Firm： MASS OPERATIONS

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Under Construction

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SIZE： 100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

BUDGET： Undisclosed

"An office building where you rather take the stairs than the elevator” — was the driving concept behind the new office headquarters for “Farmacias del Ahorro” in Monterrey México. The idea connects with the health conscience culture the company strides to inculcate with all of its employees.

Originally conceived as a tower development, once we had the opportunity to study the program and site, we realized that given the location and size of the program, a tall tower would become a large west facing façade. Additionally, a tower would render a small and inefficient floor slab, resulting in an energy deficient and un-communicated building.

Understanding this, we then proposed a 4-level, horizontal building, entirely connected by a series of large scale staircases and escalators. While the building protects itself from the western sun with a deep vertical louver façade it completely opens its V-shaped plan towards the northern light.

Each segment of the V shaped plan has a width of 14 meters guaranteeing full natural light reaching every inch of the floor plan. When the two segments connect, the central area otherwise unreachable by natural light is occupied by core, service areas and meeting rooms which benefit from a light controlled environment.