Zooco Estudio has designed the new headquarters of the company Maflow, in Guarnizo, Cantabria, northern Spain. Maflow specializes in air conditioning components and has experienced a high business growth, which has generated a need for more space.

The project takes on the challenge of generating a new identity and organising this space by grouping the functions in a single volume, organizing the interior space, and creating a new manufacturing line of 3D parts and elements of vehicles' air conditioning systems.
The studio with offices in Madrid and Santander, Zooco Estudio has configured this new interior space, organizing the uses and spaces, so that the program of activities can be developed in the most effective way possible. In this organization, the administrative and research tasks have specific spaces that facilitate their operation.

At a constructive level, we can highlight the metallic skin with different finishes and perforations, creating textures with different sheens on the continuous surface. To break the continuity of this surface, the studio has designed a diagonal staircase that crosses the side of the volume, painted in red, the company's corporate color.
 

Description of project by Zooco Estudio

Maflow automotive is a company dedicated to the manufacture of air conditioning components for the most recognized firms in the automotive sector. Its rapid growth over the years has demanded more space for its facilities. This expansion of space has been carried out gradually in response to the different needs that arose, in an uncontrolled manner, to the point that the spatial organization arranged did not give an ideal response to its operation.

The project addresses the reorganization of the office space, as well as the creation of a room for a new line of business based on 3D printing of custom parts of any kind.

We found several volumes of very different dimensions and materialities, all of them separated from each other generating gaps and underutilized spaces. We propose a metallic "skin" that wraps all the volumes and forms a single body with great presence and identity. The different spaces are redistributed and the uses are reorganized in a more coherent way for their proper functioning. Those interstitial spaces are now delimited and allow the development of administrative and research activities of the company.

The "skin" has several types of finishes and perforations, responding to the needs of privacy and isolation of the different spaces it protects, generating a materially continuous mantle but with a variety of textures and brightness. The new communications core becomes the protagonist of this intervention, a diagonal band of red breaks the linearity presented by the vertical cutting of the metal sheets while making a nod to the corporate color of the company and the automotive world.

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Architects
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Project team
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Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito, Sixto Martín Martínez.
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Collaborators
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Beatriz Villahoz.
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Builder
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NIMBO PROYECTOS SL.
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Dates
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2020.
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Location
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Polígono Industrial de Guarnizo, 0 S/N, 39611- Guarnizo, Cantabria, Spain.
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Photography
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Zooco Estudio is a young architectural firm founded in 2008 by Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito and Sixto Martín Martínez, with head offices in Madrid and Santander. Zooco Estudio´s philosophy is facing each project, from interior interventions to large structures building, through the same creative process.

Developing projects with different scales, they realize that architectural decisions are always the same: to create spaces that give response to needs and environment, always based on the generation of a clear concept as the base of the project.

This vision of architecture and the flexibility to adapt to different projects, has made them understand practice at a time of social and economic crisis.

Zooco Estudio tries to project with fine materials and simple shapes to achieve a timeless and functional aesthetic. They always search for neutral spaces and projects that last over the years. With this objective, they combine the research into new materials and systems, with the knowledge of traditional processes.

Throughout their professional career they have won different prizes and contests, among which the Civic Cultural Center of Soto de la Marina (Cantabria) and the Performing Arts Center in Verín (Galicia). They combine large-scale works with the creation and renovation of spaces in the contract, retail and residential sectors, highlighting projects such as the restaurant La Maruca, Orgaz and Atrapallada, or hotels such as Hotel Azul or Flamingo.
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Published on: June 1, 2022
Cite: "Enclosed by a metallic surface. Maflow Spain Automotive Offices by Zooco estudio" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/enclosed-a-metallic-surface-maflow-spain-automotive-offices-zooco-estudio> ISSN 1139-6415
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