GS1 Portugal by Promontorio – aasarchitecture

The new headquarters of GS1 Portugal are the outcome of the 1st-prize in a competition held in 2014, in collaboration with artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils.

The building makes use of the concrete structure of a 1980s office building which became totally obsolete.

The K3 building was a two-storey rectangular volume with a simple column grid holding a waffle slab system.

Programmatically, the building has three distinct areas, corresponding to the different floors. The ground floor concentrates the public sphere of the centre’s activities, a showroom and a multi-purpose auditorium.

The second floor accommodates management and services in an open space, whereas meeting rooms, stationery and toilet areas are confined in opaque islands.

Finally, the rooftop holds a bar/coffee shop opening onto a shaded terrace. Inside, the building is unified by two large circular voids visually enlarging the experience of space and user interconnectivity.

In terms of finishing, the interior of the building plays on the idea of material reuse of the pre-existence.

The rawness of the exposed concrete elements as well as the absence of false ceiling, exposing the electricity cable trays and AC ductwork, contrasts with the comfort and tactility of materials and finishes such as linoleum, cork, textiles and carpets.

The facade zigzag system alternating between concrete panels and floor-to-ceiling glass panels, respectively facing North-South, reconfigures the relationship of the building’s views with the campus, while protecting the workspaces from excessive sunlight and yielding a luminous relationship with the garden.

On the exterior, a part of the concrete panels has a bas-relief by VHILS, an art project on technology-based research for large scale precast concrete moulding.

VHILS’ work proposes a contemporary critic on the chaos of information and visual noise while questioning its disruptive role, which in turn is counterpoised by the presence of the human eye. Source by Promontorio.