41.26
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
Carlos Ascensión L.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Aki Itami R.
AREA
1560.0 m²
YEAR
2012
LOCATION
Mexico City, Mexico
CATEGORY
Office Buildings
Text description provided by architect.
In one of the main entrances to Mexico City we found a dilapidated building that needed a new life.
Located in an area of traffic chaos and visual saturation, the intervention had to be simple, honest and discreet to stand out in that environment.
We cleaned the building by removing all unnecessary items accumulated over the years and used a variety of materials as layers, as 'veils' to protect and create appropriate scenarios for each space and function.
The Aluzinc coating of passive solar control on the facade helped us inside with the ideal indirect natural lighting for work and to get the right temperature.
This lowered the artificial lighting use and avoided climate control providing significant energy savings.
The gray and white tones used on the outside, managed to lose the volume in the gray sky of the city generating a break in the saturated street.
You enter the building through a white corridor that acts as a filter.
This corridor ends in a five-story central atrium that serves as the patio where the offices are lit by zenital daylight.
Here we find a second, translucent veil of fifteen- meters high curtains made of recycled material.
This allows the passage of natural light to the office, but at the same time functions as visual and acoustic barrier between public and private areas.
The view from this hall is framed by ending either up to the sky or to a second outdoor patio, contained by a third green curtain.
This design strategy enabled us to reduce labor costs and time as well as to generate significant, daily energy savings for the building, while optimal spaces were provided for working where greater interaction and creativity were possible.
