Azahar Headquarters

Carlos Ferrater and Nùria Ayala

Only the colour sets the architecture apart from the landscape, but the Azahar Headquarters are a real piece of mountain, of rock that sticks out just a short distance from the peaks of the Montes Universales. The floors are in Pietra Forte Fiorentina, so rock upon rock. The building is designed in an “H” shape, and in one of the two artificial patios the ground is completely paved. The laying creates an ordered geometry surrounded by an organic perimeter. The rectangular slabs, laid to run north-south and to rise to the midpoint, are equipped with luminous inserts at the centre of some of the slabs, which are arranged to repeat regularly. The floor surface is grey and homogeneous. The joints are filled with fixing mortar and are level with the slabs internally and deeper externally. But in the other of the two patios nature has kept some space for itself. On the pavement opposite the work area, the stone is laid at right-angles to the perimeter glass.