Our vision of the future of office spaces is embodied in this project where the quality of life and the natural comfort of its users prevail, reducing the impact on the environment as much as possible, instead of focusing on technology as the only or main element from a job site.
Project Name: Casa Carazo
Studio Name: Carazo Arquitectura
Programmatically, the office is designed to adapt to the requirements of the future, which vary more and more rapidly. The space can be configured according to your needs, based on its open plan and the composition of elements that suggest different uses, such as the grandstand, which transforms the office into a stage for artistic expression, audiovisual projection or a training auditorium and theoretical discussion.
Biophilic design, that is to say: the design that seeks “the innate emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” (Edward O Wilson) ensures that people can be in direct contact with nature, perceiving with all their senses. This is achieved through the implementation of its layer system: in an immediate layer are the plants that coexist in each of the work spaces and are maintained thanks to ventilation and natural lighting; the second layer is made up of the internal vertical garden. The third layer fosters the relationship between interior space and the central and rear gardens, with large windows. The final layer is made up of the vegetal skin of the building’s roof, which is a landscaped roof with plants and trees that absorb heat, capture carbon and release oxygen.
In our Casa Carazo project the building is designed to reduce the environmental footprint by using a series of strategies such as natural cross ventilation, reduction of heat absorption through the green roof, natural indirect lighting and the absorbent materiality of carbon dioxide. Similarly, an old 90-year-old house was reused and restored in downtown San José.
Through the implementation of these techniques, we managed to generate an improvement of 47% compared to the base case. At the same time, we managed to increase the green area of the project by 318% with respect to the vegetation that previously existed on the land, water consumption was reduced by 21%, energy expenditure by 47% and we obtained a reduction of 64% in the energy incorporated in the materials used. Likewise, it was possible to reduce the CO2 emission by 7.8 tons per year, which translates into 70% savings in relation to a base case. Giving us the certificate for sustainable construction Edge in its Edge Advanced modality, the highest award from this certification.
At the perceptual and visual level, the vegetal component of each layer is complemented by a materiality that is expressed with authenticity and sobriety. On a sensitive level, the comfortable feeling of naturally regulated temperature adds to the natural lighting effect. These projects generate unpublished spaces, with a different integration of nature in the city in a symbiotic way. All of them together articulate a single vision, the way we visualize what the future should be like.
