2018 MCHAP
TE+A- Torre Ejecutiva Annex Building
Ferrando - Goyos - Martirena - Olascoaga - Souto
Montevideo, Uruguay
August 2017
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Arch. Diego Ferrando Arch. Fernanda Goyos Arch. Daniel Martirena Arch. Javier Olascoaga Arch. Andrés Souto
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Estudio Marella & Pedoja (Structural Engineers) Estudio BR (Barbot - Rocha Ings.) (Electrical, Lighting, Thermical & Safety instalations) Ing. Fitermann - Tec. Mijalovich (Sanitary Instalations) Arch. Gonzalo Fernández (Acoustical Conditioning)
CLIENT
Presidencia de la República Oriental del Uruguay
PHOTOGRAPHER
Elías Martínez Ojeda Marcos Guiponi
OBJECTIVE
The project objectives were: Implantation - Provide a qualified public space in which the building is articulated with its immediate surroundings. - Resignify the residual space resulting from the meeting of urban plots, as an open, inclusive and democratic environment. - Integrate the volume to the repertoire of important built masses, complementing but not starring, controlling its scale, materiality, transparency, position and link with Torre Ejecutiva. - Conserve all existing plant specimens in their original location. Functionality - Resolve in a simple volume the complexity of the program, in which different activities and jurisdictions coexist, through a strategy based on functional stratification and space flexibility. - Integrate the different circulatory flows of the new building to those of the Torre Ejecutiva, resolving the connections between both. - Adapt and integrate the existing constructions in the property (access to Presidency garages). Image - Evoke with the orthogonal prism the solidity of the democratic system, nuanced by the oblique gesture of the facade in the ground floor access, which suggests flexibility and sensitivity towards what happens outside the governmental sphere. - Explicitly associate transparency in the envelope materiality with institutional transparency, and the game of variations and nuances from this glazed skin treatment, with the diversity of society. - Evidence the material and conceptual construction, establishing a game of tensions between the power of the unitary form and the perception of its main components.
CONTEXT
TE+A is an annex building of the Executive Tower (Torre Ejecutiva), headquarters of the Presidency of the Republic and other Government dependencies. This annex operates as public access to the Presidency and events area, with an auditorium, video conference rooms, etc. It also houses the National Institute of Statistics (I.N.E.). 1. The site where the TE+A is implanted is characterized by: - The conflictive encounter of two urban plots in checkerboard ("Old City" and "New City") corresponding to the colonial foundation of Montevideo and its growth after the demolition of the walls at the end of the 19th century - The presence of significant great volume buildings: Solís Theater, Central Market, Torre Ejecutiva, Ciudadela building. - The provision of relevant public spaces: Independencia Square, España Square. - The existence of irregularly shaped lots and blocks, and residual spaces - The relevance of the circulatory pathways in the area. In particular, the Old City’s “access area” role to vehicular flow coming from Montevideo’s East coast. For this complex urban scenario, and dense from cultural and symbolic points of view, two fundamental guidelines were raised: - The hierarchy of public space, with a building that presents its interior as an extension of the city. - The simplicity and neutrality in formal and volumetric terms, to integrate into this environment, contributing to order without acquiring excessive prominence.
PERFORMANCE
The building construction was carried out between 2014 and 2017. At the beginning of the works, a water deposit from the 17th century was found in the property, excavated in the rock and roofed with a brick vault. This deposit, of great size and one of the first ones of the colonial time, is located practically in the center of the building plan at subsurface level. This involved a detailed archaeological study and a review of the project by the authors, because the National Heritage Commission determined that it should be conserved. The plant was modified, mainly the location of vertical circulations, without altering the spatiality and the general compositional scheme. On the ground floor an open space was created towards the lower level, from which the conserved construction can be contemplated, integrating this new situation in a harmonic way with the originally projected space. In mid-2017 the building began to be used, and expectations regarding its urban role and the performance of its spaces are being satisfactorily fulfilled. Usage of the spaces is developed according to plan, as well as the circulation flows and connections with the Torre Ejecutiva. The work realization also allowed reopening to the public a stretch of San Jose Street that was closed, improving pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area.
