Built | 2003 | Erandio | The complex should house 40,000 m2 of work areas and almost 1,000 parking spaces in a gently sloping green field site.
The embodiment of the new building tried to retain the atmosphere of the landscape comprising two rolling hills against a background of low mountains. The volume was divided into three elongated prisms, two glazed and the other one made out of granite and concrete, which were to be placed upon the different levels of the hill. A fourth cubic block, also glazed, forms a square with the stone one that opens up onto the widest valley.
The glass façades draw in the humid and misty landscape typical of the region.
It was intended that the complex retained a recognisable scale despite its size, and that each working space should possess an understandable relationship with the rest of the building and surroundings.
The four buildings on which the grouping is organised correspond to offices building (the two glazed linear blocks), common services (the stone linear block) and labs (the glazed cube).
The two parallel prisms catch an enclosed atrium in which it is located, in the air, a volume to accommodate the Command and Control Center. Inside the glazed buildings, stone is widely used for partially cover the structure and build long thresholds near the curtain walls.
During the night the front of the stone block facing the background is bathed in blue light and displays of the public and territorial service character of the administrative HQ.