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2014 MCHAP

Corporativo 2010

Alejandro Marranzini

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sep-13

PRIMARY AUTHOR

ORBITARQ Jose Horacio Marranzini

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR

Ricardo Sanchez (Architect) Eddy Pimentel (Architect) Antonio Hache (Interior Designer) Lisette Pons (Project Manager)

CLIENT

Eduardo Tejera

PHOTOGRAPHER

Ricardo Briones Jose Calzada

OBJECTIVE

With Approximately 11,110 m2 of construction, the tower contains four (4) underground parking levels and fifteen (15) levels for corporate offices. The same typical plan repeats itself, except on the first 3 levels. On the Ground level, to the west is the Reception area with an impressive double height and a curved curtain wall; located on the east is a bank platform with a mezzanine on the second floor. On the third level there is a Conference Club and a Cafeteria area with an open terrace with views to the city. The Horizontal and vertical circulation is resolved on the southern part of the building, therefore allowing that all offices have a view to the Gustavo Mejía Ricart Av- to the north- and Abraham Lincoln Av.- to the west- and predetermining a more enclosed facade toward this area. The main attraction of this office building lies en the complex web of its facade, which in a manner of a weave or puzzle generates a zigzag pattern of diagonal lines with prefabricated pieces of foamcrete. This pattern constitutes a final product of a complete experimental process exploring compositions and various rhythms; and makes allusion to the actual digital era, emulating the geometry of a computer chip. With this concept, the vertical circulation (elevators and staircase nucleus) on the southern facade, behaves like a chip inside a motherboard, from where all the elements branch out to the different circuits of the facade.

CONTEXT

In the early stages the client’s requirement was a mid- rise building for commercial purposes, with a sleek design and all glass façade. Due to its prime location in the city of Santo Domingo, the architect had something different in mind. Glass Facades in mid and high rise buildings are something of the 20th Century, with this concept a proposal was developed that would mark a new kind of architecture in the city. The main design intent for this project was to produce an iconic piece, a building that limits the center of the Abraham Lincoln Avenue and will become a reference point in the city. With a strategic location in one of the busiest streets of the Central Polygon of the city Abraham Lincoln Av. with Gustavo Mejía Ricart Av, and with it's innovative, bold and futuristic design, the Corporativo 2010 is destined to revolutionize the urban profile of the area and change the course of the high rise design of our city.

PERFORMANCE

The project not only contains in its essence its own and unusual morphology, clearly predetermined by the horizontal and longitudinal shape of the site- which defines the great slenderness and lightness of the volume- but the innovative and revolutionary design of the skin of the building contributes even more to its rupture with its surroundings. It would look like the late- modern eagerness to create an expressionism of a Brutalist or High Tech character has resurfaced in our city, maybe announcing this time the so called " Society of Spectacle" by Guy Debord or responding to the City's fatigue of an predominantly classic architecture that for years saturated and lulled the urban image of Santo Domingo. The building’s current use satisfies its purpose, achieving a functional commercial – retail typology.

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