Campus Iberdrola / ABAA Arquitectura

Text description provided by the architects. Flexibility as a key motto. The project for the new Iberdrola Campus, located in San Agustín de Guadalix (Madrid), is based on flexibility as its key motto and is committed to a public, sustainable and open character as its basic compositional tenets. A large outdoor area known as La Plaza acts as a hub around which the various programmatic buildings are arranged, all covered by a large undulating canopy that protects and shelters them from the weather and provides the complex with the formal and conceptual integrity it requires. Its simple layout, together with separate entrances on two levels – for vehicles and pedestrians – facilitates and enables the categorisation of entrances according to the degree of security required. The decision was made in the buildings to externalise all their communication cores, whether they are for the flow of people, installations or wet cores. This provides flexibility for any future changes of use as well as great simplicity when it comes to the interior layout of the buildings, in addition to sustainability based on minimising and adapting the façade surfaces according to their orientations – thermal constant inside the buildings – and favouring proper natural cross ventilation.

By adapting to the existing topography and minimising any possible earthworks or excavations, the architecture of Iberdrola Campus has been viewed as a puzzle or mechanical model whose components of communication, services and installations are versatile and can always be freely accessed from outside the building. When it comes to environmental and landscape quality, the existing landscaping has been preserved and enhanced by retaining current species and their subsequent expansion, capping off the project with a roofing element that integrates the complex into its surroundings and enhances the bioclimatic installation elements. The pergola imbues the complex with a suitably required urban scale, given that it can be seen from the nearby motorway. Photovoltaic and thermal elements not only provide shade for campus users, but also provide clean energy for the complex.

An auditorium completes this comprehensive list, with a range of possibilities of natural lighting by means of large movable façade panels. The car parks are completely open and yet covered, leading to energy efficiency and the pleasant sensation of natural lighting and ventilation. This enhances the quality and warmth of the public space and reinforces the company’s public ethical image, thereby creating a veritable city within a city.