Responding to the constrictions imposed by Brasilia's urban plan,
Gruposp, an association of architects that coalesced around the idea of winning significant competitions, planned a complex of buildings that we might think of as something like a campus.
Important objectives were: the integration of user with the building and landscape, flexibility to plan and change office layouts, and sustainability both economically, and environmentally.
Their efforts have seen this building shortlisted for this year's World Architecture Community awards.
Planned around an internal square, the building pushes against Brasilia's vast plains and open spaces by introducing a traditional urban spatial configuration into the archetypical Modernist city. Functionally, the square becomes an organizing principle. Spaces that host communal, group, and public functions, face onto the square, whilst another filter of building function, the floor level, also stratifies functions according to public / private use. By these principles, the most public spaces are facing the square at the lowest levels, the most private on the top levels overlooking the city or the nearby lake Paranoá. The very lowest levels are for parking and facilities management.
The exterior expression is largely presented by the lovely perforated metal sun-shades that can react to the sun position. A fitting metaphor for a corporation that no doubt wants to be seen to be responsive to its environment.
Gratitude to
World Architecture Community.
