Year: 2018
Site Area: 115,000 sqm
Photograper: Tushar Naik
The design concept was to create an iconic headquarter capable of binding tightly with the Brand Identity of Axiom Telecom, a leading telecommunication company in the United Arab Emirates.
Axiom Telecom Headquarter is the result of the work carried out on four fundamental assumptions and their relationships: Icon and Green Building, City, Garden and Technology. To the guidelines recommended by the client were added: Impact, Presence, Recognisability and Synesthesia. The design process rotates entirely on these concepts, giving life to a massive - but at the same time suspended and balanced - building. Cement, black glass, corten, these are the three fundamental materials that have made possible to shape a "stone that comes from far away", a visual and iconic landmark in an area of high technological density.
Axiom is a reflection on technology and on what it represents for mankind; it is the fire of Prometheus, it is the monolith that has come from a remote time.
The architectural system follows the ground topography, giving birth to a building raised to protect the main garden, a green heart designed as a plot, a pattern that, without solution of continuity, develops in equal measure both indoor and outdoor creating point of views that become themselves an integral part of the perspective lines, at the same time, give life to multifunctional spaces, where public and private intertwine without ever stopping each other and becoming confused.
The impact of the building with the ground generates a situation in which the building is deliberately at a lower level than the entrance ones, in order to animate in the user a specific sense of attraction. The concrete shell is, from a scenographic point of view, a "shield" capable of filtering natural light and, at the same time, give life to a massive and compact overall view in which you can enter through the "splits".
The "stone" fragments are visually connected by a corten cover; this is the sum of many-faceted elements that create a "restless" shape that wraps and involves the whole project becoming a distinctive sign. The impressive "sculpture" then becomes the link that binds the exterior and interior, turning into scene and subject as in the area of the Town Center. This area welcomes public functions and, as in a public square, the private dimension and the public dimension coexist together.
In the spaces of the Lounge Bar and Sitting, the green areas are juxtaposed to the built environment creating an atmosphere closer to the user, able to prepare and provide a new way of living public spaces, encouraging interaction and arousing wellbeing in staying inside. The internal walkways are imagined as lanes that intersect the different buildings; they are in fact the metonymy of the entire building, representing "clusters" designed to accommodate the various functions. Everything is connected by the large black windows that merge with the buildings and appear as dark markings between the "shield splits". The internal facades of the offices are designed as an urban agglomeration made up of a multitude of diversified inserts. Internally there's a continuous balance between operational functions and relational spaces, a new way of living the office environment where collaboration between individuals is one of the main focal points of the project.
The working plan is developed with a basement floor and three levels above ground; the height of each floor is 4.20m for a total height of 12.8m. The main structure of the building is achieved through the use of pillars, beams and exposed truss beams, which support slabs in corrugated sheet and concrete. The internal partitions are made with concrete panels, boards and concrete fibre panels.
The large curtain walls connect the different areas of the project and are realized through a supporting structure inside the building, leaving the external surface in continuous and uninterrupted dark glass. The external corten roof, as described above, is made of triangular panels fixed to a hidden steel substructure. The metal structure of the buildings continues outside, becoming the frame of the "building' shield", covered with cement fibre panels that give the shape, the materiality and the strength that we tried to give to the project. During the design of the building, all the specifications, the processes and the choice of materials were considered to obtain the Leed energy certification.
The general plan is divided into three main blocks with different functions: a main area dedicated to aggregation (restaurant, lounge bar, gym, spa, conference room), a central area dedicated to operational and managerial activity, and finally the area assigned to the production and logistic activities, which is perfectly integrated with the rest of the building. The three zones are connected through internal and external pedestrian paths; the two raised floors, especially, are connected each other through a network of metal stairs and bridges, while part of the top floor has been designed as a large open space that becomes a hanging garden, a walkway and a terrace on the Main Garden.
The main garden, as well as the interior, is made up of a mix of low and tall trees, stone and wood surfaces, water mirrors and lights that create continuity between outside and inside, characterizing the workspace that becomes smart and at human scale.
Axiom Town then becomes a journey through a visionary city suspended between industrial restoration and green, in a constant balance between public and private space.
