Durango Residential Tower

Location: Durango, Spain

Client:  Euskotren

Date:  2004 Competition

Area:  11,600m2 (93 Units)

Budget: €7.2 million

Team credits:

FOA Partner in charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Project Architect: David Casino

Team: David Casino, Leo Gallegos, Fernando Frutos, Johannes Muecke, Pablo Ros

Structural engineer: Boma SL

Services Engineer: PGI Group

Quality surveyors: J/T Ardevol I Associats SL

The Durango Residential Tower was to be located in a new residential complex to be built on a former train depot on the outskirts of the new Durango railway station, as part of a large urban regeneration plan. The building included a total gross floor area of 11,600m2 of residential use, distributed over 18 floors.

Our proposal attempts to simultaneously produce the maximum slenderness of the massing and the minimum blockage of the extraordinary views surrounding the site, while providing the best possible views and orientation for the units within. The optimal footprint of the tower is conceived as a hybrid between a circular plan – which minimises visual impact and maximises slenderness – and a triangular plan pointed towards the South – which maximises orientation and views towards the future park. The structure of the tower allows for the occupation of the floors by units of different sizes, with wet areas located in the centre of the plan. Depending on the number of units and their size, the tower could host between 72 up to 120 units.

Every floor can be occupied by a combinatory of different units which will produce a large variety of possible distributions. Our proposal is to enforce the variation of sizes within every plan and the asymmetry of the organisation in order to enhance the effect of variation in the façade, since terraces will be distributed in respect to the floor plans. The façade of the building is specified with floor to floor, openable wooden louver panels that will enable the residents to control the level of sun protection, views and privacy. The differentiated and asymmetrical pattern of terraces, and the additional differentiation in the appearance of the tower derived from the use patterns of the louvers, will produce a monolithic, yet differentiated image.