Half Dose #50: Concurso Fiscalia

Here's a project that looks pretty straightforward at first...

[model exterior | image source] 

 ...but which reveals itself to be more than a platonic solid. 

[model cutaway | image source] 

The large public office building designed for the periphery of Madrid is like a city within a cylinder. Orthogonal blocks sit within a ring, in the process creating a complex solid-void composition, dramatic from above and below.

[model view down and up | image source] What looks like it could have sprung from OMA is in fact the product of Productora, a Mexico City-based office formed only two years ago. But an OMA connection does exist, as each of the four heads at Productora worked with Fernando Romero, previously a partner at OMA. Six degrees of separation? How about two?

[development of design | image source] Regardless of the typology-bending design's similarity to Mr. Koolhaas's way of approaching architecture and the city, the project can be seen as a response to the dry and warm climate of Madrid, with plenty of shade but also plenty of natural ventilation via the interaction of cylindrical perimeter and central void.

[floor plans | image source] The inside-outside dichotomy also seems appropriate for Madrid's periphery, a place in the making. This project is a place within that place, an object in the urban landscape with its own internal urban landscape.

[model views | image source]