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The Summer Course "Glass in Architecture" organised by the University San Pablo-CEU, was held in the town of La Granja on the 10th, 11th and 12th of July. Glass is starting to be used more often in architectural projects and it was defined at this meeting as "the liquid of infinite viscosity". According to the persons in charge of the course, this is due to the fact that "the glass is not merely a material, it has become a constructive system that, thanks to the latest technical advances, allows not only to decorate architectural spaces, but to control the atmosphere, the climate and the energy of such spaces".
Taking the pioneering glass pavilions of the XIXth century as a starting
point and with the help of engineering, we are witnessing more often in
towns the construction of great buildings made up mainly of glass and where
the woodwork has almost disappeared. This has resulted in what Carlos Miguel
Iglesias defines as "the crystallisation of towns through the current
glass based architecture, thus creating new geometric landscapes."
Nonetheless, this "new urban landscape" would never have been
possible without the logical evolution of glass in the field of architecture.
We have passed from the blowing technique to a system of "flotation
on tin-plating". This new system produces glasses that can adapt to
the location where the building works are going to take place and, at the
same time, it is a less damaging process for the environment. In this regard,
José Pablo Calvo has said that there are already certain studies
showing that it is possible to reduce the opacity of the mirror. For his
part, the glazier José Antonio Coto presented a series of "glasses
with smart functions", which are capable both of changing their opacity
through a button activated by the customer and of generating heat in such
amount that the use of heaters becomes unnecessary.
Moreover, these new glass models have permitted a great advance in the field
of architecture by solving "the eternal struggle of architects to control
light". Architect Ramón Abarrátegui defined this achievement
and showed a series of his own works at the conference in which glass is
the main element. In the past, more traditional systems such as lace curtains
and blinds were used. Although these methods worked, they prevented the
glass to carry out its main function: "to communicate us with the outside
world".
Nevertheless, this is a problem that has been disappearing in the past few
years. The new glass manufacture processes for architectural purposes have
given rise to the so-called "double insulation", which consists
in introducing a layer of air between two layers of glass. This insulation
is not easy to achieve. Nonetheless, the summer course "Glass in Architecture"
has made clear that glass is a vanguardist material that allows to carry
out further research, while providing constructions with a new concept of
design as well as improving the quality of life of society as a whole.
One of the main characteristics of this project is the versatility in the use of the whole building.
The Studio Abarrategui is also responsible for other projects with the same
innovative energy located in Madrid, such as the building of the newspaper
La Razón, the building of the Air Cargo Centre of Barajas Airport
or the renovation works of the head office of the law firm Garrigues.
The head office of Accenture in Madrid is one of the last projects to be
finished by Abarrategui.
This building is located in 35, Ramírez Arellano St. (Madrid) and
belongs to Allianz. The project is based (as requested by the owning company)
in the idea of developing a single building, which could be transformed
at a particular point in time into three different buildings that, in turn,
could function independently.
Abarrategui met this challenge by designing a building with triangular plan
and curved sides, which is divided in three segments. It then opens out
towards the exterior of the facades and also towards the interior (towards
a lantern that covers the building from top to bottom) with the aim of bringing
work closer to nature. One of the main characteristics of this project is
that both facades (interior and exterior) have natural light. The interior
courtyards are landscaped, thanks to a meticulous study of lanscape gardening
that has also been applied in the external area of the building.
Another constant feature of this kind of projects is flexibility, i.e. preventing
the building from becoming unuseable while still in its life-span. For this
reason, the projects have been developed with different possibilities for
using the building, for a single company or for three or even for 40 different
companies. There are 40 independent units of around 500 m2 each. Every unit
is fitted with its own installations, toilets, etc., in order to allow each
of them to be used independently at any time. This element, together with
the open-plan floors, the modulation of the facades, surfaces, walls, ceilings,
etc. helps creating numerous combinations without affecting the functions
of the building.
Vertical barriers have been placed in some points of the construction in
order to separate the buildings from one another (segments). Consequently,
the three buildings are only joint by the access. Each building has three
lifts, as well as lobbies, floors and independent installations. Although
currently there are no such barriers, because Accenture occupies the whole
building, the three segments could be separated at any time.
The curved sides of the facades are due to aesthetic reasons. "These
facades are more than 100 meters long and, taking into account that we wanted
to soften such perfection, we thought adequate that the volume should be
a prism of curvilinear faces. We achieved such curves by building polygons.
Although visually they are curves, in fact they are polygonal plans",
according to the architect Ramón Abarrategui.
The head office of Accenture has a total built surface of 29,058 square
meters arranged in seven floors on the grade line plus two floors for garage
use.