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Architects: LEAP Laboratorio en Arquitectura Progresiva
- Area: 7112 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Jorge Taboada
Text description provided by the architects. The new Torre Olmo is located 5km south east of the historic district of Xalapa, and south of federal highway 140, just next to the highway overpass Arco Sur. The site has a strong topographic slope, with the highest level being 7m above the street level.
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The project is comprised of an 8 floors office building in the shape of a cube plus a business center, an horizontal parking lot complements the composition, and under the cube shaped office building a commercial space faces the street.
On the west side of the building is a stairway that connects to the lobby, a ramp offers an alternate way of arriv - ing to the same lobby. The lobby and the business center are located above the commercial space. This floor level offers different services as a front desk, an auditorium and meeting rooms among others amenities. The office floors are completely flexible so they can accommodate a wide variety of layouts, there is a central core where elevators, stairs and bathrooms are located. The rooftop is a semi private terrace with amazing views of the city.
The office building cube has a multilayered facade, with an inner full-height windows layer and a second layer designed with triangular panels made of multi-perforated metal sheet, this outer layer is a solar screen that protects the interior from excessive heat gain from sunlight exposure which helps reduce energy use and provides a more comfortable natural illumination for the office space. The space in-between the two facade layers is a continuos balcony accessible from the inside that allows for a safe sightseeing of the landscape.
The design of the outer facade layer gives the office building a distinctive character. From a distance and during the day it is perceived as a solid metallic triangulated cube. The texture is achieved with only two different 3D panels and all the possible configurations allowed by the geometry of the panels. By night the skin of the building becomes transparent due to the tiny perforations of the metal sheet, transforming the building into an urban night lamp.
.jpg?1448586876 "Olmo Tower / LEAP Laboratorio en Arquitectura Progresiva")
.jpg?1448586906 "Olmo Tower / LEAP Laboratorio en Arquitectura Progresiva")
