Foster + Partners has completed a new city hall for the Argentinian capital, featuring a wavy concrete roof, a quadruple-height atrium and a glazed facade offering views out to the park .
Situated in the city’s Parque Patricios neighbourhood, the Buenos Aires Ciudad Casa de Gobierno provides a flexible workplace for the city mayor and one,500 workers, but also delivers services for the nearby local community.
Typical Foster’s London-based company initially created the developing to property Banco Ciudad, the municipal Buenos Aires bank. The short later on altered and the proposal was adapted to turn out to be a city hall.
This was feasible thanks to what the architects describe as the “inherent versatility of its design and style”. The building was laid out as a series of staggered terraces, set back from the glazed facade and planned to a stringent eight-metre grid.
The curving roof is an interpretation of the traditional barrel vault. Supported by pillars, this canopy varieties a series of gently curving waves that extend past the facade to supply shade and shelter.
“Sustainability relates really strongly to local sources and climate, and Buenos Aires Ciudad Casa de Gobierno is a great demonstration of how architecture can operate with nature by way of passive environmental implies to naturally lessen vitality use,” explained Foster.
“The roof extends like a canopy to provide shade, its flowing concrete structure is both symbolic as a civic creating and practical in regulating temperatures,” he additional.
Behind the glazed facade, the four-storey-large atrium spans the width of creating, enabling lots of natural light to enter. There are also two large patios that punctuate the floorplates. These are filled with greenery and are lit from above by louvred skylights.
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Additional louvres had been extra all around the building’s exterior to avert direct sunlight from distracting workers.
“Shading louvres on the east and west protect the interior from direct glare, although courtyards enable sunlight into the heart of the developing in this way, its design is very considerably a response to place and climate,” explained Foster.
All floors are linked by prime-lit corridors and the open-prepare workspaces attribute virtually no partitions. Foster + Partners expects this to advertise far better communication amongst departments and motivate a sense of local community amid personnel.
Other amenities include a 300-seat wood-panelled auditorium and a cafe, each of which can be employed by the local community.
The thermal mass of the concrete soffits assists to regulate temperature, and chilled beams have been also extra to support maintain the room great at the hottest occasions of the 12 months.
“Its design and style is quite much a response to the local context, socially and environmentally,” added David Summerfield, studio head at Foster + Partners. “Our aim has been to develop a very versatile constructing, which celebrates the city’s superb climate and the exclusive park-side setting, and will make a constructive addition to a revitalised neighbourhood.”
The city hall occupies an entire city block in Parque Patricios, a formerly light-industrial spot to the south of the city centre.
Foster + Partners completed its first creating in Buenos Aires in 2012 – a 10-storey housing block in the industrial port region of Puerto Madero. Other tasks in Latin America incorporate the new Mexico City airport, which the firm is doing work on alongside local architect Fernando Romero.
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Ground floor strategy 
Upper level floor strategy 
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