Thinking green, Tagus Gas Head Office in Portugal is one of the country’s most innovative buildings because of a bold architecture based on sustainability features. It is the first office building in Portugal certified by BREEAM. The building’s exterior design forms a core element of its sustainability strategy, covering the building’s entire life cycle.
The facade system features extensive high-performance glazing veiled by a perforated skin made of sustainably produced and recyclable Swisspearl panels.
Dotted with countless circular holes, this cladding system helps minimize energy consumption by bringing natural light into the building. At the same time, the cladding screens a number of manually operable windows, which allow the interiors to be naturally ventilated. Beyond its practical benefits, the punctured cladding serves a major aesthetic purpose: inconspicuous during the day, the myriad of perforations create a striking display when the interior is fully lit. The effect is glowing and almost dematerialised. Furthermore, the perforation pattern incorporates the company logo, thus advertising the brand to the nearby highway.
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Tagus Gás Headquarters at the Business Park in Cartaxo, Portugal, stands out as one of most innovative buildings in the country by its bold design based on sustainability characteristics, being the first office building certified by BREEAM in Portugal.
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the most used building environmental certification and it is a system of sustainability evaluation in construction, counting with 200.000 classified buildings all over the World, and it has more than one million buildings registered for evaluation, since it was released in 1990.
This project was developed by S+A in partnership with Ecochoice, who developed a set of sustainability measures, in order to reduce operational costs, environmental management of the building, the comfort of its occupants and the certification by BREEAM system.
There were used sustainability measures in materials, energetic efficiency, water saving, reduction of atmospheric and soil pollution, accessibility and mobility. Moreover, energy consumption is reduced due to the natural illumination and the thermal and acoustic isolation that the façade system provides. Natural ventilation allows even higher interior air quality and comfort levels.
The building was also environmentally monitored during the construction period, in order to reduce environmental impact during this phase and throughout the transportation of materials, waste management and water consumption, energy and atmospheric emissions were also supervised.
This new headquarters for Tagus Gás in Cartaxo, fifty miles from the Portuguese capital, is the country’s first office building to receive BREEAM certification. Designed by international practice Saraiva & Associados in partnership with consultants Ecochoice, the structure features an array of sustainability measures aimed at reducing its environmental impact and optimizing its energy efficiency. The envelope is a core element of this sustainability strategy, which covers the building’s entire life cycle—from manufacturing and construction to utilization and postoccupancy. The façade system features extensive high-performance glazing veiled by a perforated skin made of sustainably produced and recyclable Swisspearl panels. Dotted by countless circular holes, the cladding helps minimize energy consumption by letting plenty of natural light penetrate the building. At the same time, it screens a number of manually operable windows, which allow the interiors to be naturally ventilated, improving air quality and comfort levels while significantly reducing expenditures for air-conditioning units. Beyond its practical benefits, the punctured cladding serves a major aesthetic purpose. Inconspicuous during the day, the myriad perforations create a striking display when the interior is fully lit, conferring a glowing, almost dematerializing effect to the façades. Moreover, the perforation pattern incorporates the company logo, thus advertising the brand to the nearby A1 highway, which connects Lisbon and Porto, the country’s most populous cities.
