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Architects: Sáenz De Oiza Arquitectos
- Area: 768 m²
- Year: 2012
Text description provided by the architects. The project proposes the construction of a multi-purpose building for Thermo-Solar Central Astexol-2 located in Badajoz, pursuing the idea of creating a place from which we can have dominant views over the Solar plant, which occupies a large area of about 200 hectares, and have a program of both offices and a meeting place.
In a very horizontal ground, with a prevailing sunny and warm weather, is chosen as working area the one located at buried plant level, which takes advantage from the mild underground temperature, with two courtyard gardens in this level, and a higher construction, with Towering vocation, metallic and bright, with abstract formal meaning, which will be the reference in the field. For a greater benefit from contact with the ground and for geometry form of the Tower orientation, looking for more diagonal perspective of the field grid of mirrors, we chose the triangular shape in the basement plant, which provides greater perimeter to an equal area.
The basement hosts most of the usage program surface and the Tower will only provide podium views over the mirrors grid. It’s used to the highest floor level allowed, + 6,00 m, emptying the inner space to dispose of a large 9 m height gap in its interior, in the level - 4, 00 m, to serve for large format projections space and Conference room.
The building, in its conception, construction and operation, needs a minimum amount of energy which is covered by renewable energy sources, partly generated by the Solar Central itself and the rest by geothermal energy, through five wells dug on site.
The construction of basement is based on a grid of metal columns supporting prefabricated concrete slabs and perimeter structure and ¨in situ¨ concrete floor protected with transparent resin-varnish treatment. The Tower, opposite this massive construction, arises as a tectonic element of light, metallic structure and its construction is made of facade sandwich panel with double layer of galvanized aluminium inside, and smooth polished natural aluminium, with plates 150 x 300 cm, thick, on the exterior face.
The Tower coverage is achieved with an inverted cover and gravel solution, and on the triangular buried plant, with cover - Garden on the same solution, except the passable access corridor.
The interior distribution of the buried plant is solved with the division of space involving the courtyards and the Tower, which at its start to this level, hosts the high-rise room as a main space, making more partitions unnecessary except those of the toilets, executed with prefabricated plaster walls.
The finishing views are those of the construction materials: concrete floors polished varnished, walls with formwork wavy to improve the acoustic performance, also painted and ceilings of concrete painted in black with views installations.
