To underline this continuous condition of the space, we opted for the pavement, roof and exterior cladding must be continue throughout the intervention.
Project description by Sol89
The urban fabric of the center of Córdoba is made up of dense blocks covered by an infinity of courtyards that give this place the character of a space never fully known. Upon entering the interior of this plot we find an amalgam of buildings from different eras where full and empty alternate giving light, air and privacy to the interior.
This territory of light and shadow is articulated by the entire collection of intermediate spaces that nourish the southern architectural heritage. Adarves, zaguanes, passages, corridors, courtyards, galleries, solanas and, finally, the fragmented landscape of the roofs, make up a network of empty spaces that are interspersed in urban density providing continuity to the public space that ends up entering the built heart.
In this context we have to project the expansion of offices located in a three-storey house. The incorporation of three new premises, two on the ground floor and one on the upper floor, we believe should happen without hardly perceiving the traffic between one area and another, thus guaranteeing the final cohesion of the resulting workspace. We propose the intervention trying to draw without lifting the pencil from the paper, defining a continuous space that from the original offices is winding through the interior of the block, passing through courtyards, entering the built density, hollowing out when necessary and peering into the existing adarve until reaching the cover.
To underline this continuous condition of the space, we opted for the pavement, roof and exterior cladding must be continue throughout the intervention. A smoothed concrete floor, high and heated, crosses interior and exterior spaces; the roof is solved with an acoustic panel of wooden slats inserted between the original concrete structure that acquires a new expressiveness when framed by it; Finally, when the volume of the new workspace goes outside to meet the original office in its various dimensions, it is coated with galvanized steel plates and is arranged as volumes without supports in the courtyards, underlining its status as an autonomous device inserted in the existing gaps.
The pieces of furniture, the areas defined by the acoustic ceiling and the cross-ventilation provided by the patios limit the workplaces without divisions, clarifying the diafanity of the plant.
The intervention seeks to enhance the concepts of transparency, sequence and gradient typical of the traditional articulations of the large and motley centers of the historic cities of the south, without losing sight of the desire to sew the spaces available for enlargement, fragmented and independent in a first moment and continuous and articulated after the execution of the project. The space in the form of air and light thus penetrates the built mass, as a continuous matter that belongs to the entire city and is domesticated inside the block.
