Recope Headquarters

In 2001, Recope, a state oil refining company, called for the design of its new headquarters through a design competition which our firm won. We had three major concerns: (1) to develop the smallest footprint possible in order to (2) dedicate as much of the site to a public park and (3) to design bioclimatic urban building. The cylindrical shape of the building is a metaphor of the cylindrical tanks that a refinery uses to store liquid fuels. The building cylinder opens up towards a long water trough that emerges in the dense park and travels through a large plaza, as symbols of natural renewable energy and of life itself. The building façade is designed as a sun screen, as a sort of a brise-soleil, which rhythmically changes according to its exposure to the sun, being much more dense towards the East and West and sparse towards the North and South.