Madrid based studio Herreros Arquitectos designed Headquarters and satellite control center for Hispasat – Spanish company in charge of managing communication satellites. The project is a renovation of an old building from the 1970’s and the architects had to deal with the complicated issue of overcoming the gaps in use and operation of an existing structure and the specific and demanding requirements of the new one, as well as to solve the internal problems of radiation and illumination, generated by the old façade.

The building had to be re-designed for the headquarters and that demanded re-use of the space and re-distribution of the operational areas, district offices as well as its institutional zones. The architects resolved the issue by using th glass screens which vary in opacity, colors and designs and the diversity creates a new artificial landscape of outer space, which is rendered differently from every zone.

The new façade is key element of the design – lace-like second skin wraps the old circular-plan building, providing completely new and different kind of aesthetics. Its geometry is subtle – the façade consists of modules of 5mm sheet-aluminum paneling whose perforations vary in density depending to the degree of lighting needs as well as the internal comfort of the user and inevitable energy dissipation, in relation to heat gains and radiation. The metallic shades in the new skin are adaptable and react to atmospheric changes and especially to the different sunsets that occur in this vast and open area of Arganda del Rey where the control center is located.