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Hector Santos-Diez

• Architects

Rehabilitation of four buildings for Vigo Property Records Headquarters

The project seeks a balance between a joint organization, and not give up the presence of clustered buildings, between get a sense of unitary piece, and the inherited. Interlacing three types of interventions; rehabilitation, restructuring for new uses, and the partial replacement, selecting items of value and traces of the place.

photo_credit Hector Santos-Diez — Hector Santos-Diez

A courtyard sum of the existing ones, organizes and provides quality as well as a reference section. This allows with one unevenness to solve different levels of buildings, maintaining the stone walls and functional their holes. A "generic" and flexible spatial distribution, overturn in "cross" mode the street and courtyard,and only files and services are closed space .

The courtyard connects the building with the surrounding streets at various levels. The main entrance, is where the new and old architecture join. It's where public scale appears as a double-height space that gives presence to the common courtyard from the street, recovering for it the idea of a court access gap between the city and the building.

We support on the strengthened walls. Preserving the structural typology and scale, horizontal concrete structure assumes the strong overloads of the program. Each element works for what it was designed, without overlapping structures.

The gaps with traditional windows to the outside, contrast to hidden mark carpentry glass, marks the thickness of the wall, showing both the passing of time as a change of use.

The preserved facades, are covered behind the gaps, to maximize light. In the courtyard, the gallery with protecting mobile wooden slats, optimizes space and lighting-ventilation. The unit deck is supported by the party walls, and is seen forming a rich space of variable section.