The Solutia World of Color Awards™ | Inspired by Vanceva®

Architects: Ábalos & Herreros, Casariega / Guerra
Rolling-Mill: Cricursa

The isthmus that joins the tiny peninsula of La Isleta to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, has taken on a new stance on color. Ferrovial Inmobiliaria, the project sponsor, offered to create a highly individual area for the island with the Woermann Tower. The tower looks across the city and the city looks towards the tower, hence it was necessary to create a building that would attract the gaze, with a high degree of originality; but at the same time its symbolic location also would demand that the project must fit in well with its surroundings. This goal has been achieved by virtue of its height, sinuous shapes and the yellow that illuminates its picture windows.

To bring the idea to reality, the Ábalos & Herreros architecture study team which worked on this project in collaboration with Canadian architects Joaquín Casariego and Elsa Guerra, decided to make use of laminated greenish-yellow glass windows, on the advice of Cricursa, so that the views from inside took on the greatest possible prominence, turning the tower into a “natural vantage point”, as its creators like to call it.

In order to give a more naturalistic appearance to the facade, the picture windows were also covered with serigraphies representing naturalistic ideas: “we would like to make a connection between the landscape and homes, and give life to the façade as being something not entirely passive”, the architects explained.

The use of laminated glass in this project was required when dealing with a tall building. In practical terms, the choice of Vanceva^® adds the qualities of the interlayers’ good adhesion and resistance to breakage and cracking to the benefits of traditional laminated glass, which helps improve security and safety of the property and of people. In addition, the wide range of colours and shades ensured that it would be easy to find just the colour the designers wanted.

The end-result is an imposing building designed to accommodate everything from homes to offices, a library, municipal information centre and a car-park. In all, the project comprises a residential towerblock 60 metres high with 14 floors. Inside, we find homes of various sizes, complemented by business premises, running up and down, private offices of the local authority and the library already mentioned.  As it could hardly be otherwise, the homes are distinguished by an innovative style of design of highest quality, featuring a home-automation and home-management system.

True to the usual Ábalos & Herreros style, it was decided to opt for ceilings at a generous height – 4 metres, almost double the usual height – in homes overlooking the sea and city, using the Vanceva^® colour. “Woermann Tower is a virtual forest, from which one can enjoy the pleasures of living immersed in a diverse landscape”, its creators observe poetically. The building is part of the Woermann project, which is complemented by a lovely square below, finished in Portuguese stonework, open towards the sea and closed off at the sides by two buildings.

In short, for the architects “Woermann Tower seeks to embody the illusions, desires and fantasies of a society that seeks to achieve an accommodation between naturalism and development, an intense way of life yet faithful to the landscape”.

Architect: Ángel Luis Lorenzo
Window Manufacturer: Ariño-Duglass

Right at the heart of Guadalajara, “La Casa de Mamá” brings a touch of colour to the city’s landscape. When viewed at a distance, it’s a gigantic cube of brilliant shades reflecting the sunlight.  However, once inside we get a sensation of walking through rooms in which everything is a blaze of colour, yet also transparent, as the light penetrates into the building, filtered through the Vanceva^® glass sheets: a complete multi-coloured prism, which can leave no-one cold. Parents are astonished by the innovative, mould-breaking aesthetic, in a rather traditional setting, and children – at whom the project is primarily aimed– are delighted at being able to play and amuse themselves is such an unusual environment.

The dream of its designer, Ángel Luis Lorenzo, became reality thanks to Vanceva^® colour interlayers: “The building’s intrinsic architectural design implied using colour, she explained.   It involved building a transparent ‘box’ using colour as a resource, so that it would be instantly recognizable for children and suitable for its intended use”. Six Vanceva^® shades were chosen to give the project its distinctive character: blue, green, red, pink, yellow and orange.

The façade comprises various vertical and horizontal modules, in which fortuitous patterns in the colours used are blended together, creating an impression of ‘organized chaos’, perfectly encapsulating the child’s outlook. “We were seeking the right balance to make the most of the glazing, both financially and having regard to its position. In this way, we succeed in getting a façade that is neutral, abstract, in the style of a mosaic of colour”, notes Lorenzo.