Batlle i Roig Arquitectectura

From a constructive point of view this façade solution is quite similar to the one the same architects resort in the office building in 22@. We just want to highlight the effectiveness that these baguettes may have if we compare them to those used in the before mentioned building.

The relationship between the façade enclosure and the structure is a recurring theme in Batlle and Roig’s work.

In the CMT headquarters the structure is located offset from the façade to allow free development of a nearly entirely glazed envelope.

Seeking for the nearly complete glass continuity in the façade has led to a solution for the fire spreading interruption between floors that is solved some centimetres offset from the glass pane. 

That way, the number of joints in the façade is reduced, and so the need for profiles. The cutting does not show so evidently what is happening in the back of the façade. This gap between the glass and the sectoring panel can be used for placing a rolling blind or indirect lighting. An appropriate illumination may permit blurring the bottom limit of this sectoring element.

A double skin glass façade has indisputable formal possibilities, such as blurring the structural and/or functional order, providing uniformity and vanishing the volume limits so they merge with the sky. However, it contributes little to improving thermal aspects in our climate. 

This is an interesting resource to hide the blind area associated with the edge of the slab, the facilities’ cavity and the elevated floor without having to delimit this area with two transoms visible in the elevation. The only apparent cutting is that of the unitized panel, with greater or lesser density in the pattern of the serigraphy that opalizes or simply veils the transparency of the glass.

Batlle and Roig designed a double skin façade for this office building in 22@. The inner layer meets the thermal requirements and those of air and water tightness, while the outer layer delimits the building volumetrically and seeks to improve its thermal behaviour.

On this occasion, Batlle and Roig resort to a curtain wall in which partial structures are assembled at each slab front without physical continuity between them. Glass panes are then supported over the partial structures to close the façade (have a look at the "Cadireta" curtain wall structure). Each two glass panes are framed with an aluminium frame made of unitized panels profiles. So, is this a unitized façade or a curtain wall one? Maybe it is a mixture of the two?