The design-build model reshapes the residential pipeline in Latin America

Architecture firms controlling the full value chain are altering the rules of residential development

The real estate investment market in Latin America reached USD 687.70 billion in 2024, according to IMARC Group data cited by GRI Hub. Within that volume, a growing share responds to an operating model that challenges the industry's traditional segmentation: firms that originated as architecture studios and now control the entire project cycle, from land acquisition to financial structuring, marketing, and asset management.

This hybrid design-development model represents a structural transformation of the residential pipeline in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Far from being an emerging trend, it constitutes a rational response to the inefficiencies of a fragmented value chain, where the disconnect between designer, financier, and builder generates cost overruns, delays, and value erosion.

Three firms embody this logic with distinct but convergent trajectories: Proarquitectura in Mexico, Arquitectoma under the leadership of Francisco Martín del Campo, and Grupo GIA (GIA+A) with operations in six Latin American countries. In parallel, figures like Tomás Elejalde from public infrastructure in Colombia and José Miguel Rawlins from cross-border private capital extend the reach of this vertical integration into territories where real estate development merges with urban mobility and institutional funds.

Design-development-capital vertical integration is not a marginal competitive advantage; it is a model shift that redistributes value captured throughout the project lifecycle.

How do Proarquitectura, Arquitectoma, and GIA+A operate within the hybrid design-development model?

Proarquitectura is a company with over 35 years of experience that operates from land acquisition through marketing and management, according to information published by Inmuebles24. Its FLOW project in Lomas de Bezares, Mexico City, exemplifies comprehensive pipeline control: the architectural design is conceived from the outset as a commercial positioning tool, and the project structuring incorporates financial and regulatory variables from the conceptual phase. This continuity eliminates the typical friction between the architect who proposes and the developer who cuts costs.

Arquitectoma, led by Francisco Martín del Campo, operates as a real estate firm that integrates design, legal, and financial aspects, according to AIA International. Its Rubén Darío 123 project is the first residential "core and shell" tower in Mexico that allows individualized interior layouts. This product innovation is only possible when the same entity that conceives the design also structures the asset's legal and financial operation, because the core and shell format demands contractual and cost engineering that is difficult to coordinate among separate parties.

Grupo GIA (Constructora y Edificadora GIA+A), founded in 1996, integrates architecture, real estate development, and infrastructure with operations in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Honduras, and Panama, according to Latin Counsel. Its multinational scale enables the transfer of operational knowledge across markets with different regulatory frameworks, generating competitive advantages that purely local developers can hardly replicate.

Arquitectoma's core and shell format demonstrates that residential product innovation requires vertical integration; the separation between design and development limits the capacity for differentiation.

These three firms share an operating premise: design is not a service hired by the developer, but the starting point of a value chain that the firm itself controls. The architect-developer captures margins at every link, from the added value generated by design to the profitability of commercialization, while mitigating risks by maintaining coherence between the project vision and its financial execution.

What role do mobility infrastructure and cross-border capital play in this reconfiguration?

The design-development model does not operate in a vacuum. Its expansion accelerates when it converges with two structural forces: Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and the institutionalization of cross-border real estate capital.

In Colombia, Tomás Elejalde, manager of the Medellín Metro, leads a financial sustainability plan that includes the development of a nearly 100,000 m² shopping center at La Estrella station and 40 additional real estate projects, according to an interview published by Cosmovisión in February 2026. The Medellín Metro projects having these developments operational before 2050 to ensure sustainability without relying exclusively on subsidies.

This strategy relies on the TOD framework, linked to municipal Territorial Planning Plans, which allows entities like the Metro to partner with private developers to build real estate and commercial projects around mobility corridors. The result is an ecosystem where public infrastructure and private development are vertically integrated, creating opportunities for firms capable of operating at the intersection of design, urban planning, and capital structuring.

When mass transit becomes a platform for real estate development, firms that integrate design and capital gain a structural advantage over those that only execute construction.

On the private capital front, José Miguel Rawlins, founder of Bicentenario Capital, brings experience in commercial developments and Master Development in Chile, Colombia, Peru, and the United States, according to Diario Financiero and Bullrock Investment. His profile represents the institutional investor seeking partners capable of controlling the full project cycle — precisely the type of firm the design-development model produces.

In Chile, the Real Estate Co-Ownership Law strengthens institutional confidence and regulates the administration and development of condominiums, impacting regional cross-investment. This regulatory framework facilitates the flow of capital managed by investors like Rawlins toward projects where vertical integration offers greater return predictability.

The convergence of TOD, robust regulatory frameworks, and cross-border capital is shaping investment corridors where the hybrid design-development model finds its fullest expression. IMARC Group and GRI Hub projections anticipate sustained growth in the Latin American real estate market through 2033, driven by urban densification corridors, logistics assets linked to nearshoring in Mexico, and institutional real estate funds.

Can the hybrid model scale without losing operational coherence?

The central question for the coming years is not whether the design-development model works — the cases of Proarquitectura, Arquitectoma, and GIA+A confirm it does — but whether it can scale across markets with heterogeneous regulatory frameworks without diluting its main advantage: coherence between architectural vision and financial execution.

GIA+A, with a presence in six countries, offers a relevant case study. Operating simultaneously in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Honduras, and Panama requires adapting vertical integration to radically different tax regimes, urban planning codes, and demand dynamics. The question is whether the model's operational efficiency holds when the firm must navigate multiple institutional frameworks.

For traditional developers, the expansion of this model poses a concrete competitive challenge. Firms that control design and capital can offer more differentiated products, such as Arquitectoma's core and shell, with potentially shorter structuring timelines and greater alignment between concept and final result. Developers that rely on external architecture studios for design and independent funds for capital face transaction costs that the integrated model eliminates by definition.

The GRI Institute has documented this transformation through its regional gatherings, where Latin American real estate leaders debate the reconfiguration of the value chain. GRI's discussion clubs, which bring together developers, institutional investors, and urban planning authorities, provide a privileged space to analyze how this model scales and what institutional barriers persist.

The Latin American residential pipeline is being reshaped by firms that understand design as the first act of a financial operation. In a USD 687.70 billion market, those who control the full chain capture value where others merely execute commissions. The question for the rest of the industry is straightforward: adapt to this logic or compete at a structural disadvantage.