Architecture firm Sol89 designed an office into the urban fabric of the center of Córdoba, Spain. An urban structure made up of dense buildings groups drilled by an infinity of courtyards that give this place the character of a space never fully known.
In this context Sol89 architects designed the expansion of offices located in a three-storey house. The intervention defines a continuous space that from the original offices is developing through the interior of the block, passing through courtyards, crossing the built density, hollowing out when was necessary and peering into the existing adarve until reaching the cover.

To underline this continuous condition of the space, we opted for the pavement, roof and exterior cladding must be continue throughout the intervention.
 

Project description by Sol89

The urban fabric of the center of Córdoba is made up of dense blocks covered by an infinity of courtyards that give this place the character of a space never fully known. Upon entering the interior of this plot we find an amalgam of buildings from different eras where full and empty alternate giving light, air and privacy to the interior.

This territory of light and shadow is articulated by the entire collection of intermediate spaces that nourish the southern architectural heritage. Adarves, zaguanes, passages, corridors, courtyards, galleries, solanas and, finally, the fragmented landscape of the roofs, make up a network of empty spaces that are interspersed in urban density providing continuity to the public space that ends up entering the built heart.

In this context we have to project the expansion of offices located in a three-storey house. The incorporation of three new premises, two on the ground floor and one on the upper floor, we believe should happen without hardly perceiving the traffic between one area and another, thus guaranteeing the final cohesion of the resulting workspace. We propose the intervention trying to draw without lifting the pencil from the paper, defining a continuous space that from the original offices is winding through the interior of the block, passing through courtyards, entering the built density, hollowing out when necessary and peering into the existing adarve until reaching the cover.

To underline this continuous condition of the space, we opted for the pavement, roof and exterior cladding must be continue throughout the intervention. A smoothed concrete floor, high and heated, crosses interior and exterior spaces; the roof is solved with an acoustic panel of wooden slats inserted between the original concrete structure that acquires a new expressiveness when framed by it; Finally, when the volume of the new workspace goes outside to meet the original office in its various dimensions, it is coated with galvanized steel plates and is arranged as volumes without supports in the courtyards, underlining its status as an autonomous device inserted in the existing gaps.

The pieces of furniture, the areas defined by the acoustic ceiling and the cross-ventilation provided by the patios limit the workplaces without divisions, clarifying the diafanity of the plant.

The intervention seeks to enhance the concepts of transparency, sequence and gradient typical of the traditional articulations of the large and motley centers of the historic cities of the south, without losing sight of the desire to sew the spaces available for enlargement, fragmented and independent in a first moment and continuous and articulated after the execution of the project. The space in the form of air and light thus penetrates the built mass, as a continuous matter that belongs to the entire city and is domesticated inside the block.

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Project team
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Elena González Gracia, arquitecta. Rosa Gallardo Parralo, arquitecta. Miguel Sibón y Alejandro Cabanas, Instalaciones. Fritz Josef Koch, ebanista.
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Collaborators
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Quantity surveyor.- Cristóbal Galocha (Arch firm) y José Luis Luque (construction).
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Area
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250 m²
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Dates
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Project date.- 2017. Completion date.- 2019
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Photography
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Sol89. María González - Juanjo López de la Cruz. María (Huelva, 1975) and Juanjo (Sevilla, 1974) graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla in 2000,  tenth and third in their class of a total of 348 and awarded the highest grade in their Final Degree Projects, receiving both prizes in the 13th edition of the Dragados Final Project awards. After a one-year scholarship at L´École d´Architecture de Paris-la Seine in France, they worked for the Spanish architects Javier Terrados and Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra.

Following this experience they established their own office Sol89 in 2001, a practice in which they strive to accommodate research, teaching, and professional practice. Over the years, SOL89 has had the chance to carry out and build projects throughout intermediate spaces of the city as well as reuse obsolete structures. This work has been widely published in national and international magazines and journals and has received several awards, most recently: First prizes in the Architecture Awards of the Architectural Institute of Seville and Huelva (2006, 2015, and 2016), Silver Medal of the Fassa Bortolo Prize (Italy, 2013), the Wienerberger 1st Prize (Austria, 2014), Silver Medal of the Fritz-Höger Preis (Germany, 2014), the Grand Prix Philippe Rotthier of European Architecture (Belgium, 2014), 1st prize in the X Enor Young Architecture Award (Spain, 2014) and the 40under40 prize 2014 of the Chicago Athenaeum for Young European architects (USA, 2014). They are finalists of the Spanish Biennale of Architecture 2014,  they have been nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies van der Rohe Award 2015 and chosen to represent Spain in the XV Biennale di Venezia 2016, winner of the Golden Lion.

They are Associate Professors at the Department of Design of the Architecture School in Seville since 2005 and Master's degrees in Architecture and Sustainable Cities, University of Seville 2008. Their professional and academic career also spans the field of architectural thought; They have published articles and spoken at conferences, as well as directed seminars and meetings, such as the International Congress dedicated to the work of Jørn Utzon for the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (2009) and the annual seminars Acciones Comunes (2013, 2016 and 2017) for the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo about artistic and architectural strategies. They are the coauthors of the books Cuaderno Rojo (University of Seville, 2010) and Acciones Comunes (Universidad Menéndez Pelayo, 2014), and authors of Proyectos Encontrados (Recolectores Urbanos, 2012) as well as El dibujo del mundo (Lampreave, 2014). In this order, these books are reflections on research in architectural design, the debris of contemporary architectural culture, and the idea of journey and drawing in the work of the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn.

They have been curators of the XVI Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, held in Seville in 2023.
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Published on: November 21, 2019
Cite: "Offices crossing the built density by Sol89" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/offices-crossing-built-density-sol89> ISSN 1139-6415
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