SKEN

This administrative building A17 is planned to stand in the city of Banská Bystrica, on a small site in the existing industrial area on Zvolenská street 17. The building site is located right next to the road, and considering the urban plan it may have maximum five storeys. The intention is to build enough parking places right on the site and using the existence of roads for access and entrance. The ground floor will contain shop, other floors will be used as versatile office spaces, easily adjusted to the needs of tenants . . .

The area where this site is located is a typical city periphery that consists of older and new-built industrial areas and office buildings. The advantage of this location is its access to the main highway leading to the city of Banská Bystrica. This relation will provide very good transport possibilities between the cities as well as marketing visibility. New building A17 can benefit as well from being surrounded by the existing industrial area, where it can use the existing roads and entrances, and the road structure does not have to be changed. As a small disadvantage of this site, considering the foundation of the building, it seems to be its height of primary terrain. However, in our design, we are using it to divide and differ the entrance to the shop and to the office part of the building. This dividing will use vertical cores and both functions can than work separately. The office building will have five storeys, this we count from the higher part of the site, where the main entrance to the building is situated. On that part of the site, where is existing car showroom and new industrial halls will be build, the entrance will be partly under ground with access to the vertical communication core.

Design of the new building is based on few factors given by the locality and the assignment. They are; (1) the shape and the area of the site, (2) the orientation of the site and possibilities of entry and parking, (3) the paths of the utility lines (4) the views from the higher floors of the building to the and the city center, (5) the variability and adaptivity of the interiors for rent, (6) the investment optimization by using a simple and modular structure and minimization of service space. Other factors like the urban plan and the technical standards are as well applied in the design.

By evaluation of pros and cons of all factors, we designed a building with strongly rectangular floorplan which shorter walls are oriented on the south and the north. The north facade is oriented to the street, it is the entering facade that will become a "display" of the whole building. On this facade is placed as well a big glass wall of the shop. The main office space is oriented to the north side, because interiors are being less overheated by the sun on this facade. Large facades, on the east and on the west, provide enough sunlight to the offices and allow a simple microclimatic regulation by having separate utility branches on the east and on the west side. On the south, easier overheated side, we oriented a large communication core with a lift and sanitary facilities. This will prevent overheating of the building and the path of the light will create an attractive shadow play passing by narrow windows.

The architectural look of the building is in relation with its function, that is projected to a universal grid of the facade. The openings create an important composition, which look is based on a relation between the space of large windows and filled facade. Seeing that the facade is very simple, the quality of materials, windows, shutters and other building details becomes very important. In the interiors we will apply a typical material scheme used in buildings of the same character, again, the detail and the quality of materials will be the key. Important element of exterior is a system of fencing with an automated sliding gate and integrated support wall that creates inseparable composition with the street facade and as well space for a company shield with the name Area 17.

Authors: Braňo Hovorka, Martin Paulíny, Marek Peťovský
Location: Banská Bystrica, Zvolenská cesta 17
Design: 2018