Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
Issem Headquarters in Santa Catarina, Brazil by N8Studio
July 17th, 2012 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: N8Studio
Man’s well being is obtained through his experiences, relationships and the natural and built environment’s influence. In his daily routine or in a sporadic visit the user/worker must feel comfortable in the space that surrounds him.
The new ISSEM Headquarters is not envisioned as a building in its common sense, but as functional spaces that connect to the natural environment, that places man at the center of nature and allows him to perceive that life quality is intimately connected to the occupied spaces, the connection between interior and exterior, in the act of feeling part of something greater. Integration and communication are the headquarter’s base concepts – integrating man and nature, workers and users, interior and exterior – achieving true sustainability.
Architects Team: N8studio – João Gabriel de Moura Rosa Cordeiro, Fabio Henrique Faria, Humberto Carta, Thiago Maso
Collaborator: Renate Louise Pierotto
Issem Headquarters
SITE
The building is placed in the foremost part of the site, preserving and privileging the hill’s natural flora.
A slight tilt in the building’s rotation provide a small plaza to welcome the visitors. The user’s parking is placed at the side of the building, with the bike shelter at the front. The worker’s parking is placed at the back, providing the necessary privacy.
CONCEPT
The proposal’s concept seeks to enhance the relationship between work and natural environment, creating natural visuals, lighting and ventilation for all the workstations.
The square-shaped floors are perforated according to the needs, creating patios. The slabs are visible, revealing uses such as the auditorium and the archive. The green roof is used as a contemplative space, providing a rest area for the workers and allowing further expansion by creating another floor.
A ramp leading to the rooftop is a flexible space that allows integration between the second floor and the exterior. After the expansion this flexible space provides multiple choices. It can maintain its use as a patio, turn into a workspace, a small auditorium or a resting place, providing integration between the second and the third floors.
Issem Headquarters
BUILDING PROCESS
The building was designed to explore usual building practices in a efficient and sustainable way: it uses a 5 x 5m grid of in loco concrete with cantilevers, allowing simplicity and economy of materials. The modulation allows the use of pre-fabricated materials, such as drywall, elevated floors and window framing, accelerating the building process and avoiding waste.
Issem Headquarters
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability as an example for the workers and users is a basic concept of the design. Sustainability should not be seen as a isolated use of a few products or a design that deprecates the quality of the space, but as a concept that changes the relationship between man and nature.
Tilting the buildings position allows natural lighting and ventilation, integrates the building with the city and occupies the best part of the site, where it is flat and devoid of vegetation.
Constructive
Through patios, the design gives every worker and user access to nature. Every room is less than 5 meters away from the exterior, allowing not only the visual and physical contact with nature, but increasing natural lighting and ventilation, reducing up to 60% of the buildings energy consumption.
The facades respond to their orientation, playing with transparency and opacity: the southern facade is totally transparent to receive more lighting, the east/west facades are protected with a perforated metallic sheet and the northern facade seeks the natural vegetation visuals. The green roof allows visuals of the environment and increases thermal efficiency.
Water management is given a great significance in the design. Through the increase of green areas and the reuse of rain water in the gardens and toilets, the design reduces the amount of water channeled to the nearby river, avoiding floods.
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