Plaza Bizkaia Office Building Bilbao, Biscay Commercial Project, Photo, Design, Property
Plaza Bizkaia Office Building
Commercial Development in Bilbao, northeast Spain – design by Federico Soriano, architect
16 Feb 2010
Plaza Bizkaia Offices
Location: Bilbao
Date built: 2006
Design: Estudio de arquitectura Federico Soriano y Asociados
Photographs: Alberto Cubas
Office Building in Bilbao
This building is generated by two direct decisions that respond to two specific problems. Firstly, to seek the most spacious, resistance structure on which to rest landscape-offices without altering a previously built underground parking. Secondly, to build a glass volume which actual shape shelters it from the direct climatic inclemency or uses it passively under favourable conditions.
Photos by Alberto Cubas
We have nothing else – no brief, no image and no architectural references. They will all come as a consequence of solution to these two parameters. For the first case, we defined aligned porticoes, reducing the necessary number of columns to a minimum and defining them in accordance with the office floor plan.
This grid does not match the existing underground plan, where the distances are defined by the dimensions of parked and moving vehicles.
To resolve this difference in the vertical alignment of the columns, an adaptation mechanism was inserted on the ground floor. This consisted of steeply slanting columns whose extremes seek to match the upper and lower alignments, tying them in with the floor slabs that work in traction.
These columns take on a sculptural expression of monumental proportions, and transform the ground floor into a public space; an extension of the square that spreads out in front of the building. In the second case, the geometric process of the different alignments on each floor was established by using different sections to study the solar angle and the different degrees of inclination of the sun’s rays in summer and winter. Two basic deformations were produced on a virtual symmetrical volume. Firstly, two standard sections facing each other were defined for the north and west orientations.
For the west orientation, the building is stepped, each floor cantilevered out from the one below in such a way that the building shades itself. For the northern orientation, this section is inverted, thus recovering the floor space lost in setbacks.
This generates different curves on each floor. The building begins to vibrate. We then added further layers of overlapping glazing. This was screenprinted with different degrees of density.
By setting them at the precise distance and only sreenprinting certain parts, we have made these printed panes of glass add on each other in summer, reducing the transparency of the wall in accordance with the angle of the sun’s rays and thus reducing the greenhouse effect, while in winter, total transparency is achieved and the sun heats up the interior, reducing the building’s overall energy consumption.
Plaza Bizkaia Office Bilbao – Building Information
Soriano & Arquitectos Asociados – Architects: Federico Soriano, Dolores Palacios
Project team: Marion Michaut, Lieven de Groote, Annie Martínez-Pita, Miguel San Millán.
Construction team: Marion Michaut, Christian Fink, Mónica García, Mónica Sedano, Marwan Zouein, Lucía Pérez, Leticia Sáez, Nazareth Gutiérrez
Structure: B.O.M.A. Lluis Moya
Installations: Úrculo Ingenieros. Rafael Úrculo
Construction team in site: Tecnei. Jon Rekalde, Pedro Domínguez
Competition: 2002 (1st prize) Project 2002-04 Construction: 2004-06
Photographer: Alberto Cubas
Plaza Bizkaia Office Building images / information from Federico Soriano
Location: Bilbao, Basque County, north east Spain, western Europe
Architecture in Bilbao
Bilbao Architecture Design – chronological list
Bilbao Architecture Walking Tours in the Basque Country
Bilbao Building Designs – Selection
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Architect: Frank Gehry
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain photo © 2008 Gehry Partners LLP
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Euskalduna conference centre
Soriano & Palcios
image from the architect
Euskalduna Palace Bilbao
Software & Biotechnology Plant, Derio
COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS
photo : Aleix Bagué
Planta de Software y Biotecnología
Key Spanish Building:
Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias, Valencia
Santiago Calatrava Architects
image © Paul Zanre
City of Arts and Science Valencia
Spanish Theatre building : design by Mecanoo
Comments / photos for the Plaza Bizkaia Office Building Bilbao Architecture page welcome