00-02,
AML
Xerox Building
The building was designed on the outcome of the 1st prize on a short-list competition promoted by Xerox Portugal for its headquarters in Portugal. Given the busy traffic intersection of the plot, the building was devised in a U-shape, with two parallel wings of offices connected by a third block of equipment (auditorium, showroom, refectory, etc.), around a large and enclosed void.
With 800 sq.m and 5-storey, the monumentality of this atrium endorses not only the needs for circulation and reception, but also the less evident need for silence and contemplation in the large corporation. Yet, and notwithstanding the growing tendency for privatization of public space, the eminently civic character of this atrium allows it to function as a space of events, open to the city.
The compositional system of both exterior and interior façades is based on a construction module that endorses the idea of a heavyweight tectonic wherein a representational skeleton of prefabricated concrete panels visually holds the fragile elements–glass and alternatively wood or zinc. Summoning the classical theme of post-and-lintel, the representational transposition of the idea of load runs across the building with this concrete skeleton resting on a heavy stereotomic granite plinth.
With 800 sq.m and 5-storey, the monumentality of this atrium endorses not only the needs for circulation and reception, but also the less evident need for silence and contemplation in the large corporation. Yet, and notwithstanding the growing tendency for privatization of public space, the eminently civic character of this atrium allows it to function as a space of events, open to the city.
The compositional system of both exterior and interior façades is based on a construction module that endorses the idea of a heavyweight tectonic wherein a representational skeleton of prefabricated concrete panels visually holds the fragile elements–glass and alternatively wood or zinc. Summoning the classical theme of post-and-lintel, the representational transposition of the idea of load runs across the building with this concrete skeleton resting on a heavy stereotomic granite plinth.
