The sustainable new corporate headquarters for Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, currently under construction, occupies an entire city block in the neighbourhood of Parque Patricios. The design echoes the building’s park-side setting, with landscaped courtyards and shaded walkways, using materials that draw on the site’s industrial past to reinforce the unique character of the neighbourhood.
The scheme extends to the boundaries of the site and is arranged as an internal campus of ‘villages’, which are connected by circulation routes and external landscaped patios.
The light-filled spaces are unified by a flowing roof canopy which, supported by slender pillars, projects to shade the large entrance plaza. A full-height atrium directs circulation into four tiers of terraced office spaces, all of which have direct views of the park. Based on an eight-metre-square planning grid, the generous floor plates allow for a high level of flexibility in the planning of the work spaces.
Designed to make a positive environmental and social impact on the city, the plans form part of a wider regeneration initiative in the barrio of Parque Patricios, a formerly light industrial area to the south of the city centre, which is emerging as a focus of high-tech industry.
The project, which is the practice’s first office development in Argentina, incorporates a number of sustainable features and targets LEED Silver accreditation. These include utilising the exposed thermal mass of concrete soffits with chilled beams for cooling; and reducing energy demands through shaded facades, which are oriented according to the path of the sun, and by encouraging natural ventilation.
Appointment: 2010
Area: 32 000 m²
Client: CRIBA S..A.
Collaborating Architect: BBRCH-Minond
Structural Engineer: Curutchet-Del Villar Ingenieros Civiles
M+E Engineer: Estudio Grinberg
Additional Consultants: Estudio Marta Carena, Estudio Gigli, PHA Consult
Features
The design incorporates a number of sustainable features and targets LEED Silver accreditation. These include utilising the exposed thermal mass of concrete soffits with chilled beams for cooling; and reducing energy demands through shaded facades, which are oriented according to the path of the sun, and by encouraging natural ventilation.
Related Press Release
Foster + Partners designs first office headquarters in Argentina
25.08.2010