Van der Laat & Jiménez总部大楼，哥斯达黎加 / FORO ARQUITECTOS

哥斯达黎加最老最有名望的建筑公司Van der Laat & Jiménez扩建了自己的总部，原总部大楼已使用近30余年，此次新的扩建部分将坐落在原厂地一角。该公司创始人希望全新的总部大楼既坚实又新颖，同时要体现公司的成员架构：三位创始人，和五个年轻的合伙人。建筑主要由两部分组成：现存的两层建筑和一个全新的建筑。两部分建筑均建造在敦实的混凝土基底上，代表了V&Js公司的深厚基础；而包裹在二三层外质轻的绿锈铜表皮，让建筑展现出年轻的活力。而这种全新的材料使用，对建筑设计师来说也是一次全新而极具意义的尝试。绿锈铜是一种非常适宜热带环境的材料，在日照和雨水的持续作用下，铜绿得以维系持久。于此同时，建筑回应了城市对建筑的需求，填补了快速消失的城市景观。它面向街道，如同一座城市峡谷。

The clients, one of Costa Rica’s oldest and most prestigious construction companies, requested a new addition on a corner lot to their existing 30+ year old building and an integral redesign of the interiors. 
They wanted a building that expressed both solidity and novelty to symbolize their corporate structure formed by three original founders and five young junior partners. Thus, the building consists of two main volumes: the existing two-story building and the new one, both supported on a strong first floor clad in concrete tiles and representing V&Js soundness, and to symbolize the new “young blood”, a lightweight second and third floorsclad in prepatinated copper sheathing, a material that we use here for the first time in Costa Rica, thus quite innovative for our country. Prepatinated copper is an excellent material for our tropical climate as its continued patination or “rusting” process is accelerated by constant exposure to much rain and sun. The building also responds to much needed urban imagery in a city where sound cityscape is fast disappearing. This building hugs the street giving strong support to the urban “canyon.”

▼独特的建筑外观，the exterior view

坚实的基地和质轻的上层建筑组成了建筑的外观。其中铜绿材料95%来自回收铜，这种历经洗礼的材料几乎不惧怕任何环境的变化，也不需要过多的维护和修缮。为了展现反对大面积玻璃幕墙建筑的理念，又考虑到热带环境的因素，设计师在建筑立面设置巨型窗口，在围框出户外景观的同时，接受足够的自然光线。质轻的铜皮盒子展现出钢制外形。建筑沉稳坐立于此，不声张，不出挑。它由一栋独立的建筑，逐渐转变成为城市的背景墙，在城市的发展和变化中，展现其坦然的一面。

A “solid base,” made of stone skin and a “lightweight box,” with pre-patinated, “green” copper skin, made from 95% recycled copper, a material that “thrives” in difficult climates especially in the tropics, and that will never require maintenance. In accordance with our opposition to large glazed areas, because these are anti-tropical, we designed windows that frame the views and introduce the necessary natural illumination. The lightweight copper skin “box” is finished with steel profiles, a new version of flashing. It is a silent building that does not make a great “fuss” in the city; a building that, for now, seems to be a “protagonist” but as the neighborhood changes, it will become a “backdrop” building that will support public spaces, sidewalks and streets, which are more important than architecture.

▼窗口在围框出户外景观的同时接收足够的自然光线，the designed windows that frame the views and introduce the necessary natural illumination

▼上层铜绿材料95%来自回收铜，”green” copper skin made from 95% recycled copper

在贫穷洗劫城市生活，建筑文化退化的当今社会，建筑设计也需要找到新的突破口。建筑必须是“即时即刻”的，不需要什么特殊的意味，也不需要遵循什么当代或古典形式，沿袭几百年的风格传统，尤其在哥斯达黎加这样的地方，更不需要这样做。顽固的现代运动带来了顽固的价值观，并希望引导一种大众美学。但这种想法是错误的，就连全球化的倡导也不一定是正确的。地域和文化的差别使我们拥有不同的需求和不同的审美，而正是因为这样，才产生了建筑。伟大的意大利建筑师Massimiliano Fuksas说过“建筑更多关乎于社会行为而非物质审美”。而对于FORO ARQUITECTOS来说，他们认为“社会行为与社会行为下的物质审美”才更加贴切于我们当下的环境。建筑展现出如同V & J企业一样成熟和稳重的一面，但又同时彰显出活泼的生气，如同V & J的员工年龄结构。最重要的是，该建筑回应并营造出了全新的城市景观。用当代设计回应了设计师的设计理念“即时即刻建筑”

We are convinced that architecture must seek new paths, especially in the less rich world and with less “architectural culture.” Architecture must be “here and now” without compromise with any “cult”, including the decadent and dogmatic and almost 100 year old Modern Movement, has no real application at the moment and, much less, in places like Costa Rica. The obstinate beliefs emerging from the Modern Movement equalize values, among them “universal aesthetic commands”, usually wrong because places and cultures, although subject to “globalization”, are unique and have special requirements, even beyond the aesthetic ones, from which architectures must emerge. The great Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas recently said that “architecture demands more Ethics and less Aesthetics”, not altogether bad; we think that “more Ethics and more Aesthetics with Ethics” is more necessary in our latitude. The building shows solidity, maturity, like V & J, but also novelty, like the new V & J team. The most important thing is to contribute to the development of a better urban landscape and thus to the “experiential landscape.” The design is “modern” showing a “glimpse” of our theory of “architecture here and now.”

▼入口，entrance

▼楼梯间，stairs

▼空间内部，interior