Statement about the Research Content and Process

Description

The Cloud is the new headquarters of Andorra Telecom designed by Miàs Architects in Andorra la Vella. Miàs employed innovative design and construction methods to create a transparent suspended structure, which works in tandem with the building’s immediate urban context while respecting the city’s natural setting. Sustainability in the operation of the building and the harvesting and self-regulation of energy are key to Miàs’s design, which includes inventive climate control and media systems within the building’s envelope.

Questions

1. How can an architectonic landmark be created that respects and enhances both urban and natural environments?

2. What structural systems are required to create a self-suspended building?

3. What technological innovations can be developed to allow for a highly sustainable building?

4. How can the building’s use be maximised for both the client and the wider public, and help revitalise the city centre?

Methodology

1. Determine innovative design strategies based on extensive historical and practical research relating to lightweight structure systems, tensegrities and suspended structures;

2. Digital design and iterative model making to optimise and research the structural system;

3. Develop specific computer software to research the double-curved glass façade;

4. Develop and integrate a highly sustainable energy system for the building and its programme.

Dissemination

The Cloud has been widely discussed in both print and online, in national (Diari d’Andorra) and international publications (ArchDaily), including articles relating to the solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The project has been presented in two further exhibitions in Andorra and ten international lectures, including at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona.

Project Highlights

The Cloud is the winning scheme of the open international architectural competition for the design of Andorra Telecom’s headquarters, organised in 2014 by the company and Govern d’Andorra. Andorra Telecom is a company of national importance as it exclusively provides universal public telecommunication services to Andorra.

This project’s research significance lies in the sustained efforts of Miàs and his collaborators, who during a six-year period developed structural and environmental innovations for materialising a nearly zeroenergy building, set to be an important technological landmark in Andorra. Specifically, Miàs’ research into structural models led to an inventive architecture that frees up public space on a narrow city centre plot by suspending the majority of the building above ground. The organic rounded shape of the building is based on innovative façade engineering, where a double-curved glass façade acts as a climatic cushion, enhancing the building’s energy supply and distribution, and is also a communication screen for the city.

Five models of The Cloud are now part of the Permanent Collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

6 (overleaf) Visualisation of The Cloud’s atrium.