Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda Arquitectos

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

PUMA ENERGY EL SALVADOR HEADQUARTERS

Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda

ARCHITECTS
Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda

ARQUITECTO AUTOR
Marcelo Ruiz Pardo

AREA
1575.0 m2

PHOTOGRAPHY
Jesús Granada

CONTRACTOR
Castaneda Ingenieros S.A. de C.V.

TECHNICAL ARCHITECT
Sonia Nebreda

ARQUITECTO AUTOR
Marcelo Ruiz Pardo

LOCATION
Nueva San Salvador, El Salvador

CLIENT
Puma Energy S.A. de C.V.

CONSULTANTS
Mecanismo (estructuras), JG Ingenieros (instalaciones), Arup (fachadas), JMIA (fiscalización)

ARQUITECTOS COLABORADORES
Arturo Alberquilla, Alejandra M. de la Riva, Loreto Moreno, Javier E. Lecumberri, Luis Pancorbo

MANUFACTURERS
Kingspan Insulated Panels, Reynaers Aluminium, Firestone Building Products, Herman Miller, Lafarge Holcim, Sherwin-Williams, Amanco, Covering Chile, Guardian Glass, Lindner, Milliken, Trox, USG, thyssenkrupp

Text description provided by architect.

Puma Energy Corporate Headquarter is located on the Panamerican highway, passing through San Salvador. The new building, which is inserted between the existing commercial and industrial buildings that characterize this stretch of road with barely public profile, overlooks the road with a powerful cantilever taking part of the intensity of the traffic, showing its interior activity and acting as an innovative element of the urban landscape.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

The building consists of two superimposed and arranged crosswise blocks, interlacing solids and voids all around them. Thus, a progressive sequence of compressions and expansions arranges and qualifies the circulation and access areas.

From the street, it is possible to access the plot through the interior street, and through the front gardens, and then to an entrance hall. This area of spatial compression acts by adjusting the scale to the user one, in such a way that the entrance to the building occurs through a more secluded area.

The part in the back of the plot is dedicated to the parking area which is located between the pillars and screens of the building.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

This space, far from being a residual area of the project, takes on special relevance since it is strongly characterised by the expressive structure that covers it and the green areas that surround it.

Continuous and transparent areas are planned thanks to the concentration of horizontal seismic forces in a few massive walls. Two different kinds of relations with the surrounding have been distinguished.

On one hand the lower block defines a space that establishes punctual relations with the exterior and it is defined by walls with buttresses that support the roof slab.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

This configuration allows having continuous linear skylights parallel to the walls between buttresses, where the light enters. At this level, the accesses and the programme for external visits are resolved.

A vertical void connects both blocks at their intersection allowing visual relations between different levels and programs. Here, the light is vertical and comes from skylights on deck in contrast to the horizontal spatiality of the open office area located in the upper level.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

The upper block houses the offices and collective uses. Structurally, this block is resolved by two parallel longitudinal gantries that make up two overhangs on opposite ends, and perpendicular beams to the same.

This piece emphasize the horizontality and is connected to the horizon through a screen of steel planks which also act as inverted curtain wall supports and sun protection.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

The planks are homogenous throughout the longitudinal façades (east and west), in such a way that they allow for full scattered lighting of the working area. The inner corridors that flow next to the façades also act as areas that prevent the direct sunlight exposure on the office areas during certain hours of the day.

The East and West façades are therefore resolved by a “stick system” curtain wall from floor to ceiling with steel stiles and joists. Stiles located on the outside making up the sun protection system for the façade.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

The vertical and horizontal lateral joints between the glass panels of each pane of glass are sealed with neutral silicone and they have two isolated stainless steel pressers on each side of the glass.

The vertical dimension of 3,200mm is constant throughout both façades, and the modulation for the horizontal dimension is also constant with a width of 750 mm.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

The struts are made up of reinforced steel sections while the beams are made by joining half-lap joints using some welded plates on the ends of the strut and the beams. Both pieces are fit mechanically using stainless steel screws, fit from the outside.

Struts and beams are equipped with an anodised aluminium extrusion piece called the “nose”, which is fit on mechanically using stainless steel screws on the inner face of the aluminium profiling.

On the other hand, while the South façade is resolved by a simple system of glazed enclosure mounted on aluminium extrusion carpentry, the vantage point that makes up the North façade is made using a suspended structure made up of reinforced steel sections.

Both the floor and the ceiling of this vantage point are metallic and made up of sandwiched steel panels with an insulation core mounted in situ.

Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
© Jesús Granada

These are load-bearing panels supported on their short sides on the steel H-shaped plates of the horizontal planks of the curtain wall, and fitted on mechanically to the steel mullions located parallel to the long sides of the panels.

Therefore, to the south, the screen disappears and the enclosure is recessed from the structure border generating an outdoor terrace, while on the north side the enclosure exceeds the limits of the concrete structure and is projected over the road, offering views of the volcano and of the city.


Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Floor Plan
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Floor Plan


Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Elevation
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Elevation
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Elevation
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Elevation


Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Section
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Section
Puma Energy El Salvador Headquarters
Section

Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda Arquitectos
T +34 911 724263 T +34 609 546310
Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda Arquitectos
Cl. de la Azalea, 404, 28109 Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain