Office Within a Block

Description

The urban centre of Córdoba features a network of dense blocks criss-crossed by countless courtyards which give the place the aura of a space never fully known. As we enter the area, we find an amalgam of buildings from different periods, where mass and emptiness alternate, providing light, air and intimacy to the interior. This area of light and shadow is articulated through a series of intermediate spaces that nourish the southern architectural heritage. Walkways, hallways, passages, courtyards, galleries, solariums and the fragmented landscape of the rooftops form a network of empty spaces that are interspersed within the urban density and give continuity to the public space, which ends up reaching the heart of the building.In this context, we needed to plan the expansion of offices located in a three storey house. The addition of three new spaces, two on the ground floor and one on the upper floor, had to be done in such a way that the transition between one area and the other would be barely perceptible, thus ensuring the final cohesion of the resulting workspace. In planning the project, we tried to draw without lifting the pencil from the paper, defining a continuous space that would penetrate from the original offices into the interior of the block, through courtyards, entering the built density and hollowing out where necessary to reach the roof. Floor, ceiling and exterior cladding extend throughout the project to emphasise this continuous condition of the space. A raised, heated trowelled concrete floor runs through the interior and exterior spaces; the ceiling features an acoustic panel of wooden slats inserted into the original concrete structure, acquiring a new expressiveness when framed by it; finally, where it meets the original office on the outside, the volume of the new space features a galvanised steel sheet cladding and is placed without supports, underlining its status as an autonomous device inserted into the existing openings. The furniture, acoustic ceiling areas and cross ventilation from the courtyards define the workspaces without dividing them, thus emphasising the openness of the floor plan. The intervention was intended to reinforce the concepts of transparency, sequence and gradient typical of the traditional urban planning of the large and heterogeneous centres of the historic cities of southern Spain. At the same time, it sought to connect the spaces available for the extension. These spaces, initially fragmented and independent, are now, after the execution of the project, continuous and interconnected. Space thus penetrates the building in the form of air and light, like a continuous substance that belongs to the whole city but is preserved inside the block.( Description provided by the architects )