Located where two rivers come together, the Confederación Hidrográfica Miño and Sil office building will be protected by the official use the building serves. Designed by VAUMM + Taperstudio, their compact and geometrically absolute design aims to turn the new equipment into a reference able to articulate that piece of city. Its pyramidal shape is due to programmatic, functional and corporation itself requirements. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On the river side of the Ourense city (Galicia), its Iceberg´s glass structure geometry talks about the liquid condition of the rivers. The building keeps away from dwellings and opens up onto the landscape. Three terrain folds feature accesses and solve contact between piece and ground. As the building keeps away from dwellings and opens up onto the landscape, the land on which it will deploy the new headquarters of the CH Minho-Sil, is dominated by the strong constraints of topography, from the fast track from the Millennium Bridge and architecture of the urban periphery.
The proposed theme Iceberg intends, through a compact building geometry and rotunda, turn the new equipment in a reference element and therefore the computer area of town. Pyramidal geometry, is perfectly suited to programmatic and functional requirements proposed as the structure of organizational functioning and Hydrographic Conference also serves this pyramid approach. This structuring of the program introduces a privacy gradient from the ground floor.
The clarity of the proposed piece, a quadrangular, merges with the edges of the plot by three triangular pieces, each with a specific objective. The first one solves a triangular plaza pedestrian access, the second one solves the entry of vehicles to parking and basement floors, while the third becomes the element that allows traffic from the line 106 of the roundabout 103 riverside park. The complex surrounding the building allows natural transit from the altitude of the city to the edge of shore just across the square from the Hydrographic Conference building, giving it a symbolic meaning.
The floor of the building geometry also allows largely away from the houses. The offices are open to the landscape instead of looking at the houses, giving a high degree of privacy to the residential buildings. The core of communication is used to close the building to the south side and place in it a facade with a ventilated chamber. This, as a contemporary Trombe wall, to leverage the stored heat to heat inside during the winter. At the same time, through the chamber vent, able to reduce the effect of sunlight in summer
