MVRDV Breaks Ground on Office Building Inspired by Sri Lankan Weaving Patterns

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MVRDV, in collaboration with local co-architects ACS Integrated and PWA Architects, has broken ground on a 12,000-square-meter mixed-use office block in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Known as the Veranda Offices, the 8-story building draws inspiration from local Sri Lankan weaving patterns, creating a system of flexible interior office spaces that open onto verandas and panoramic glass windows.

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Located within Sri Lanka’s largest and rapidly growing city, the new building is sited within a lively neighborhood made up of businesses, bars, and galleries. Veranda Offices embraces its neighbors by leaving room for an entrance plaza and with landscaping surrounding the building.

Inside on the ground floor will be a spacious lobby, space for a cafeteria or restaurant and the first of two levels of above ground parking, which will be clad in a vertically planted facade system. Office floors are designed for maximum flexibility, with options to create full-floor spaces or to subdivide into smaller work facilities. On the sixth floor, a rooftop sculpture garden will provide shaded pavilions for events and more casual gatherings.

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Prioritizing passive sustainable strategies, the building’s glass facades have been set back to minimize solar gain, while the veranda on each floor features a folding shutter to protect from sun and heavy rain. MVRDV hopes these techniques will be seen as a model for future development in the country.

“Veranda Offices is the first centralised cooled building of its kind in Sri Lanka that provides naturally ventilated breakout spaces,” explain the architects. “These low tech solutions mentioned all contribute to making the building more sustainable.”

Completion of the building is scheduled for February 2019.

News via MVRDV

• Architects

  MVRDV

• Location

  Colombo, Sri Lanka

• Design

  MVRDV - Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries

• Design Team

  Nathalie de Vries with Stefan de Koning, Mariya Gyaurova, Thomas Boerendonk, Arjen Ketting, Leo Stuckardt, Stavros Gargaretas, Akshey Krishna Venkatesh, Manuel Frey, and Christy Li Yu Wai

• Visuals

  Antonio Luca Coco, Paolo Mossa Idra, Tomaso Maschietti and Kirill Emelianov

• Co-Architects

  ACS Integrated and PWA Architects

• Client

  Moot Manor (Pvt)

• Project Manager

  ASCENTIS

• Structural Engineers

  NCD Consultants

• Mechanical Engineering and Plumbing

  Ramboll

• Area

  12000.0 m2

• Photographs

  Courtesy of MVRDV

• Architects

  MVRDV

• Mechanical Engineer

  Ramboll

• Plumbing Engineer

  Ramboll