TELEFÓNICA BUILDING REHABILITATION 

Rehabilitation and expansion of the old Telefónica Headquarters for offices and dwellings

Location: León, Spain

Client: Carriegos

State: Competition. Second Prize

Year: 2005

Starting criteria: The proposal seeks to give a unitary response to the rehabilitation and conservation of the existing building by Cárdenas y de la Vega (1939) and its extension by Vega Samper and Gayo (1949), as well as the integration of the new volumetry proposal. Looking for the greatest dialogue between both pieces, without giving up the contemporaneity of the new piece. In addition, the proposal pursues in a special way the interior evaluation of the new spaces created.

Intervention: Based on the existing regulations, which derive from the agreement signed under this competition, and taking into account the location of the building within the urban fabric, a clear solution has been chosen that values and enhances the presence of the original building. In this way, the new intervention appears as a unitary gesture, avoiding, at least visually, the proposed double setback, which would become perceptible, given that the building is located at a crossroads, where the visual openings are greater. For this, it has been chosen to provide a 1.40 m high breastplate continuation of the face of the first setback so that a single volume appears visually, which dematerializes given the visual permeability of the proposed finish; made up of perforated aluminum panels, many of them openable, as shutters that open onto the houses on the top two floors.