Dr Jin UD Bartlett: Office building in Calle Alfonso Gomez by Samuel Torres de Carvalho and Pedro Palmero Cabezas

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/04/30/office-building-in-calle-alfonso-gomez-by-samuel-torres-de-carvalho-and-pedro-palmero-cabezas/

Photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us some photographs of an office building designed by Portuguese architects Samuel Ruiz Torres de Carvalho and Pedro Palmero Cabezas in Madrid, Spain.

An irregular-shaped courtyard in the centre of the building provides natural light and can be accessed from all floors by glazed elevators.

The walls of the courtyard are made up of continuous panes of glass, making all the interior spaces visible to each other.

The exterior façade is clad in a perforated steel plate, which provides solar protection but allows light to enter the interior spaces.

Photographs are by Fernando & Sergio Guerra.

The following information is from the architects:

NOTES ON THE OFFICE BUILDING IN CALLE ALFONSO GOMEZ

The building is located in an industrial area of Madrid which has been under a process of transformation over the past few years in which the old industrial premises are being replaced by new buildings of mixed use, housing new activities like small firms of software development, design or film production.

This industrial environment is reflected in the materials used on this project: glass and perforated steel plate.

The building assumes a relatively compact shape that stretches out and occupies the depth of the plot.

To provide natural light to all the working spaces, a courtyard was created which, with its irregular shape, multiplies the reflections and the perception of the space, in a joyful contrast with the austere exterior.

The courtyard acts as a big lobby, with glazed elevators, giving access to each floor through an open loggia.

Each floor is organized as an open working space whose shape, dimension and proximity to the façade allows different layouts.

All the service spaces are lined along the North wall, facing the adjacent building.

The exterior façades provide, with their perforated steel plate skin, good natural lighting and at the same time, good solar protection and a sense of enclosure.