CUATRECASAS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
Located in Barcelona ‘s campus audiovisual 22@ and designed as corporate headquarters with capability for more than 1000 people, this building of pure and minimalist shape, rises divided into two towers of 11 and 18 floors each one, reaching 72m high.Provided with phone boxes, "gravity points" , Restaurant, Fitness area and a beautiful terrace, it´s a place where everybody would like to work.
Located in Barcelona ‘s campus audiovisual 22@ and designed as corporate headquarters with capability for more than 1000 people, this building of pure and minimalist shape, rises divided into two towers of 11 and 18 floors each one, reaching 72m high.
Both towers are connected through a three-storey glazed hall into which daylight shines through and that offers a direct view from any of the two main entrances. The reception desk and the different itineraries to the common areas are also settled in this space of about 11x26x11m. It has a continuous skylight on the roof perimeter and some central skylights which allow the evacuation of the smoke in case of emergency. Two glass canopies cover both circular gates and point the access areas out.
Indoors, the functional programme holds additional uses such as restaurant with showcooking, fitness center with directed activity rooms and a conference hall that seats about 200 people. There are technical rooms and more than 240 parking spaces in the three bellow ground levels.
The whole building totals some 28.000 m2. Each tower has a compact core zone with stair cases and a group of 4 elevators with innovative systems to manage the smooth flow of people efficiently.
The shape of the Western tower creates a cantilever and allows the creation of a green terrace on the seventh floor at the same time.
The façade is solved by a modular construction system, which is finished with extruded aluminium slats and uprights providing both sunlight filtering and interior privacy. To reinforce this fact, the glass has a technological high reflective surface in the viewing zones. It creates altogether an homogenous second skin that envelopes the building homogenously. Beyond the seventh floor, once the interior privacy is ensured, this skin fades out, offering a clearer view above the city and the sea.
The building structure is made up by a heavy concrete core containing the bathrooms, stair case and elevators; and a metallic framework for the cantilever which balances the structural load and helps reducing the height of the slab. For the structure construction it was used an ascending descending system, which allows to build top-down and bottom-up at the same time, shortening construction timing. To achieve this, the steel columns were drived directly into the piles during the construction of the foundation, playing a part on the corresponding final structure steel frame once excavation and concreting works are finished.
For the interior design, there have been used high quality materials such as oak wood and modular furniture and interior dividing system that allow to create more flexible spaces. There are both private rooms and offices and open office work areas as well.
As regards the facilities, there is waste room at the ground floor which is connected to a pneumatic waste collection system.
The air conditioning system is connected to the heat and cold urban distribution net, reducing CO2 emission levels significantly. All the building’s illumination is covered by energy-efficient led technology lamps, including presence and light sensors system to get an additional energy saving. In terms of water consumption, bathroom fitments are double-flushed and taps are low water flow and electronic sensor controlled in order to save a considerably amount of water.
Overall, the building has been conceived according to the rigorous sustainability standards of the US Green Building Council, aiming to obtain a LEED GOLD certification, what will allow to reach up to a 30% of energy savings compared to that other traditional high-rises.
