Offices for regional government of Andalusia by Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
17/05/2017.
[Seville] Spain
metalocus, DANIEL MADERA
metalocus, DANIEL MADERA
Description of the project by Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
The project aims to provide a certain uniqueness and public character to the future headquarters of two government ministries, without lessening the required functional efficiency of a standard office building.
A homogeneous open hall of 12.40 metres, without intermediate columns, ideal for an administrative use, gives shape to the building bodies of eight intertwined floors, creating a singular figure. The building, which extends out to the perimeter of the site, defines the alignments of the streets without prejudicing neighbouring buildings.
The long perimeter lighting constitutes a continuous and modulated facade that, when folded, creates open and wooded spaces with masses of citrus trees. Above the eight floors a pitched roof provides space for the installations. The changing profile and volumes should give the building a uniqueness appropriate for its public nature.
The 12.40 m width of the open hall allows for the inclusion of both modular offices and offices open to one side and the other of a central circulation. Each floor can be flexibly organized. The fixed cores are positioned at the intersection of the elements, thereby absorbing the geometrical irregularities at the crossings of the different alignments. At these points are placed the cores of vertical circulation, the toilets and a meeting room. Circulations will be continuous and focused on the work areas. The layout of offices and open work areas will be arranged flexibly depending on the needs of each service or of each momentin the life of the building.
Architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz started their professional careers in 1971, after graduating from Escuela Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid. In addition to the transformation of the Rijksmuseum, their most well-known projects include the new Atletico de Madrid Stadium, which will also be the new Olympic Stadium if the Madrid 2020 Olympic bid is successful (due for completion in 2016); the Spanish Pavilion at the Hannover 2000 Expo; the Cartuja Stadium in Seville (1999); the extension to the SBB Railway Station in Basel, Switzerland (2003); Seville Public Library (1999); the Stadium of the Community of Madrid(2012); the Huelva Bus Station (1994); Santa Justa Railway Station in Seville (1991); and a housing project on Dona Maria Coronel Street, Seville (1976).
In 2002 Cruz y Ortiz opened a studio in Amsterdam, and the firm's other Dutch projects include the Atelier Building (Rijksmuseum - Amsterdam, 2007), residences Patio Sevilla (Ceramique - Maastricht, 2000) and Java-eiland (Amsterdam, 1994).
Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz have been visiting professors at the Lausanne and Zurich polytechnics as well as at Cornell and Columbia universities and at the Escuela de Arquitectura de Pamplona. They have held the Kenzo Tange Professorship at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and since 2004 have been honorary professors at the Universidad de Sevilla and occupied the Catedra Blanca at the Escuela de Arquitectura. Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz have received, among others, the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura Espanola, the Premio Ciudad de Sevilla, the Premio Ciudad de Madrid, the Brunei 92 International Award, the Premio Construmat and the Premio de la Fundacion C.E.O.E. On two occasions, they have been runners-up for the Mies van der Rohe Award. In 1997 they were awarded the Gold Medal of Andalusia for their work in the field of architecture, and in 2008 they obtained the Premio Andalucia de Arquitectura for the Basel Railway Station extension.