Description

Pioneer, a company that produces and sells seeds, decided in 1996 to erect a new administration building on their premises in Paine, some 55 kilometres south of Santiago, Chile. As the comparatively small building mass cannot compete against the size of the adjacent production facilities, Enrique Browne took the opposite tack. His design strategy is based on a fusion of landscape and architecture. In the midst of a conglomeration of utilitarian factories, an introverted, almost contemplative workspace for forty employees came into being. It creates an unexpected contrast in its industrial context.

Set in a landscaped park, a softly rounded green earthwork rises at the southern perimeter of the production plant site. The building, consisting of two parallel office wings, is embedded in this, making it almost invisible to passersby. Only the centrally positioned garden evolves as a cleft, opening to the west.

The office is organised in zones corresponding to the linear form of the building. In an open office area, a single row of workplaces was arranged along each of the external retaining walls. By contrast, meeting rooms and private offices profit from a direct connection to the garden. The lounge – an unusually high-ceilinged common room lighted from above – connects the two office wings. For the staff, the room creates a link to the garden and to the landscape adjoining it. The shallow vaulted ceiling of glued laminated timber beams takes up the soft wave of the retaining wall and continues it not only over the offices but also beyond them, as an open structure in the garden area. The rustic retaining walls constructed of rough, uncut stone generate a comfortably cool, almost cave-like ambience that is further intensified by the daylight entering from above. The light is diffused by lightweight interior walls of matt white translucent glass. The light textures of the roof timbers and the panelling contrast with that of the cool retaining walls.

The earthwork also plays an important part in the design of the climate control system that Enrique Browne developed. The thermal mass of the surrounding earth and of the building itself, the solar control glazing and the generous natural shade aid in temperature regulation. By this means, the building can be entirely naturally ventilated in spite of the subtropical climate.

Enrique Browne’s building represents a vivid translation of the reciprocal relationship between earth and seed. For the staff, the house, as part of the landscape, distances them from the seed production plant and at the same time creates a new connection to their own product.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.