Green building shines silver and gold

Located in the 22@ district of Barcelona, the Luxa building has been designed by Batlle i Roig Arquitectura to reflect the city’s modern and vibrant place on the world stage, comprising twin towers embellished with silver and gold Wictec curtain walling, as well as other systems from the Wicona range.

The Luxa building consists of two adjacent but independently functioning blocks; linked by a shared podium where the entrances connect. The silver coloured building is occupied by Amazon while the gold building is home to a coworking space operated by American commercial real estate giant WeWork.

Designed by facade designer Moyser, the elevations to both the nine-storey structures are fabricated using Wicona’s Wictec 50EL SG modular facade to create extensive glazed areas, which were specified to provide solar protection through silk screen printing, showing a series of attractive, reflective vertical strips. These enable full visibility as well as improved comfort for those inside.

The Wictec EL SG modules were prefabricated in the factory, which helped facilitate speed of installation and thereby ensuring the project’s demanding program deadlines could be achieved.

The building with the silver facade has an elevation area of almost 10,000m2, while the 6,500m2 of gold facade fronts the second tower.

Wicstyle 65 evo glass doors were chosen for the entrances, their concealed hinges permitting discreet integration into the facade, adding to the monolithic, fully glazed appearance of the structures.

A senior architect from Batlle i Roig Arquitectura said: “All the materials selected are of the best quality, which gives the building an extremely high standard of comfort and performance, creating a modern atmosphere and high energy efficiency, allowing us to obtain the LEED Gold certification.”

Additionally, the Wicona curtain wall system specified for the project has been awarded the C2C Silver Certificate, confirming the product’s sustainability credentials.

The ‘cradle to grave’ assessment takes into consideration how a product is designed, what it consists of and how it will be disposed of at the end of its useful working life. As a means of guidance for specifiers and designers, there are five certification levels (from basic to platinum), each one demanding compliance under the criteria of material lifespan, material re-use, use of renewable energy, carbon management and water stewardship, as well as social equity and biodiversity.