Circular office building

Abstract

This building has a very particular shape, as a result of the following ideas, which conditioned the initial project: — It was sought to integrate the whole staff within a single zone to give them a closer mutual relationship. — Seek to avoid the classical design, of broken up spaces, with many internal partitions, corridors and doors. — The building to operate as a control tower over the general activity of the whole works. — On the ground level, to have an additional free space for the storage of beet, during the harvesting period. In general terms the building consists of a circular stem, of reinforced concrete, housing the lift and stairs. Around it the office flooring structure is cantilevered, from this single support. The building is completed with a truncated cone roof, which houses, on two floor levels, the records rooms. The most important problems were the construction of the flooring reinforcement work and the formwork for the external surfaces. The first difficulty was overcome by means of four double girders, placed orthogonally, in couples, supported on the stem periphery; whilst the second was solved by using plywood on transversal and radial framework.