The preliminary design competition for the Telpin Building in Pinamar is based on two precise and determining conditions: on one hand, a plot on Bunge Avenue subject to urban regulations from which the developer has chosen one option, a freestanding tower and basement between party walls; and on the other, a highly detailed program of needs regarding the characterization of the functions of the complex as well as the quantity and location of workstations, with precise functional relationships between the spaces of different activities. The combination of both conditions imposes a few alternative approaches for this building.

 

Given these conditions, the proposal of this preliminary design explores a relationship between tower and basement, in which without altering the boundary planes of each component, the tower is valued and highlighted by perforating the basement and reaching to level -1.30, creating from the access plaza to that level the possibility of a slimmer and more significant image as it goes from having 5 to 8 levels, accentuating its verticality. 

 

We understand that such an option delivers a powerful image to Telpin, proposing a first office tower for Pinamar with a clear identification in the cityscape. It is known that the public imagination often associates tower-type buildings with corporate identities, and such identity can strengthen the company's image and even its brand, which in this case is further reinforced by the nighttime inclusion of colored luminescent lines and thus an almost permanent presence of the image of this building even from a distance. 

 

The basement is articulated with such tower, manifesting mainly in the volume perpendicular to Bunge that houses public-facing functions, flowing within the virtual lower area of the tower that houses reception areas and access to offices and the cafeteria area. The project discards the option of a building passing from street to street due to the precarious and residential character of Del Tuyú Street and also to economize circulation areas and building access fronts or points. 

 

Based on these characteristics of tower and basement typology treatment and the organization of volumes and spaces it enables, the ensemble allows defining areas, functional packages, or domains that must be linked or isolated according to the day and time as verified between the commercial area and the office tower (which have different public access hours and can be linked or isolated) and between the -1.30 level that houses the multipurpose room, classroom, and cafeteria and which can be linked or isolated from the rest of the building's upper part. Additionally, it enables the segregated operation of the cafeteria from the multipurpose room and classroom area through its differentiated access.

 

However, all these relationships or separations, according to the various usage needs, are made without diminishing the spatial quality of the articulations between the different parts of the basement.

 

Project details: 

Award: Special Mention 

Location: Pinamar, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

Authors: Arch. Roberto Fernandez, Arch. Mariel Cámara, Arch. Adrián Olivero, Arch. Ezequiel Muñoz 

Collaborators: Miss Vanina Manzo, Arch. Eugenia Roulier (Consultant), Arch. Daniel Cutrera (Structures), Arch. Daniel Bary (Thermal-Mechanical Systems), Arch. Luciano Cipponeri (Budgets) 

Year: 2012 

Covered Area: 3,000 m2