This headquarters building for IBM in Mexico City is a nine-story structure with
five stories and four sub-levels of parking. A central lobby with main stairs, elevators
and general building services, divides the 365' long building into two areas.
The inner space is confined by two large facades, separated by a clear
internal width of 56'. The long exterior facades build up a reinforced concrete grid of
4', providing sun protection and acting as a carrying device for the structure. The whole
edification is built tip of site-cast conventionally reinforced concrete with no further
finishing. Several types of formwork optimized the construction process and provided
distinct architectural finishes for specific building elements.
Site considerations affected the structural engineering of this
edifice in two ways:
• The
foundation system employs two different techniques. Isolated column footings are used
above the solid soil in the stable areas of the site. In areas where loose filling
materials were placed to fill in a small lake, reinforced concrete piles were used to
reach solid ground.
• Seismic
conditions resulted in the use of shear walls along its entire height and located in the
center and in both ends of the edification following the two directions of the building.
The shear walls receive practically the entire seismic impact discharging these forces
down to the foundation. These loads are conducted to the walls by a horizontal diaphragm
which is the reinforced concrete slab that constitutes the floor system.
The absence of any additional finishing and the
rational order of the concrete elements, resulted in low cost construction and a long term
savings in the life cycle cost maintenance. Diverse textures within the same material on
the exterior facades enriched the architectural expression of the building in the strong
sunlight found in the area. |
