The opportunity for change

CS'Associados' decision to re-evaluate the habitability and atmosphere of its office on floors 7 and 8 of building 249, on Av. da Liberdade, is in itself an opportunity to debate the place of work and the daily life associated with it, but also to become aware of the virtues of the physical location it now occupies, which is undoubtedly a benchmark in the city of Lisbon.

Time and Timelessness

The contribution of architecture, understood as a multidisciplinary knowledge to which converge not only all issues of the environment and atmosphere, but especially the techniques that support the construction of places, ensures a critical change that meets current and prospective needs and demands, proposing a way of living for this workplace that is substantially different from what it has been over the last decade. Naturally, this transformation, which is now to be implemented, and which is believed to be a starting point for the entire community of CS'Associados community can look at life at work from a completely new perspective, implies a clear desire for change.

The proposal presented can be read as a kind of sounding board for the office's primary values, an optimistic one, which seeks to simultaneously highlight contemporaneity and timelessness, sobriety and elegance, rigor and sustainability.

From outside and inside

The solution found must ensure the efficiency and comfort essential to the CS'Associados community, promote the collective spirit and guarantee the individuality of each one, but also assert itself as a place of reference to welcome all its clients and visitors. It is in the right balance of these objectives that the answer for the new CS' Associados office must lie.

General occupancy strategy

The current location of the CS'Associados offices, on the highest floors of the 249 Av. da Liberdade building, is synonymous with a place of excellence, which will have to be one of the images of this working community. This strategic urban position, a kind of flight over the city of Lisbon, should be the DNA of the new CS'Associados office.

The celebration of the city and the light will be based on the new open work spaces that are organized to support all daily activities. Complemented by offices and meeting rooms, these fluid spaces adapt to each work requirement, while promoting new ways of living.

At the north and south ends of each floor, a cross-section of offices, fully glazed, provides a set of private spaces and guarantees, through its elevations, the reflection of space and an interior image of intense dynamism.

The exterior balconies are one of the most valuable features of the existing building, which should be used as a reference space for all employees. Contrary to the sporadic use that they are known for today, these balconies should be equipped and infrastructed so that they become spaces for work, breaks and socializing.

Regardless of the profound change that is proposed, the project will always have to ensure and prioritize the privacy that is conducive to carrying out work that requires concentration and reflection. All the members will be able to have private offices and there will be many options for more or less formal spaces where work meetings, small conversations or brainstorming sessions can take place.

The functional program is also complemented by spaces for the library, pantry, cafeteria and meals, multipurpose spaces, legal secretariat, administrative support, information technology support, storage, archives and maintenance services.

On the 8th floor, in addition to the open-plan workspaces and offices for partners and/or consultants, an area exclusively for clients will comprise a new reception area, enjoying an immense panoramic view over the city of Lisbon, and a series of meeting rooms, equipped with infrastructure, supported by a dedicated floor pantry, equipped to serve small meals. Here, the generous outdoor space should once again be enhanced with different levels of use.

Ceiling, horizontal reference plane

We often think of the construction of an inhabited space not only in terms of its floor, walls and vertical planes, but also in terms of how they are characterized and ornamented.

However, it is not often that we become aware of the importance of the ceiling plane in building (or destroying) an architectural atmosphere. While it is true that the most notable references to noble ceilings come from the past, painted, sculpted and worked, with an awareness of the importance and nobility they confer on the space, it is no less true that today we often see the ceiling plane used in a careless and neglected way, often used as an infrastructure surface in which each system (lighting, air conditioning, motion detection, firefighting, video surveillance cameras, etc.) is installed freely, without any notion of the whole and the parts.

In this proposal we sought to exalt the atmosphere of the space from the ceiling plane, since its visibility and presence, particularly through the open space, becomes epicentral in the daily life of the office. With the introduction of a Light and Air system designed by Bak Gordon Arquitectos and developed by Osvaldo Matos Iluminação, we propose to provide all the essential infrastructures, applied in an organized and linear manner, freeing up all the rest of the ceiling space for the introduction of a kind of “painting”, a series of acoustic panels, covered in Burel, with different complementary colours, in a composition of enormous elegance that should become a reference and memory of the CS'Associados office.

Materials and performance

Aware that the maintenance and operating costs of office buildings correspond to a substantial investment over the course of their useful life, we consider it essential to anticipate the optimization of resources. Therefore, together with the various specialties, we will work to obtain the best solutions, not only for effective cost control, but also to promote greater thermal and acoustic comfort for workers and clients. Natural lighting and air quality will also be a priority in the resolution of the proposal and in the search for an integrated solution. To these we will also add the selection of materials and equipment that allow for easy cleaning and maintenance. More pragmatic and effective materials will be complemented and coordinated with more refined and comfortable ones, in a constant search for balance.