- Year: 2014
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Photographs:JAG Studio
Text description provided by the architects. The Covalco project is an architectural structure of approximately 1200 square meters built between inland areas and covered outdoor areas, divided into four floors. This configuration is contained in an area of 4.266,94 square meters, located in a natural viewpoint to the south of the city of Cuenca, with relevant topographic conditions that remain the same almost entirely as if the building didn't reach the area where the contours are more pronounced in an effort to take care of the geodesy of the ground.
Parking spaces, plazas, pond, access stairs and pathways have been designed within those areas and possible wider concourses, to affect the natural relief to a lesser degree. On the other hand it was considered that the lower and upper floors do not not strictly overlap but rather are displaced on one another, to engage the logic of the height of the terrain, taking advantage of the natural slope.
All these parameters considered, ensure optimum environmental conditioning to the environment and the site itself, and a marked integration to the context and urban image.
The architectural project, located in the northern part of the property has an outdoor plaza parking for visitors, accessed by a road ramp, bordered by gardens and a pond located in the front of the project. It can be traversed on the perimeter on a pedestrian way to reach the various access points that allow an independent entrance at all levels of construction giving a high level of flexibility in use.
Vehicle access to the building is at the basement level, with private parking and storage, this space has no windows as the entire perimeter is surrounded by the natural terrain, but ventilation and lighting is through the top and the staircases.
On the ground floor within the limits of the walls, several offices with waiting room and their respective sanitary units are located; all these spaces have immediate communication to terraces and outdoor plazas through glass doors that provide the possibility of extending spatial boundaries.
The first floor is also directed to an offices program in more than half of its area, and the rest houses the reception, restrooms, waiting and meeting rooms; this level has some double height areas that are conquered by the building structure and its roofs.
The attic floor has been created as a space for visual domain, the limits of glass offering views to the north of the city and to the south, the nearby mountains are apparent through openings in the pitched roofs. Here are the main office spaces with generous areas for use by the manager and his guests.
The interior garden and stairs to the side, allow a system of multiple relationships between different sectors through a controlled space that acts as a regulator of temperature and light into the interior. It also allows the entry of nature, visible to all areas of the architectural project.
The exterior glass skins are mostly floor to ceiling toward the north facade and in other spaces they are smaller, creating views with subtle differences between the inside and the outside. The orientation of most of the windows is to the North in order to receive no direct sunlight and also to take advantage of the views from the site to the city.
The materials used for the finishes are porcelain, raw concrete and stone that align properly with the environment and provide ease of maintenance required for a building of this magnitude. The use of natural wood also gives warmth to all areas in ceilings and stairs. The sloping roofs are covered with flat clay tiles and slabs clad in tiles.
