A fabric cloak stretched across the glass facade of this golf ball-shaped office and showroom shades it from direct sunlight.
Sandwiched between two highways, the building provides headquarters for lighting brand iGuzzini and was designed by Spanish architect Josep Miàs of MiAS Architects.
A dark underground floor surrounded by concrete houses the lighting showroom, along with a storage warehouse, auditorium, conference room and car park.
Offices fill the five floors of the steel-framed dome, which has a hollow centre surrounded by glass.
After dark, lighting installed behind the mesh exterior glows in different colours.
We've also featured a glazed market hall by MiAS Architects on Dezeen - see it here.
Photography is by Adrià Goula.
Here's some more text from MiAS Architects:
iGuzzini Illuminazione España SA Headquarters – Il cielo iGuzzini
The new iGuzzini Illuminazione España S.A. headquarters is located between AP-7 and C-16 highways (Barcelona metropolitan roads).
The building has two parts, each with a different function: one is low, extensive and underground, with no natural light and built in concrete; the other is spherical and with a glass shell, floating over the landscape.
Taking profit of the slopes of the ground, the platform contains the logistic warehouse, the parking, the showroom, the auditorium, the light theatre, a conference room and climate and system mechanics. All these spaces need darkness, so as to show the characteristics of artificial light.
The surface of the platform is, in fact, a completely equipped outdoor raised floor, covered with different panels which offer the needed flexibility to set up various displays for the outdoor showroom.
Over the platform, with an uncertain dynamic equilibrium, stands the more representative area of the complex, a slightly distorted sphere. In this volume, general and management offices are found as well as investigation areas.
Actually, the offices are built around a light patio, where the structure is developed: a single pillar formed by five metallic masts. The end of these masts is joined with cables to other ten vertical elements which fix the exterior limit of the slabs. Therefore, the whole building remains hanged only from the central pillar. The offices’ façade, covering the external volume and the inner façade of the patio, is a great glass shell. Thus, from the offices, a complete 360º panoramic can be seen.
The glass façade is covered over the sunniest surfaces with a solar protector made of a three-dimensional metallic structure, where a special solar fabric is tightened. This textile façade is capable of reflecting the radiation while allowing a great visual permeability. Thanks to its flexible geometry, the solar protection can be very well adapted to the shape and volume of the building.
During the day, from the outside, the building appears like an opaque volume, which reflects the sky on the northern part, and is profiled as a pointed spherical volume on the southern. From the inside, however, the perception is completely different, since the space has no interruption between interior and exterior.
During the night, all these qualities are inverted. Thanks to light, the sphere turns to be almost like a lighthouse, showing its interior in a complete transparency from every corner of the roads which surround the plot.
Architect: Josep Miàs
Collaborators: MiAS ARCHITECTS [Silvia Brandi (project leader), Carles Bou ( technical advisor) Pablo Varesi, Adriana Porta, Fausto Raposo, Hélène Barbot, Andrés Dejanon, Mario Blanco, Horacio Arias, Anna Mañosa, Janine Woitoshek, Stefania Carboni, Margherita Corbetta, Mannick Eigenheer, Isabelle Glenz, Diogo Henriques, Silvia Lai, Pier Francesco Lisci, Roberta Luna, Francisca Marzotto, Ines Reis, Diego Romero, Emanuela Scano, María Tapias]
Click above for larger image
Consultors: Structures (BOMA, Agustí Obiol and Josep Ramón Solé), systems (PGI Grup, Josep Juliol), construction systems (Dep. Construccions Arquitectòniques UPC, Josep Maria González and Jaume Avellaneda)
Click above for larger image
Type: office building, showroom and logistic warehouse
Completion: 2011
Location: Sant Cugat del Vallès – Barcelona, Spain
Client: Private – iGuzzini Illuminazione España SA
Size: 9.000 m2
Budget:
Was "all of that" really neccesary? Josep, I think that you became "too excited" about the project… I think that you could get the same with 1/2 half…
Buckminster fuller + Frei Otto + 1980s facade style = this
my god that is a lot of look
the 80`s called, they want their building back…
like a evil organization headquarters, of course in a 80's way.
Hmmm… looks OK with all the mesh in place, a tad unfinished otherwise.
wowzers
I "love" people who take the time to anonynously criticize someone's work (actually built work) from seeing some pictures. WHy don't you all clever guys who know so much , show us your work?
Those who can, do, those who can't , troll or teach.
Peace : )
If you make something that manifests itself in the public domain, you MUST expect public scrutiny. The reasoning that the only critique may come from those who are better designers is an almost fascist statement to make. If you can't stand the public critique, get out the public kitchen!
Architects and designers have a huge responsibility. Their designs have a tremendous effect on the lives of many, therefore we should embrace and share all of the criticism we can. Anything under perfect design is unacceptable.
Someone's level of experience in design has no correlation to the value of their opinions. Design is for the people, therefore people should critique it, and designers should listen.
I totally agree with both of you, but one thing is criticism, and a very different thing is half-assed trolling like that first comment from a "manuel", by all means criticize but take the time to understand the project first.
Finally, the idea that this micro-cosmos that a blog post has developed into is anything like the real world, like a consumer criticising a prject in real life is almost ludicrous.
Passr its allright!!!!!
By the way, I have no affiliation with the architects even though it might be difficult to believe, it's just somethimes i am amazed at how easily we criticize in forums under the anonymity of the forums, that's all : D
How much did it cost and how long did it take to construct?