COCA COLA SPAIN HEADQUARTERS

The employees of the Coca-Cola Spain company should work in simple and accurate headquarters.

The ornament, the formal architectural detail, is misplaced, as it is inventing new silhouettes for the brand. We have always thought that the material must be used accurately, without anecdotes that distract but help to the global understanding, and detached from the accessory. The company cannot afford, as good architecture either, being at the mercy of fashion.

Two buildings are connected in the access platform with wide open spaces, which open to the space for events, bounded by the glass heart to the M40. The rest of the facades don’t presume of glass where there must be behind an opaque and fireproof facing; Only inside the double skin ventilated crystallography transparencies and crossed views are allowed.

'They will work in a headquarter open to the world, in a building-jewel, offering the best in its heart.' We said in the competitions: Coca-Cola outlive us; to the team of architects, to the managers of the company.

This architectural office began working imagining happy employees with the atmosphere where they spend the day. Large open spaces, the plants inclined platform, gardens, events, sports, they are not own merit; they were on the bases.

DATA:

Architects: Jose Maria de Lapuerta, Carlos Asensio and Paloma Campo

Promoter: Coca Cola Spain

Gold LEED certificate, awarded by the USGBC for sustainable buildings

Construction: Ferrovial

Surface: 23,800 m2

Dates. Competition: 2005 Project: 2006 Construction: 2007-2009

Team: Architect responsible work: Elena Tejeiro. Architects: Marta Renom, Zanolin Elena, Elena Gil, Ignacio del Rio, Adrian Castiñeira, Isabel Tarria, Mireya Sanchez. Quantity Surveyor Director of construction: Oscar Gonzalez. Facilities: Urculo Engineers / Engineering facades: Ove Arup / Structures: Gogaite / Landscape: Puy Alonso / Corporate image: Jorge Tacone, Esther Jimenez.

Photographs: Roland Halve