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Building With Air, Spain

Zamora Office Building – design by Alberto Campo Baeza Architest

29 Nov 2012

Building With Air

Location: Zamora, Spain

Design: Alberto Campo Baeza, Architect

photos : Javier Callejas

The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora.

To build with air, the abiding dream of every architect:

Facing the cathedral and following the outline of the former convent’s kitchen garden, we erect a strong stone wall box open to the sky. Its walls and floors entirely made of stone. The very same stone as the Cathedral. A real Hortus Conclusus. In the corner facing the cathedral, a massive stone measuring 250x150x50, a veritable Cornerstone. And chiselled on that stone:

HIC LAPIS ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

photos : Javier Callejas

Within the stone box, a glass box, only glass. Like a greenhouse. With a double facade similar to a Trombe wall. The external skin of the facade is made of glass, each single sheet measuring 600x300x12 and all joined together simply with structural silicone and hardly anything else. As if entirely made of air.

The trihedral upper angles of the box are made completely with glass, thus even further accentuating the effect of transparency. Precisely what Mies was looking for in his Friedrichstrasse tower. The trihedron built with air, a true Glass Corner. And engraved in acid on the glass:

HOC VITRUM ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

photos : Javier Callejas

The stone box made from Memory. With its Cornerstone deeply rooted in the soil.
The glass box made for the Future. With its Glass Corner blending into the sky.

To build with air, the abiding dream of every architect.

images : Maqueta / Montaje / Croquis