Refurbishment of office building at Ramírez de Arellano 37

We designed a new envelope to sets it apart from its surrounding buildings: an outer skin consisting of undulating concrete slats that cast deep shadows on a light inner glazed skin. We used to a classic element of popular architecture, the eaves,  large enough to prevent solar radiation from reaching the façade summer, autumn and spring, while allowing winter sunshine to hit the façades sufficiently to help temper the interior of the building, insulate against noise and convert direct light radiation into indirect light.

By working together on the installation, lighting and acoustic engineering and with virtual models, a balanced dimensioning of a sequence of strategically placed horizontal eaves was achieved in order to temper external aggressions while affording views of the spectacular skyline offered by the unique position of this building from the inside.

The façade is modelled like a sculpture that changes continuously depending on the point of view, opaque from close up, dispersed from afar, but always transparent from the inside.

Objectives achieved with the design of a 707 m² façade and maintenance from the inside with no need for complex mechanical systems. The behaviour of the building in the cooling season (six months of the year) is summarised as follows:

- 62% reduction of incident solar radiation on the façade.

- Savings of 108,369 kWh of net electricity consumption.

- Reduction of 40 tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.