The Summers Building in Buenos Aires contributes to the renewal of a rapidly changing district, providing office space designed to suit new working methods.

The complex is protected by the waves of a bioclimatic façade, an icon of contemporary and contextual architecture.

The Summers Office Building project is located in the dynamic district of Palermo in Buenos Aires. It supplements a mixed urban fabric that is changing fast, made up of housing blocks and, more recently, tertiary and commercial activities.
The project aims to provide high-quality tertiary accommodation in the district with great potential, echoing the many young workers who live nearby. The scheme has to reflect a work set-up designed in line with new technologies and introduce new ways of working.

The building extends the lines of the neighbouring outlines and is divided into three distinct volumes, produced from the elevations of the surrounding buildings and the permitted balcony overhang. The highest point, therefore, boasts a roof terrace with breath-taking views of the cityscape. The office accommodation is based on a wide, open area wrapped around an efficient circulation hub. The latter has been designed as a vertical walkway using a series of openings onto the surrounding district and the city. The project draws its identity from a unitary membrane that stretches over every façade. Consisting of vertical slats at regular intervals in front of fullheight glazing, the membrane connects the lines of the neighbouring buildings via more or less slender curves, proliferating a kinetic aesthetic that is decidedly contemporary. The design of this façade stems from a study of the sun’s rays carried out upstream of the conception. This means that the building benefits from a bioclimatic architecture, with its functioning incorporating the environmental issues specific to the site. The blades are mounted on pivots and regulate the
thermal and luminous gains of the interior spaces. These blades are perceived as large vertical pixels, each of which has a different silkscreen printing, provided by parametric mapping, to protect it from solar gains, creating a dynamic façade in relation to its immediate environment.