Costa Lopes

1st Congress Tower

1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet

1ST CONGRESS TOWER

Costa Lopes

ARCHITECTS
Costa Lopes

PHOTOGRAPHS
João Freire

AREA
41623 m²

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Luanda, Angola

CATEGORY
Institutional Buildings

Text description provided by architect.

The project equates itself around four fundamental conditions: the program for a banking institution - corporate and generic offices but with a socio-cultural area - with an inevitable intensive occupation of the available plot; the prime location in Largo Lumeji, with its strong public profile, one of the joints in the city's urban expansion from the downtown; the near context, rapidly changing and unpredictable, with general verticalization and space closure; and the will to safeguard or even increase, a priori, the public space of the city.

1st Congress Tower
1st Congress Tower
© João Freire

IN RESPONSE, THE PROJECT SUMMARIZES FOUR KEY STEPS.

Within the plot size, one organizes a prismatic volume of 27 floors with a width of around 30 meters and a height of 110 meters above the ground, with five underground floors for parking.

However, the office tower is lifted off the ground, resting on stilts, which three floors void, transparent and more articulated, organizes the socio-cultural areas (bank branch, auditorium and art gallery, supported by a cafeteria), expanding and qualifying the public space of Largo Lumeji.

1st Congress Tower
© Manuel Correia
1st Congress Tower
© João Freire

The tower rationalizes 18 floors of equipped open-space offices interrupted by 4 technical floors and topped by two floors for administration.

Finally, the expression of the tower results from the programmatic contingency, striated floor to floor, with recessed glazed fronts and opaque cornices, protruding and undulating. Very elegant.

1st Congress Tower
© Manuel Correia
1st Congress Tower
© João Freire
1st Congress Tower
© Manuel Correia

Day or night, even with the surrounding verticalization, the 1st Congress Tower gets strong aesthetic and urban autonomy, without disregarding the ethics of the public space.

At distance, by its strong visual identity. By near, with its inherent constructive quality and, above all, the openness of inner and outer spaces of the ground floors, delivering space for the public use of citizens.


1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Manuel Correia
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Fabrice Fouillet
1st Congress Tower
© Manuel Correia


1st Congress Tower
Floor Plan
1st Congress Tower
Floor Plan
1st Congress Tower
Floor Plan


1st Congress Tower
Details
1st Congress Tower
details


1st Congress Tower
Section
1st Congress Tower
Section


1st Congress Tower
Location

Costa Lopes
T +244 222 331666
Costa Lopes
KN10, R. Kwame Nkrumah 10, Luanda, Angola