Venetian blinds in Nexus II building UPC, by Bofill [088]
Nexus II, located on the north campus of the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) in Barcelona, is an office building dedicated to cooperation and technology sharing between the university and firms. The square ground plan, conceived to foster highly flexible use of the interiors, is divided into four mutually independent 18 x 18-m spaces. Two large shade-providing ailerons accentuate the horizontal effect of the composition.
The transparent double-glazed façades insulate and soundproof the interior while allowing light to penetrate and providing views. The Venetian blind acts as sun protection, but also protects from external views. The hot air in air space ventilates through spaces between exterior glasses.
Taking into account the results of some studies, this building is not so efficient. Firstly, it is doubtable that the same projecting is useful in all orientation. Also, the air space ventilates too much to be considered in thermal insulation. But, even if in this case it doesn’t completely work, we can take the idea of duplicating the glazing, and using this internal air space for thermal conditioning or intermediate space.
