Administrative Building Rehabilitation Project: Rethinking Spatial Layout, Color, and Sustainability

Reimagining Old Buildings: From Chaos to Order

Many old buildings face a fundamental challenge: adapting to contemporary needs while preserving their core identity. In this case, a 40-year-old administrative building was addressed by reassessing its structural framework and reconfiguring it to align with modern standards.

Restoring the Original Compositional Logic

One of the primary goals was to re-emphasize the building’s original compositional logic, which often becomes obscured over time due to random modifications. Through this approach, previously scattered and confusing geometric elements were transformed into a clear organization, where every part of the building serves a defined purpose and follows a consistent internal logic.

Dividing the Building into Interconnected Units

The building was envisioned as comprising several independent units, each with its own façade and distinctive interior atmosphere. This approach not only revitalizes the interior spaces but also enhances users’ understanding of the spatial flow, helping them navigate more easily within the building.

Expressive Differences Between the Front and Rear Facades

Facades in modern architecture employ different expressive strategies to reflect a building’s functions and atmosphere. In this case, the front façade conveys calmness and sobriety, with carefully chosen color gradients of white, gray, black, and gold, giving the building a formal and balanced character.

Design Elements to Highlight the Entrance

To enhance the clarity of the main entrance, a curtain wall was introduced covering the upper part of the building, accompanied by extensive terrazzo flooring cast in place. These elements not only serve aesthetic purposes but also visually guide users toward the entrance, enhancing the transition experience from exterior to interior.

A More Vibrant Color Palette at the Rear

In contrast, the rear façade embraces flexibility and experimentation, featuring more vibrant and playful colors. This contrast in color expression between front and rear creates a balance between formality and visual appeal, demonstrating how color and form can guide the user’s experience both inside and outside the building.

Using Colors to Define Functions and Spaces

Colors play a pivotal role in directing attention and understanding the spatial layout within a building. For instance, a light turquoise was chosen to cover the elevator area, providing clarity and prominence to this vital point within the building.

Contrast in Shared Spaces

In the main staircase, black-and-white lines paired with yellow windows create a dynamic visual contrast, helping to distinguish circulation paths within the building. Conversely, the service core is highlighted with a distinctive pink, making these areas easily recognizable and defining their function within the overall plan.

Variety of Colors in Open Offices

Open office areas are clad with blue metal panels, imparting a sense of calm and focus, illustrating how colors can influence the psychological state of users. Overall, touches of color are spread throughout the building, both inside and out, enhancing the user experience and making navigation within the building clearer and more comfortable.

Leveraging the Natural Surroundings

The building’s reorientation reflects the importance of interacting with the surrounding environment. In this case, the location adjacent to a natural garden was utilized to enhance visual connection with green spaces. Large openings were created in the existing walls, not only to frame views but also to bring in more natural light, alleviating the sense of confinement caused by low ceiling heights.

Creating Multi-Functional Outdoor Spaces

On the roof, a green terrace was designed with a circular pergola, forming small shaded outdoor workspaces. These areas provide opportunities for social interaction and collaborative work, away from the formal atmosphere of the interior offices, encouraging idea exchange and dialogue among users.

Integrating Work and Leisure

The rooftop also includes designated event areas, featuring a bar and open spaces for various activities. This integration of functional and recreational uses reflects an architectural approach aimed at creating a dynamic work environment, where nature, light, and versatile spaces come together to enhance the daily experience of users.

Sustainability Strategies in Modern Buildings

Sustainability has become a central focus in contemporary architectural design, aiming to reduce energy and resource consumption while enhancing the quality of life for users. This building incorporates a set of integrated environmental strategies that reflect this approach.

Improving Energy Efficiency and Materials

Effective insulation and high-performance windows were used to minimize heat loss and maximize natural light, alongside the use of locally sourced natural materials that reduce the environmental impact of construction. These measures not only address environmental concerns but also enhance the comfort of users within the building.

Low-Consumption Systems and Support for Sustainable Mobility

The design includes low-energy mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, in addition to providing electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking, promoting sustainable mobility options and reducing reliance on conventional cars.

Renewable Energy

Photovoltaic panels are integrated into the building, allowing part of its electrical needs to be met from renewable sources. Together, these measures enabled the building to achieve the highest local energy efficiency rating (A+), serving as a practical model for applying sustainability principles in modern urban projects.

Balancing Authenticity and Modernity in the Interior

Rehabilitating interior spaces provides an opportunity to highlight the building’s historical character while adapting it to contemporary needs. In this context, the original black marble floors were restored, preserving their quality and classical appearance.

Revealing Original Structural Elements

Conversely, the ceilings were stripped to expose the irregular original concrete molds. This approach emphasizes the building’s structural elements and creates a visual contrast with the polished floors, reflecting the interplay between rawness and elegance in the interior design.

Enhancing the Identity of Each Floor

The combination of polished and raw materials creates a visual unity across all floors while allowing custom furnishings on each level to express their unique identity. This approach enhances the user experience, enabling each space to carry its own character while maintaining overall design cohesion.

Diversifying Furniture to Enhance Functional Experience

Furniture plays a pivotal role in shaping the identity of interior spaces and guiding the user experience. The furniture design within the building varies between large marble elements on one floor, a perforated red metal library on another, and two large intersecting tables dedicated to collaborative work on a third floor.

Integrating Movement, Work, and Events

On the ground floor, a wide red terrazzo staircase connects the building’s levels while also serving as a tiered platform for events and performances, benefiting from natural light entering from the mezzanine level. This approach illustrates how space and furniture design can create multi-functional interactions, enhancing both communication and movement within the building.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

It can be observed that the project offers several useful solutions for reorganizing both interior and exterior spaces, such as dividing the building into independent units and maximizing natural light, providing a clearer and more diverse experience for users. However, some aspects may raise questions when attempting to generalize this approach to other buildings; the strong contrast between front and rear facades and the extensive use of varied colors could make it challenging to maintain an overall visual unity or may distract in different contexts. Additionally, the emphasis on green roofs and open spaces requires careful study of climatic and operational impacts, especially in larger buildings or those with intensive use.

From an architectural perspective, the project can serve as a model for experimenting with dynamic spatial and color distribution, and for considering how to integrate sustainability and interaction with the natural environment. Yet, it is essential to balance experimentation with functionality and to conduct a thorough assessment of the design’s effects on users and the building’s overall character before applying it on a broader scale.

Reviewer

★ ArchUp: Technical Analysis of the Administrative Building Rehabilitation Project

Technical Analysis of Building Rehabilitation:
This article provides a technical analysis of a project to rehabilitate a 40-year-old administrative building as a case study in modernizing existing structures and applying sustainability strategies.

The design concept was based on dividing the building into independent units with distinct visual identities, where different colors were chosen for each unit to define functions. The main staircase features black and white stripes with yellow windows.

Sustainability strategies achieved an A+ energy efficiency rating through the use of effective insulation, integration of photovoltaic panels, utilization of local materials, and provision of electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking.

Relevant Link: Please refer to this article for an in-depth look at the modernization of existing buildings:
Rehabilitating Administrative Buildings: Strategies for Efficiency and Sustainability.