THE SITE: 

The building aims to consolidate the existing urban identity by accepting its morphological structure and forming an urban piece that addresses the corner, respecting the differentiated scale of each street. For this purpose, a single facade plane is created on 14th Street, while volumetric operations are carried out on 47th Street, generating terraces that interact with the surroundings and the neighborhood scale. 

 

TYPOLOGY AND VARIATION: 

As a design approach, we started with a typological building "Basement + Slab" that come together to form a volumetry, creating a single, contemporary, and more prominent piece. 

 

ACCESS: 

Due to the urban importance of the corner, we decided to have the entrance from it. The entrance is set back, widening the sidewalk, which relates to the Courthouse located on the opposite diagonal corner. 

 

FLEXIBILITY: 

The service core and circulations are arranged as a volumetric slab supported on the party wall, allowing for a free floor plan, enabling it to adapt to future rearrangements of the building. 

 

PROGRAM: 

The ground floor houses all the functions suggested by the program, so they can be closed when the college is not in session, while the conference room and lodging area can continue to operate independently. 

The courtyard is designed to allow for parking spaces and is enclosed by a facade of sunshades. A triple-height space was designed to facilitate access to the basement foyer and also to connect the administration with the ground floor. The basement houses the conference room, which has its own patio for natural light and ventilation, providing differentiated access from the hall through a public staircase and allowing it to function when the rest of the college activities are closed. 

The dining room is located on the first floor after the basement, allowing it, along with the terrace, to enjoy excellent views of the treetops. Additionally, it serves as a transition between the more public areas of the building (conference room, entrance level, administration) and the more private ones (Presidency, internal committees, Cijusco, and lodging area). The lodging areas are located on the upper floors, utilizing the terraces as expansions and avoiding interference with the functioning of the office areas.

The levels for Presidency and Management, Internal Committees, and Cijusco were designed with completely open floors allowing for multiple layout arrangements. 

 

MATERIALS: 

The building is composed of exposed reinforced concrete structure, aluminum windows, aluminum sunshades, and glass. The aluminum sunshades are fully deployed on the 14th Street facade (facing northeast) and partially on the 47th Street facade, providing visual privacy to the lodging areas and reconstructing the front-basement at a height of 7.00 meters on the lower levels. All materials are low maintenance and have a long lifespan.

 

STRUCTURE: 

The load-bearing structure was designed with a 25 cm thick beamless floor, lightened with Prenova type spheres with a diameter of 18 cm. This technology was chosen to reduce costs and provide the building with a contemporary image, with reduced-section slabs and exposed concrete. 

 

Project Details: 

Authors: Arch. Mariel Cámara. Arch. Ezequiel Muñoz. 

Collaborator: Miss Vanina Manzo. 

Year: 2013 

Covered Area: 1,000 m2