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Architects: Barrutieta, Goikoetxea, Perez, delaFuente
- Area: 50000 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Agustín Sagasti
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Manufacturers: ASCENDER Seating, Terraconti
Text description provided by the architects. Orona IDeO – innovation city is the flagship design of the new extension of the Technology Park of San Sebastian (Basque Country, Spain). The purpose of this project is to house the company´s Innovation Ecosystem, which stands out as it brings together different synergetic activities –business, technology canters and university-. The project is an answer to the need of common networking space of an international company, creating a place that is both a flagship and a common home for its more than 4,500 employees and a hub for researchers and students on elevation, urban mobility, energy and eco-technology branches.
The Orona Zero building is the flagship building of Orona Ideo and houses the corporate headquarters of the company and its form is inspired by the circle, a constant shape in the company’s brand image. The design of the building seeks to evoque elegance, dinamism and elevation through an abstract formal gesture: a hollow cylinder of 90m in diameter, 16m in height and a 15º incline. It rises from the ground to create a 1.500m2 overhang at the entrance from the city and sinks on the opposite side, allowing passage through and generating a roof-façade for capturing solar energy.
Orona Zero is mainly devoted to office spaces, which have large internal energy loads due to its occupants and to the density of the electronic equipment which dissipates heat and, at the same time, requires diffused light to avoid glare. The ground plan places the workplace near the outer façade which is mainly north facing, whereas the south-facing ring-shaped gallery distributes the flow of people and overlooks the building’s central void.
The curved façade is made up of a skin composed of more than 2,000 triangular pixels which change by means of a parametric design from: opaque, translucent and transparent, depending on their orientation, the incident to solar radiation, the access to external views and the privacy of the rooms. More than 1,000 polycrystalline photovoltaic modules are integrated on the inclined rooftop of the Orona Zero building that will have an annual electricity output similar to the electricity consumption of 100 average flats.
The interior of the building recreates different working environments from desks and closed meeting rooms to a series of lounge spaces suitable for informal meetings and personal work. These designs have the ability to imprint a special character to the working spaces and also seek to evolve the brand culture of the company among the employees.
The building has achieved Leed Gold and Breeam Excelent certifications and has been selected by the World Green Building Council as benchmark for Health, Wellbeing & Productivity in Offices.
