INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING, Brasília, DF, Brasil, 2010

 

Architecture

Edson Mahfuz

 

This project was born from the desire of a Brazilian educational institution to exchange a site owned by them for space in a building to be built on the same site by a local construction firm.

The following study adopted the same criteria of maximum site occupation as commercial companies do, in an attempt to show that it is possible to create a competent and consistent architecture in almost any circumstance.

This project’s guiding principles were:

- To give the building an institutional character both in overall appearance and the spatiality of its entry hall.

- To create two separate entry halls: one for the institution and another for the general offices that are to be rented.

- To organize the circulation, service and working spaces in the clearest way possible, avoiding the “labyrinthic” plans of regular commercial output and making it possible for future alterations to happen without much effort.

- To protect the east and west facades from excessive heat and glare using architectural passive means.

- To cap the building in a way that guarantees the overall unity of the volume, as opposed to the haphazard penthouses of unplanned construction.

The site measures 63x37m (2.331 sq.mt.) and is peculiar in the sense that its longer sides face majot thoroughfares, making it possible to enter from both sides. The regulations determine 3m setbacks on the longer sides, 5m on the right side and 15m on the left side. However, 10m of the larger setback may be used for a service/circulation tower. The top floor can only occupy 40% of the area of the floor below and there is also a mandatory 2,5m setback.

The parti adopted places two service towers at both ends of the site. This move defines a volume of space for entry and a multi-story hall between the North tower and the block of offices. In the penthouse, the 40% allowed constitute a central rectangular volume that completes the building in a clear way.

On the ground floor are the separate entry halls, identical spaces separated by a glazed plane. These two halls are five floors high with a transparent roof, features that confer to them the necessary monumentality. Coming out the elevators the user finds himself or herself in a bridge-like space that acts as a transition and a place for breaks and conversation.

The commercial space on the ground floor was though as a single store but it could very well be divided into several smaller stores with the accompanying toilets and storage spaces.

In much the same way the floors to be rented or sold –2nd to 4th floors– can be conceived of as a single big office or several smaller ones, in which case sanitary facilities could be built taking advantage of horizontal dropped ceilings for running tubes to and from the service towers.

The east and west facades would be protected by a screen made of wooden slats fixed on an aluminum structure.

The top floors would be occupied by the institution that owns the site. Our purpose was to create a spatial layout that could facilitate orientation and flexibility. Starting from a reception area that faces the elevators, all the spaces needed are distributed in three bands of space parallel to the streets. In the central strip there would be the support spaces while offices and more representative areas would be located close to the facades.

On the top floor, the auditorium and its supporting spaces. An ample vestibule leads to the auditorium or to the terraces at both sides, spaces where activities can spill to.