The Japanese firm Kengo Kuma & Associates and the Spanish architect Javier Villar have designed a new headquarters for the technology company Bosonit in Logroño, the capital of La Rioja, Spain. A project that the architects define with the following motto: "in Logroño for Logroño", a clear premise that has been their leitmotiv.
We will start by talking about the remarkable location of the site on which the building will be constructed, located in the heart of the city's historic quarter. The Logroño City Council put it out to tender in spring 2020 and it was acquired by the Riojan technology company Bosonit Tech & Data. The idea is that this project will enable direct investment in the region, with the firm commitment to generate around 200 direct, high-quality, value-added jobs.
The aim of the Logroño City Council government team is for Bosonit to be the first of many other companies to set up there, in the district of La Villanueva, which it wants to transform into a technology hub.
The building will be dedicated to developing new technologies, and incorporating innovation promotion activities. It will house Bosonit's headquarters and the new technology development center - Software Factory. It will also function as a residence, being the accommodation and living space for the talents that pass through the training programs offered by the company. These are offered to those entrepreneurs who are part of the acceleration programs and for new incorporations. Finally, the building will house an Innovation Lab, Bosonit's R&D - Research and Development - business unit.
This building combines the corporate part with a vast public space open to the citizens, providing around 2200 square meters for the city, including green spaces and activities for its inhabitants.
The Logroño architect Javier Villar Ruiz, partner of the firm and co-author of the project, has provided very interesting information in several interviews.
The aim of the work, according to the architects, is to recover the tradition of the buildings and reinterpret it with a contemporary point of view. When referring to a project "in Logroño", the professionals emphasise that it is an architecture that has been conceived with a close understanding of the place where it is located. In other words, it is a building with these characteristics because it is exactly there and could not be similar anywhere else.
The project recognizes the great opportunity to generate quality architecture for its users and, at the same time, the chance to develop an architecture that is capable of promoting qualitative changes in the place where it is located. Beyond its own quality, it is committed to improving the quality of this area of Logroño.
The site is located in the old town, as mentioned above, but it looks out over the boundary between the old town and the new town, overlooking the river Ebro, the stone bridge, and the main roundabout next to it. Quietly, the program could have been resolved with a series of stacked boxes, but this is not the path chosen by its creators. On the contrary, they carefully thought out every detail, so that on the side connected to the historic center the building reduces its height to three storeys, to adapt to the scale of the urban fabric present, adjusting to the height of the dividing wall of the Church of Santa María de Palacios. It then progressively regains height and reaches its highest point when the project overlooks the stone bridge roundabout, outside the historic center, making it a strategic point. The architects considered it their responsibility to turn the project into a landmark that welcomes all who come to Logroño from the north.
It is a project "for the city" because it integrates spaces and activities that have the potential to invite the population of Logroño to participate and enjoy them. The building has an interior courtyard conceived as a green space, as a public space accessible to all. It will have a cafeteria, benches, and paths that will allow crossing the project when passing from the roundabout towards the Calle Mayor.
However, this courtyard area is not the only one that has been planned as a public space: the roofs of the building will be green and accessible so that everyone can enjoy good panoramic views thanks to the height. And there is more: this strategic position of the project next to the stone bridge gives us the possibility to think about the idea of establishing a synergy with the Camino de Santiago which, precisely, reaches Logroño at that point.
The idea of a building that invites people, pilgrims or not, to go up an open staircase, an ascending public space, that takes them to the rooftops and from there they can enjoy a good coffee, the gardens, and, at the highest point, that view over the river and the whole city from above, is not something minor. It is, on the other hand, an added value, an interesting and enriching experience for everyone and especially for the pilgrims, who will be able to recognize the city they are arriving in and the path they have traveled.
The participatory and public dimension is not limited to the open and outdoor space but is also present in most of the project's ground floor spaces. Although these are mainly dedicated to activities linked to Bosonit's operation, they are versatile and multifunctional spaces, so that they can be adapted during those times when they are not in use for the company and thus be ceded as participatory spaces for use by the whole city.
The volumetry of the project is very characteristic and is worth describing. On the one hand, it is connected and in dialogue with the party walls it touches. On the other hand, it leaves two main façades that give the building a presence in the city. And these two facades respond to a particular narrative that we will describe below.
The façade facing the street dialogues with the traditional architecture of the place. It is aligned with it, it is more opaque, and the stone was selected as a material, but with a contemporary design, it is discreet and quiet.
The façade facing the inner courtyard, in contrast, becomes a transparent element, using high-tech materials, such as metallic elements for example.
This duality is associated with the narrative that starts with the two bridges next to the site: the stone bridge and the iron bridge. It is interesting to know that both were built at the same historical moment, a few years apart. However, one denotes an attitude of historical continuity with the bridges that existed before, and the other was built with an attitude of taking advantage of the leading technologies of that time, light, built with iron elements. It is inspiring and interesting that this narrative has been repeated to define the duality between the two facades.
The Mayor of Logroño, Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, thanked the entire Bosonit team for making this project possible because quality architecture undoubtedly helps to improve cities. The Logroño City Council is making efforts to encourage economic activity in the historic center. This project will invite national and international investors to focus on Logroño as an area of opportunities not only for tourism but also for business and residential development.
Client: Bosonit Tech & Data
Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates + Javier Villar Ruiz
Area: 5500 m²
