Architecture Classics: IBM Building / Mario Roberto Álvarez & Associates
Architecture Classics: IBM Building / Mario Roberto Álvarez & Associates
Located in the Retiro district of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is the IBM building designed by Mario Roberto Álvarez & Associates. Conceived to house the headquarters of the IBM company, this office building was designed around 1979 and consists of a tower supported by two large concrete structural cores on a base, which is separated from the ground and the shaft of the tower to house the ground floor and a level of common areas in order to maintain the urban scale. The language of the building is recognizable from a distance as it is formed by an enclosure of horizontal bands of glass and exposed concrete parapets-parasols, which achieve a dialogue and balance in the proportion of full and empty spaces.
Inaugurated around 1983, the project was designed on the basis of a series of premises that involved the contemplation of all the restrictions of the building codes. This included things like the use of the maximum usable floor area, the use of a free floor plan with a clear and simple reinforced concrete structure free of interior columns, and the optimization of the maximum perimeter of natural lighting. Also, attention to the pedestrian scale and the hierarchy of accesses on the ground floor, the modulation of façades and ceilings for a greater number of offices and flexibility, compliance with the client’s safety regulations, and the integral solution to the problem of façade maintenance together with the escape to the external staircase.
Memoir by the authors. The work configures a contemporary, functional, efficient, and economical building, which, without being an extravagance, is different from its neighbors. A building that is the product of interpreting and complying with the client’s criteria, objectives, and concepts, compatible with its neighbors, but different from the surrounding glass boxes in Catalinas Norte.
Architectural and engineering considerations resulted in the proposed structural skeleton, which proved to be the most practical and economical. The standard plan is supported by two central cores and a series of perimeter columns, with a module of 1.50 meters. The two central cores rest on direct foundations and the perimeter columns do not reach the ground but transfer their load to the cores by means of a special structural system.
This transition structure basically consists of two plates, a lower and an upper plate. The lower plate rises from the cores towards the sloping edge and intercepts the upper plate, which is horizontal in line with the columns. In this way, the load of the perimeter columns is gently deflected towards the cores by means of a logical and economic structure. This structure overhangs the line of the columns, distributing their loads and creating a space for anchoring the concrete bars. The necessary stability and support of vertical and asymmetrical loads is provided by a beam grid.
This modulated design of the structure allows for maximum flexibility in the floorplans to locate offices according to IBM’s optimum and to have two minimum office ranges of 3m and a 1.50m corridor. A perimeter overhang with sunshades will provide security and also serve as a means of escape to an additional external fire escape.
The typical window is made of anodized aluminum with athermic upper glass, while the sill is a compact vitreous glass painted and baked on the outside. Every other window is an opening banner for ventilation in case of emergency so that no office of at least 3×3 is without ventilation. On each of the facades, one of these modules opens from floor to ceiling to allow access to the escape staircase.
On the other side, on the first floor, there is a terrace, garden, and living area for different functions related to the offices, which go from the 3rd floor to the 19th floor, leaving the top floor for the machine room. Two of the three basements are developed for parking, while the remaining one houses connections and various computer circuits.
Technical S[ecifications
Project: MRA+A | Mario Roberto Álvarez & Associates
Alvarez, Kopiloff, Santoro, Satow, Rivanera
Location: Carlos M. de la Paolera 275, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Client: IBM
Year: 1979-1983
Land Surface: 2.736 m²
Total Built Surface Area: 32.000 m²
