio’s early career as managing director of Antonio Development, he lived in Manhattan while working closely with the Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei and son Sandi Pei on the Centurion -a nineteen-story residential condominium that was completed in 2009. It was during this five-year period that Antonio reveled in the unprecedented access granted him to some of the world’s best-known architectural landmarks and masterworks of art housed in some of NYC’s finest museums, including the Guggenheim, the Met, MoMA, and the Whitney.

“He works closely with industry leaders on a constant basis, including such interior and fashion icons as Missoni, Versace, Paris Hilton, and Lenny Kravitz, among others.”

Antonio is now one of the youngest and most prolific collectors of international modern and post-war contemporary art in the world. In fact, he has received numerous awards from various organizations, including being recognized by Artnet as one of twenty of the world’s most innovative art collectors in 2014 and in the top two hundred art collectors worldwide in 2015. In 2016, Artnet again recognized Antonio with two awards: as one of the top one hundred art cillectors for that year and as one of twelve young art collectors to watch. His appetite for art led him to collaborate with artists such as Marina Abramovic, Maurizio Cattelan, Francesco Clemente, Damien Hirst, Zhang Huan, David LaChapelle, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Julian Opie, and Julian Schnabel.

Antonio’s love of art is rivaled only by his passion for architecture. The designs offered by Revolution Precrafted come from award-winning designers such as Zaha Hadid, Cesar Pelli, and Philip Johnson. He works closely with industry leaders on a constant basis, including such interior and fashion icons as Missoni, Versace, Paris Hilton, and Lenny Kravitz, among others.

 

THE REVOLUTION

“I want to effect change,” says Antonio, recounting his brainchild, Revolution Precrafted. For an entire week, he couldn’t think of anything else while thoroughly scrutinizing corporate structures like Uber and Airbnb, two of the post successful online B2B2C companies that are asset-light, have low capital expenditure, and involve technology in a global marketplace while disrupting conventional business models. Antonio aspires to model Revolution Precrafted using these profitable commerce structures to become the world’s largest supplier of designer homes at affordable prices that can be ordered online.


The Revolutionaries: iust a handful of the preeminent names in the design industry that have partnered
exclusively with Antonio/ Revolution Precrafted unicorn venture. The Revolutionaries include: MarceL Wanders, Zaha Hadid, Kravitz Design, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Bernard Khoury, Raúl Sanchez, Hariri & Hariri Architecture, Francesca Versace, Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects, Ron Arad

As lofty a goal as Revolution Precrafted is, Robbie Antonio is positioned on a trajectory for success. Through his connections and reputation in the industry, Revolution Precrafted has aligned with the world’s preeminent architects, artists, and designers-or Revolutionaries, as Antonio refers to them. “At the moment, we have designs from eighty-one Revolutionaries under exclusivity with Revolution Precrafted. We have created an exclusive series of prefabricated, livable spaces,” Antonio explains. The network of almost seven hundred fabricators worldwide-some of the best in the business-work closely with the architects and local contractors to ensure that all products are assembled in compliance to the local climate, building codes, and building standards specific to each project-even for stringent wind and seismic requirements. “We at Revolution Precrafted value quality above all else,” continues Antonio, who is known to despise mediocrity. Aside from outstanding design, quality is what people expect from the company and our products.”

The concept behind Revolution Precrafted is revolutionary for sure, but Antonio is not the first to attempt disrupting the architecture and construction industries through prefabrication. One of his inspirations for such a venture was the French architect and metal worker Jean Prouvé, who tried to parlay metal manufacturing into a prosperous business of prefabricated architectural buildings in the 1930s and 1940s. Prouvé ultimately failed, as did many others who came before and after him. But through the advent of new technologies and modern global awareness, Revolution Precrafted may be the first to achieve the previously unattainable goal.

 

The Revolution Precrafted website is impressive in the prolificness of the established alliances and the ideology of merging design with accessibility. Take, for example, the Cabin|Stack|Prefab by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects; it is available in two- or three-story options and features high-performance exterior modular panels that can be custom configured to facilitate a tailored-to-fit design to match each homeowner’s particular lifestyle and each unique site. Another dream home is the Instrumental Home- a limited edition design collaboration between two of the hottest names in design: the Los Angeles-based design-build firm Marmol Radziner with interiors by Kravitz Design-that’s musician extraordinaire Lenny Kravitz. Each area of this compact, one-bedroom home was smartly considered to maintain a constant connection with the outdoors. To bolster the indoor-outdoor living concept, much of the home’s durable exterior materials are carried through to the inside.

EFFECTING CHANGE

Though the majority of the US population may not be aware of the need for prefabrication, most other advanced countries are far ahead regarding environmental and social sustainability. Studies have shown a multitude of benefits to the prefabrication of homes: it reduces construction injuries by providing a more controlled and safer work environment; it reduces waste in terms of materials, time, and labor; and, it promotes a substantial increase in recycling. Another benefit to the efficiency of prefabrication is cost savings. “First and foremost, we can build homes in as fast as two to three months, so this slashes the operational costs and manpower costs. It’s difficult to give a specific percentage since it will depend on the design and the target destination,” says Antonio. But it’s safe to say that, all in all, a customer will be able to save considerable money due to the short construction period and lesser manpower and operational costs.”

“While the momentum for his prefabrication revolution continues to build, Antonio is well on the way to taking Revolution Precrafted to the next level with the launch of the company’s first two projects in the Philippines.”

Many countries around the world understand these benefits: in Japan, currently 25 percent of all new residential units are prefabricated; and in Sweden, it is an impressive 84 percent. Antonio agrees, saying, “There are a lot of countries that are already open to prefab homes, but we are still educating others about the advantages of prefab homes and how they can address the common pain points of consumers.” In the US, the prefabrication market is a surprisingly low 2 percent, even though 90 percent of the waste going into our country’s landfills is made up of building and demolition waste. When asked what he saw as possible influencing catalysts to make prefabrication more acceptable by mainstream consumers, Antonio replies, “Popular appeal. We believe that as more people of a certain status use them, it will. increase the desirability among consumers.” This is the reason behind going with “branded” prefabricated designs. “We want homeowners to aspire for homes designed by some of the world’s best architects, designers, and artists,” explains Antonio.

Study the pros land cons before committing to the idea of building a prefabricated home from scratch. Where some US banks and insurance companies may not be willing to participate in lending or insuring this kind of project, there are others that will, but they may have particular criteria that need to be met. “Again, different countries have different levels of understanding on prefab structures,” Antonio says. “We believe that in the future, this will also be addressed as more people get educated about prefabricated products.” He shared that it is only after considerable appeals to the lending brokers that Philippine banks are now receptive to issuing home loans for prefabricated projects.

 

While the momentum for his prefabrication revolution continues to build, Antonio is well on the way to taking Revolution Precrafted to the next level with the launch of the company’s first two projects in the Philippines. “These projects are the $1.1 billion Batulao Artscapes, which feature homes and museums by famous architects such as Jean Nouvel, Christian de Portzamparc, Tange Associates, and Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie; and, the fourteen-thousand-unit Revolution Flavorscapes in Lakeshore Estates, Mexico, Pampanga,” Antonio reports decidedly. “So far, we have secured bank financing for customers who bought units in these two projects, and we are preparing the initial turnover of units for 2019.”

Today, at the age of forty-one, Robbie Antonio has more than made his mark on the world, but he’s just getting started. The fact that twenty-first-century technology is readying driverless automobiles to soon become the new norm, and robots can be programmed to ski the slopes of the French Alps, we can certainly imagine ordering one of Robbie Antonio’s limited-edition prefabricated homes from an online shopping cart and having it delivered to our doorstep and assembled within three to six months. As an architect myself, I enjoy and appreciat the premise of Antonio’s vision. But it’s his robust confidence in the global domination to democratizing high-design architecture through exclusive collaboration with industry-leading creatives that commands enormous respect.One of Antonio’s key business mantras, after all, is “Go big-or go home!”

Revolution For A Dream Home- Interview With Robbie Antonio

by Bahrain This Week

Robbie Antonio, Founder and CEO of Revolution Precrafted is an inspiring figure in the global real Estate industry. He is also the Founder and President of Antonio Development in New York, Managing Director of Century Properties based in Asia, and currently has 82 million square feet worth of developed, in-progress.

To date, Robbie Antonio has worked with 13 Pritzker Prize Architects/firms such as Zaha Hadid, Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, I.M.Pei, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and Christian de Portzamparc, as well as designers such as Ron Arad, Campana Brothers, Tom Dixon, Philippe Starck, and Marcel Wanders. He has worked with over 103 notable brands in various fields—including fashion, Hollywood, luxury, design, and art. He has established the largest number of luxury branded real estate developments across the globe, by working with Giorgio Armani for Armani Casa, Versace Home, Missoni Home, Paris Hilton, Lenny Kravitz and Wallpaper* Magazine.

Robbie Antonio is one of the youngest and most prolific collectors of international modern and post-war contemporary art in the world. Because of his accomplishments as an art collector, he has received a number of awards from many different organizations. In 2014, Artnet recognized him as one of “20 of the World’s Most Innovative Art Collectors,” while in 2015, he became part of Artnet’s “Top 200 Art Collectors Worldwide”. Artnet also recognized him with two awards in 2016: as one of twelve young art collectors to watch out for, as well as one of the top 100 art collectors for that year. He was cited by BuiltWorld’s in its 2018 Mavericks Report as one of “25 Pioneers Who’ve Transformed the Built Industry.” In May 2018, he was named “Real Estate Personality of the Year” by PropertyGuru.

Singapore Straits Time also named him as one of “50 Asians Who Are Changing the Way We Live”.

Robbie Antonio’s passion for art has also led him to collaborate with artists such as Marina Abramovich, Maurizio Catellan, Francesco Clemente, Damien Hirst, Zhang Huan, David La Chapelle, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Julian Opie, and Julian Schnabel.

Revolution Precrafted, brings together over 80 of the world’s leading architects, artists, and designers including Sou Fujimoto, Daniel Libeskind, David Salle and celebrities such as Daphne Guinness, Helena Christensen + Camilla Stærk and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Tell us about Revolution Precrafted.

Revolution Precrafted is a global real estate marketplace that connects developers, fabricators, designers and customers, to create design driven projects and products, both traditional and prefab, around the world. It is a unicorn startup, valued at over $1 Billion. It is one of the fastest companies in Southeast Asia to reach unicorn status. 

Revolution supplies transportable, collectible, and customizable homes, pavilions, prefabricated museums, glamping, condominiums, hotels, villas, pop-up retail, pop-up F&B, pop-up offices, pop-up co-working spaces, art furniture, etc. to landowners, developers, and end users all over the world.

To date, Revolution Precrafted has bagged around $9.1 Billion in projected gross market value (GMV for the company’s ongoing projects in 27 countries including the Philippines, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, Jamaica, Guyana, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico and Japan.

What are your major international projects so far?

We have current projects in 28 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, The Middle East, North and South America. These projects are in varying stages of master planning and implementation. We operate on a B2B2C model so a lot of the preparatory works are courtesy of our partner developers. 

What will be the relationship between Revolution Precrafted & Bahrain?

We have a partnership with Property 1 of Bahrain. We are looking at offering 200 square meter villas to homeowners in Bahrain. We are in the process of designing the homes that would best suit the taste and the needs of the local homeowners.

What will make Revolution Precrafted different from other builders in Bahrain?

We are offering products that are focused on design. Our partnership with some of the world’s best architects, designers and artists make us stand out in the industry and differentiates from the rest of the players. While there are a lot of homebuilders and home suppliers in the world, very few actually offer branded homes, pavilions and other verticals.

What do you find in common between Bahrain and Philippines?

What we know is that both Filipino and Bahrain customers have a great passion for beautiful designs that are also functional and comfortable. They prioritize aesthetics and willing to invest the dream home that they want. They also prefer more spacious homes.

Apart from business, what are your passions? 

I am very passionate about modern and contemporary art. But I also have a great appreciation and respects for the works of the masters.

What’s next for Revolution Precrafted?

Revolution Precrafted is currently in the middle of our brand expansion. While we were primarily a prefab company, we have expanded our products and services to include quasi-prefab and hybrid works in order to accommodate more projects around the world. We are also exploring at offering modular clinics, affordable homes, condos, hotels and low to mid-rise offices. We also have great interest in blockchain and STO, and we are venturing into hydroponics.

Revolution Precrafted has is also unveiling a new unit that focuses mainly on franchise and licensing concepts. This is part of our strategy to fully utilize our partnership with some of the world’s best celebrities, and experts. We have announced our partnership with world boxing icon Manny Pacquiao for the HITT boxing gym franchise. We are currently finalizing the details for its roll out. Then we also announced TEMPO, a new biking gym that we conceptualized with Filipino celebrity and biking enthusiast. We will soon unveil a spa and salon partnership with Staerk&Christensen composed of supermodel Helena Christensen and design maven Camilla Staerk.

Any message that you would like to convey to our readers?  

Be flexible and resilient and be willing to work harder than anyone else from your team.

How Robbie Antonio Is Building The Home Of The Future

by Talib Choudrhy, GQ via Architectural Digest Middle East

Fittingly, Robbie Antonio, the $1 billion construction start-up CEO, has not one but two extraordinary homes in Manila. The first is a biomorphic art-gallery-cum-private-residence dubbed Stealth in the Philippines’ capital’s most exclusive neighbourhood.

It’s as if a spaceship has landed among the grand villas, an otherworldly, matte black confection dreamt up by the iconic Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who was persuaded to take his first residential commission in 15 years by the strength of Antonio’s vision. That, and the fact the entrepreneur is as charming as he is persistent, and clearly has a passion for design. “I wanted the art to pop, and usually every gallery has white walls,” says Antonio by way of explanation of the unusually dark palette. “Everything here is matte black. It’s my favourite colour. In the bathroom, even the soap and the tissue paper is black.”

Robbie Antonio sits on furniture by Daniel Libeskind at the home he has dubbed Stealth

As the name suggests, Antonio’s home is an intensely private space (all the doors have biometric sensors) yet it has a gallery-like feel, thank to the cavernous, shadowy interior and the museum-quality commissions it houses. His astounding art collection is eclectic and colourful, with works by Damien Hirst, Francis Bacon and Paul McCarthy popping out of the gloom. There is nothing cosy or conventional about this house – there are few windows, for one thing; apertures in the ceiling pierce defined spaces with light – and there is something extraordinary to gaze at with every turn.

“I didn’t want it to look like this is a house,” says Antonio, “That was the point. I didn’t want to enter and see a sofa, a TV, a dining room. If I could, I wouldn’t even have chairs. I wanted it to be very distressed and Brutalist. I didn’t want an elegant mansion. That to me is so cliché. I just wanted the architecture to stand out and to make people think.”

The Armadillo Tea Pavilion by Ron Arad

Antonio is in the business of reimagining what a home can be, using the greatest design and architecture talents such as Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel to elevate the concept of pre-fabricated homes and turn it into something fabulous and desirable. The ethos behind his company Revolution Precrafted embodies democratic design at its best. It specialises in the construction of prefabricated, made-to-order homes that are constructed at a fraction of the cost of houses built using traditional construction methods.“The goal is to be prolific,” he says, “The mission statement is to the ultimate marketplace for designer, modular homes at an accessible price.”

The Volu Dining Pavilion by Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher launched Revolution Precrafted at Design Miami in 2015

Dotted throughout his own cavernous home there are monolithic pieces that Antonio has commissioned from leading designers and architects, including Kengo Kuma, David Adjaye, Tadao Ando and Daniel Libeskind. Several of the works are pavilions which were created for the launch of Revolution Precrafted at Design Miami in December 2015. 

Another novel feature is a rotating bar, which Koolhaas integrated into the house at Antonio’s request; it was a scaled-down version of a much bigger, unrealised ambition. “At one point, I wanted the entire house to rotate – imagine a different facade every week – but it proved to be impossible,” Antonio explains, “I wanted four sides that changed throughout the month.”

His ambitions for Revolution Precrafted won’t be scaled back and it is growing at a pace that has even taken him by surprise. “I always planned and hoped that it would be big, but now I think it’s going to be bigger than I could ever have imagined,” he says, “We launched not even three years ago and there are now over 600 people in the company.”

Robbie Antonio in his penthouse apartment at Trump Tower Manila

A year after Revolution Precrafted was founded, it had a Series B funding round which raised the company’s  valuation to over $1bn, making it the first ‘unicorn’ start-up from the Philippines, and allowing the it to establish a  footprint in a number of global markets, including Italy, Japan and the UAE.

To say that Antonio is a man of action would be an understatement; he gets ‘five or six hours of sleep a night’ and wakes up at around 5.30am, works at least six days a week, and signed deals in over 20 countries last year, with a projected gross market value of $9 billion. Sport helps him to manage stress. Antonio tries to work out twice a day, but rarely uses the swimming pool or the Yves Klein Blue squash court at Stealth. Instead, he prefers circuit training because ‘it is fast-paced but I can still take breaks to look at my phone and work’.

There’s also a whole room dedicated to a Marina Abramovic installation which impels visitors to stop and contemplate by lying on a bed. The door locks for 60 minutes. “I’ve never, ever used it,” says Antonio. It’s hard to imagine him staying still for that long. Our interview is entirely conducted during a walking tour of the house.“I can’t stay still for 60 seconds,” he quips. Just then, he pauses from our interview and steals a glance at his phone. “I’ve had 115 WhatsApps in the time we’ve been talking….I had visitors from Brazil on Thursday, yesterday from Germany, today from Dubai.”

The Ellipsicoon Retreat Pavilion by Ben Van Berkel of UNSTUDIO

Antonio travels to Dubai regularly himself. An office there is in the works, and Revolution Precrafted signed a $3.2bn deal with luxury developer Seven Tides to design, supply and install two-and three-bedroom condominium apartments and villas on Dubai’s The World islands. The challenge for Antonio and his team is to realise the designs at an affordable price; although the Dubai development will be more at the luxury end of the scale, others are eminently accessible and the likes of Jean Nouvel are not used to delivering complete buildings for as little as $20,000. 

“It takes six months of value engineering these things and there’s a lot of back and forth with their teams,” he says. “One of the houses took a year to get right. It has to be viable. Some of our homes are super esoteric. I would live in them but very few people want to live in something that’s that far removed from the norm. But they’re like cool art pieces and I want them to be part of the vision. I love those super far-out designs because I think it really pushes you to live differently.”

Robbie Antonio photographed at Stealth, one of his Manila homes

That said, Antonio’s second Manila home is more conventional than Stealth. The plush penthouse apartment in the city’s Trump Tower overlooks the gleaming cityscape, much of which is his family legacy.

Century Properties, the real-estate company founded by his father, is responsible for developing much of Manila’s prime real estate including branded residences from the likes of Armani and Versace. But Antonio’s sights are set far beyond his hometown. He founded his first company in New York right after business school. “I wanted to do something on my own, completely independent of that,” he explains, “I’m not a ‘local’ person. I like global thinking. We’ve signed deals in 27 markets now, most of them this year. It’s intense, but we’re going after more.”  

Revolution Precrafted

Revolution Precrafted To Supply Residential Prefab To Australian Firm

by VG Cabuag, Business Mirror

ANTONIO-LED precast firm Revolution Precrafted Inc. has entered a preliminary agreement with Australia’s Lifestyle Village Trust No. 2 for the supply of residential prefab building components in an upscale lifestyle village resort at River Heads (near Hervey Bay) in the State of Queensland, in the Australian northeast.

“Australia has always been a priority market for the company given the high usage of prefab structures in the continent. We are happy to be finally doing a project here. The fact that it is a lifestyle resort development only adds to our excitement. We are confident that our prices would be very competitive,” said Jose Roberto Antonio, the company’s founder and CEO.

Lifestyle Village is 40 percent owned by Sabina Corp. Ltd. and managed by G8 Consultants Pty. Ltd. as project developer.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with Revolution Precrafted and we are eager to find out if the prefab packages can be made to work for us on this development. We believe Antonio’s entrepreneurial flare and global expertise can also provide invaluable input to our project team,”  said Peter Chen, chairman of the Sabina group. Australia becomes the 26th international market for Revolution Precrafted. Last week it announced it would be producing medical pop-up centers in Zimbabwe.

The Australian project requires Revolution to codesign and supply 53 single residences measuring between 80 square meters and 160 square meters each. These range from two to four bedroom “dual-key” residences.

The parties have agreed on a due diligence period to finalize the acceptance and agreement by the two of the final design and contract price. Aside from the resort residences, Revolution will also codesign and supply 18 studio apartments, restaurant and resort facilities and a motel complex.

Situated on a 12.45-hectare land, the Alibaba Lifestyle Village Resort complex is envisioned to be the first of its kind in Australia as it caters to both short-stay visitors and long-term residents in a very unique and friendly environment.

Revolution Precrafted Bags $460-M Contract In Brazil

by Miguel R. Camus, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Revolution Precrafted, which designs and builds prefabricated structures for clients around the world, announced a deal to supply homes and hotel villas in Brazil.

The company, founded by Filipino businessman Robbie Antonio, said the contract in Brazil was worth $460 million and would be located in an 80-hectare eco-resort development near Rio de Janeiro.

Revolution Precrafted said the contract involved the supply of “high end quality eco-sustainable designer homes and eco-friendly villas.”

Specifically, it will design and supply one to three-bedroom homes and units measuring 50 to 200 square meters. It will also be supplying medium sized resort homes measuring 100 to 300 square meters each.

Construction of the units is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2019, it said.

“We envision the  project to be one of our landmark developments in South America. It showcases our passion for eco-sustainable developments that boast environmental conscience, design and functionality,” Antonio said in a statement.

Its project in Brazil marks its 16th international market.

Over the past six months, Revolution Precrafted has bagged over $7.6 billion worth of big tickets projects including the $3.2-billion partnership with Seven Tide, for “The World Islands” in Dubai, and the $1.2-billion Okkyin project in Myanmar with KT Group.

Last month, it signed a $300-million dealership agreement with Novo Development Ltd. to build at least 1,000 homes in the Caribbean nations of Trinidad and Guyana, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

It also won a deal to build 85 luxury resort villas in Okinawa, Japan and 2,000 housing units in Puerto Rico with Grupo Cacho. It also recently announced its franchise agreement to supply mid-income homes in El Salvador, Ecuador and a 500-unit project in Bahrain.

In Europe, it has won supply deals in Spain and Cyprus while in the Philippines, it has partnered with Century Limitless Corp., which is part of Century Properties Group Inc., the listed builder owned by the Antonio family.

 

Filipino Investors Build A Luxury resort In Tarragona Valued At 45 Million

by Alberto Sanz

The Philippine company  Revolution Precrafted reaches Europe through the Ebro Delta. This prefabricated house builder, which has a turnover of more than 6.5 billion dollars in 2018, joins the Spanish architects of BC Estudios to create a luxury ‘resort’ in the city of Tarragona. A project valued at 52 million dollars, about 45 million euros at the current exchange rate. 

This hotel complex is based on the ‘ glamping ‘ format, outdoor camping that has a luxury format and the conditions typical of the best hotels. “The Ebro Delta is undervalued. It is an area that has little tourism and of medium/low quality, therefore, we have seen a very good opportunity,” says Gabriel Barba, director of BC Estudio.

Under the agreement, Revolution Precrafted will supply 50 villas for this project. The contract consists of 40 one-bedroom prefabricated houses measuring 30 square meters each, as well as 10 two-bedroom villas. Each unit will have a minimum price of 171,000 euros . “Revolution Precrafted stands out for creating designer prefabricated houses that manage to satisfy all the tenants’ requests,” says Barba.  

The Ebro Delta is undervalued. It is an area that has little tourism and medium/low quality, therefore, we have seen a very good opportunity”

This agreement between the Philippine company and the Spanish company is a first phase. According to estimates by BC Estudios, this land could house nearly 1,000 villas . The objective is that this ‘resort’ can start its operation in 2020. For its part, Revolution Precrafted affirms that it will start the construction of these houses in 2019. “We continue with the negotiation to detail the last fringes of this exciting project”, points out Barba . The Barcelona -based architecture studio points out that it has already had various meetings with the City Council to discuss this project.

In addition to the villas of the Philippine manufacturer, this first phase of the Delta del Ebro project includes a space of 700 square meters that corresponds to the space of the social club. “A main building that concentrates all the services: a wellness center with yoga, spa and chiropractor , a restaurant specializing in the products and cuisine of the area with 100% organic food, as well as a small events center,” he points out in the description of this mega-investment called ‘Glamping Hotel “El Silencio”‘.

Mobility with electric car

Users will not be able to drive to the door of their villas with their private car. According to the company, they must leave the vehicle in the parking lot at the entrance and their mobility in the ‘resort’ will be carried out by electric car. “The objective is to house couples and families who will be able to enjoy bungalows with pools or jacuzzis and have access to a private beach,” says the director of BC Estudios.

The landscape of the ‘Glamping Hotel “El Silencio”‘ is a point that the company highlights. “The paths and the areas in front of the bungalows will be modeled with white sand. The landscape project would be done with the existing vegetation present in the delta,” they highlight. A new camping format that has caught the attention of Filipino investors.  

Unicorns of ASEAN: Revolution Precrafted

by The ASEAN Post Team

Revolution Precrafted’s houses are designed by world-famous names in the architecture and design scene. (Modular Glass House by Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects / Photo sourced from Revolution Precrafted social media)

A unicorn has finally arrived in the Philippines. In October last year, Philippine-based startup Revolution Precrafted, a company that develops and designs prefabricated homes and hotels among others, raised its series B round of funding co-led by Singaporean venture capital firm K2 Global. The round of funding raised an undisclosed amount that brought the startup over the billion-dollar mark, making it the first unicorn to come out of the Philippines.

Revolution Precrafted – also referred to as Revolution – was founded in December 2015 by young Filipino millionaire, Robbie Antonio. Having gained unicorn status just before turning two last year, the startup is the fastest to hit the billion-dollar valuation mark in Southeast Asia.

In interviews, Robbie Antonio has always likened himself as a young visionary, who wants to innovate architecture and disrupt the current real estate market. Robbie’s knack for the real estate business probably comes from his father, who owns Century Properties in the Philippines. During his time working for his father, Robbie was the brains behind the company’s multi-million-dollar deals with big names such as Forbes, Versace Home, Missoni and more. It was there he learnt the power of working with brands.

“I realized what branding can do to a development. It can increase your sale price vis-a-vis your competitors who might even have a superior location. It also sells faster,” he said.

Coming from one of the wealthiest families in the Philippines, Robbie has picked up the hobby of art collecting. His penchant for art is what inspired him to start Revolution Precrafted. Similar to art, Robbie wanted to make architecture collectible. According to Robbie, “Revolution preserves the exclusivity of art collection and by introducing prefabricated technology, expands the potential of ownership.”

Just like how IKEA would deliver furniture to your house, Revolution Precrafted does the same except you could have your entire house delivered to you. The concept of prefabricated homes offers an easy solution for people who want to own an exclusive house but have no idea how to design it. With Revolution Precrafted, interested customers could just go through the company’s catalogue and pick out a design they like. Then all the necessary materials will be delivered for it to be assembled on the selected site. Revolution Precrafted doesn’t just sell prefabricated homes but they also have a collection of prefabricated condominiums, pavilions, adaptive amenity spaces and more.

The idea of a prefabricated home might bring to mind the dread normally associated with generic designs and shoddiness, however that is not the case with Revolution Precrafted. Robbie has enlisted the help of some of the biggest names in architecture and design to develop the startups’ prefabricated structures. Among them include Pritzker Prize winners Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, renowned architecture firm Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects and rockstar Lenny Kravitz’s Kravitz Design team. To own a house designed by some of these world-famous people would set you back about US$140,000.

The idea of prefabricated homes and buildings has long existed in the world of architecture, only the idea never really took off. Leveraging this idea with the branding power of big name designers, artists and architects, Robbie has managed to reverse the negative reputation of prefabricated homes by turning it into something exclusive and desirable.

Revolution Precrafted is now sought after in the tourism industry for its modern designs and affordability. In March, Revolution Precrafted signed a landmark US$3.2 billion deal to manufacture luxury apartments and hotel villas in Dubai’s famous The World Islands. Then in April, the startup tied up a US$300 million deal in the Caribbean for the supply of its prefabricated units.

Robbie expects the company to grow bigger and expand to more countries in the future. Revolution Precrafted looks ready to revolutionise the real estate market.

Camilla Staerk and Helena Christensen Join Forces With Robbie Antonio On Prefab Houses

by Rosemary Feitelberg, Women’s Wear Daily

 

With the help of fast-moving developer Robbie Antonio, Camilla Staerk and Helena Christensen are redefining the meaning of a designer house.

The creative duo behind the New York-based design studio Staerk Christensen are the newest boldface names to align with Antonio’s Revolution Precrafted Properties. Recruiting fashion-minded talent to reimagine a prefab house was new territory for the ardent art collector and enterprising developer. Antonio runs Antonio Development in New York and is managing director of Century Properties in Asia. He has collaborated with Giorgio Armani for Armani Casa, Versace and Missoni among many others.

Staerk and Christensen impressed him with their well-defined intent and clear-eyed directives.

Staerk and Christensen join the ranks of other Revolution collaborators including Jean Nouvel, Marcel Wanders, Tom Dixon, I.M. Pei, Zaha Hadid and Philip Johnson.

Originally hired to handle the interiors, the pair were so assured in their vision that they were asked to take on every last post and beam. “They said, ‘You know, you guys have so many opinions about how you want the structure to be for the furniture you’re designing. So why don’t you just do the whole house?’’ Staerk said. “We could not believe they gave us that whole responsibility. We couldn’t believe it but we definitely thought they should.”

Traces of Staerk’s and Christensen’s Danish roots are evident in the dual-level, two-bedroom, two-bathroom prefab home. Inspired by a traditional Scandinavian cabin, their design is a glass and stained black wood house. The curved structure is meant to be reminiscent of a swallow in flight. However unlikely it might sound, they enhanced their design with inspiration from the craftsmanship of a viking ship. The silhouette of the swallow-inspired home resembles the hull of viking ship turned upside-down, they explained.

“Ships hulls have the wingspan of a bird. To us, that means a lot. Both of us grew up in Denmark. The sound and the visuals of swallows flying low on summer nights is just something that stayed within us. It’s a very peaceful place for both of us to go back into in our memories,” Staerk said.

Designed to be built anywhere in the world, the first prototype for each structure may be set up in Malibu or Montauk so that potential clients can walk through and experience the house firsthand. As with any prefabricated home, the structure requires a good amount of land and then is built for you. With shipping and building, the $228,000 unit can be somewhat altered to accommodate the climate that the buyer lives in.

Staying true to their healthy Scandinavian upbringing, the duo is also creating a spa pavilion for $27,300 and a gym for $153,000. Through the years, rugs, lamps, glassware, interiors, furniture, pillows, throws and bedspreads and even glamping-quality safari tents are categories they have delved into. With the help of the Brooklyn-based Bower, the duo is creating a mirror collection which will include a wardrobe-screen divider that also can double as a martini bar. And glassware is on deck with Danish company Mater, with furniture to follow. These new endeavors are expected to debut around the same time as the Revolution prototype.

While Staerk earned a degree in fashion and textiles at Ravensbourne College in London, the “absolutely self-taught” Christensen has designed lamps for Habitat and gleaned knowledge from the legendary photographers as a model. “I really can’t think of a career that gives you more versatile options of branching out, learning and absorbing everything you possibly can if that’s what you want. I guess that’s what I did. With our combined background and knowledge, we get by,” Christensen said.

That need to always be learning and searching means they often can’t write down, sketch or photograph their ideas fast enough — a habit that other friends might not be so accepting of. And even though they each approach creativity with a different lens, somehow it all comes into focus. “When we met, we were so different and in that difference we found a common ground. Camilla’s form of expression, the way she looks visually, the pieces she designs, the homes she lives in is completely opposite of mine — in all ways. Somehow over the years we have approached each other in all ways — first and foremost as friends, but also learning from each other and opening up to each other’s differences,” Christensen said.

“We spur each other on,” Staerk added. “We clicked creatively from the first time we met. It was from immense respect for each other’s work. Then we found this way of expression together and we just felt so lucky.”