Alphaville corporative complex
BARUERI – SÃO PAULO
Post-pandemic architecture and work spaces
The covid-19 crisis brought about new reflections about work environmens. These new paradigms have mainly impacted the resumption of presential work activities in Brazil and internationally. Research shows that 75% of Brazilians prefer to continuing to work remote with the option of choosing the frequency of in-person days. This phenomenon points to some current problems in work spaces, such as: static work place aesthetics, unattractive environments, lack of program diversity, lack of integration with nature and areas for decompression, buildings that are unsustainable and hardly adaptable to current market demands.
Based on this scenario, joint with the opportunity to participate in a project within a corporative context in an Alphaville site – Barueri, a re-definition of work spaces in proposed, taking into account central theme such as: flexibility, diversity, complexity, sustainability and economic incentive. To cover all these factors, a design methodology in proposed that aims to defines the project as adaptable to its context rather than a static final product. This design methodology takes into account constructive, urban, environmental and structural parameters and can easily be applied in different contexts. As a practical example of implementation, this methodology is applied to a site measuring 260m x 90m along the Avenida Tocantins y la Avenida Xingu.
This design methodology involves three scales of action: The Urban Scale (in the example, named scale of the complex), that seeks to generate volumes that adjust themselves to the urban and environmental parameters by way of generative design. The Module Scale, which consists of a catalogue of different programs and spaces such as: work spaces of varying distributions, event spaces, cultural spaces and areas of flow and connection to nature. Finally, the Building Scale, which links the module diversity with urban demand in addition to the technical systems necessary for a building.
Inspired by the natural process of species optimization through contextual inputs, the design process also aims at the synthesis of various complex environmental and constructive parameters. In this way, genetic algorisms a simulation was used to determine a volumetric approximation of the urban scale best optimized for the study context, taking into account local conditions.
This simulation used the Wallaceix plugin and used the following generators and parameters: the definition of internal routes in the project, the definition of public and private spaces using the resolution of the structural system, the volumetric extrusion with a height variation of 4 to 6 floors with the objective of horizontal densification and the creation of paths that delimit a semi-public route between the buildings. The following selection criteria for the simulation were considered: maximum number of buildings in the site, minimum relative distance of areas between buildings, maximum building coefficient, maximum building porosity between the buildings that allow for natural ventilation and minimal shadows on ground level to bring sun exposure to green areas. The simulation executed a total of 2000 solutions organized into 10 individuals per generation and 200 analysis generations in total.
Based on this simulation, it was possible to extract a number of generated volumes for a more subjective and aesthetic analysis of the project, which can indicate that the solution could be even further detailed. In summary, the design methodology and simulation tool permit a greater variability of design alternatives that adapt to different contexts, which represent optimized and flexible solutions for actual demands of work spaces.
