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Campus Palmas Altas

Campus Palmas Altas - Design

The Campus Palmas Altas (CPA) comprises seven buildings providing approximately 47,000 m2 of office space across highly compact floorplates in self-contained structures between 3-4 storeys in height.

The buildings are arranged to either side of a central space which is made up of a sequence of interconnected plazas.

The central space unifies all seven buildings and – at the same time, because of the stepped arrangement – creates a sequence of discrete spaces each of which has slightly different characteristics. In this way, a variety of outdoor spaces ranging from patios to sunken courtyards and terraces, are created which – depending on the prevalent weather conditions – can be comfortably occupied by the buildings’ tenants virtually all year round. The organisation of these spaces aims to reduce the heat load on the building fabric and avoid the creation of ‘heat islands’. The visual mass is broken down by the landscape treatment of the spaces in between buildings.

Colours have been chosen that reflect the colours found in traditional glazed tiles in the Andalucía region – principally the cobalt blue to the underside of the glass louvres (the upper face is white to reflect light), the yellow-green to the external staircases, and the red panels to the pavilions. The structure of each building is formed from in situ concrete
with pre-cast elements used for exposed edge cantilevers. The façades are of glass with a ‘floating’ horizontal transom of corrugated aluminium creating a small glazed panel at floor level. This aims to maximise light penetration; light is reflected off the floor surface, whilst reducing glare to the screen. Fixed glass louvres of varying densities (depending on orientation) shade the glazing.

Energy-saving criteria are applied across the whole design – from the site layout and the orientation of the campus to the geometry of the buildings themselves, the design of the building envelope and the selection of materials.

   Public Realm

The scale of these individual spaces reflect the intimacy of the patios prevalent in the south of Spain rather than the wide open parkland setting which has typically characterised the business park campus.

   Energy

Measures include photovoltaic panels, a tri-generation plant, hydrogen batteries and chilled beams. The design of individual buildings and the linear arrangement of all the buildings maximises self shading, thereby reducing the amount of secondary shading required.