Office Space:  Nature + Technology

Architect: Diego Wisnivesky ArchLab360

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Area: 9000 sqf

Project Year: 2015 Photographs: ArchLab360

 
Located in the middle of a clean and quiet manufacturing industry complex, the building was designed for the company’s headquarters, to house the development and manufacturing of digital technology based products.  
Essentially, the concept diagram consists in elevating the construction from its lower level to open up free access underneath. All floors are connected and intersected by a vertical movement space, containing daylight from generously wide glazed openings. The structure is a combination of concrete frame for the outside walls and steel for the inside spaces.  
The concrete elements work in a way that almost completely detaches the building from the lot. This procedure allows cross ventilation throughout the entire lower level, which is below grade. The solution opens the way for placing storages and parking spaces underground and thus, makes possible a very much needed functional vehicular circulation from the street.  
Steel frame is used to set different layouts inside, according to specific uses. Three steel/glass enclosed spaces are suspended separately from the concrete beams, comprising offices, a meeting room and management facilities. The metal structure allows more efficient space utilization, greater flexibility and far lower energy consumption with long spans stretching across, reaching up to 120 feet.  
The top floor is highlighted with the main conference room and access to the rooftop landscape garden. The garden brings to the project the presence of nature as a counterpoint to the technology developed in the building, taking into account the generous wide views from the site and its nearest surroundings.  
Probably the single greatest environmental service that roof gardens provide is the reduction of storm water runoff. In a green roof system, much of the precipitation is captured in the vegetation and will eventually evaporate from the soil surface or will be released back into the atmosphere.  
Plants can also filter out particulate matter and pollutants in the air. Particles will eventually be washed away into the soil via rainwater movement, and some of the pollutants will be absorbed into plant tissues.  
Growing media and plant material protect roofing layers from solar exposure that can damage the roof membrane. These materials also reduce day/night temperature fluctuations of the concrete slab, which reduces the stress of daily expansions and contractions. Green roofs provide shade and insulation, resulting in energy savings and mitigation of the urban heat island effect, reducing air temperatures indoors and above the building.