As architects, but also as researchers of architecture that we are, the equation of formal and technical solutions, was related to the analysis and prior investigation of the following aspects:

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• The historical fabric where it is inserted;

• The emblematic building with which it dialogues, the B.N.A;

• The diversity of architectural languages ​​throughout the downtown area;

• The heights of the adjacent buildings;

• The fundamental equation of the ways to rethink the new architectural interventions and the new proposals and technical solutions that can adequately respond to the urban development of a city like Luanda.

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The building was thought as three units of diverse formal languages ​​that made a gradient of languages ​​between the current Bank building and the Finance building.

Body A, the new architectural body, closer to the Bank (separated by the access road), was designed with a classic language, but not mimetic, discreet, to let the emblematic piece that is the Bank shine and not impose itself on it . Betrothed sober, with a double skin that hides a contemporanity that comes from inside and will affirm in Body B.

Body B, which rises from within Body A and forms the side of the block, is going to be a building with a formal language very symbolic of our independent identity - it has the form of a wing that suggests our freedom and whose fenestrations have an explicit reference to the Kuba drawings of northern Angola.

The Body C is a body of contemporary language, transparent and metallic, which allows this Body B to breathe, lets this body of strong national identity flourish and also lets you read the Finance building, respecting this historic building.

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Basement

The use of an arcade that creates a foundation along the three new bodies and ensures continuity that corresponds to reading and living by the citizen at street level. This is a living reference of Luanda and is associated with the headquarters building of the National Bank of Angola.

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The Urban Face

From the strictly urban point of view, the architectural piece intends to value the place and make it a public reference, proposing a set of buildings that, as a whole, integrate the typically urban functional valences: institutional and financial (Body A), the professional (Body B) and the cultural and the public (Body C). The bodies that finish the corner respect the exterior scale, as continuity of the physical support that is the history of the city.

 

The Inner Face

These buildings live in a square, semi-private, that articulates all the different experiences marked by a uniqueness of contemporary design as the scenario of the Historic Building. The interior architectural bodies have the scale of a center of a metropolitan city. Thus the semi-private square will have a catalytic role in promoting the institutional/business /cultural meeting. Therefrom the character of open space and aggregator of the three bodies to be built.

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Diversity of Proposed Spaces

Following the program, it proposes a diversity in terms of areas and quality of spaces. The spaces of public use, large functional distribution halls, are the spine columns designed with a plasticity that defines the character of each of these three bodies. Due to the more institutional and high security nature, body A is more closed about itself, except for the council and meeting room, whose visual perspective is the dome of the Historical Building of the B.N.A.

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The offices in body B are of generous dimensions and supported by service, technical and safety areas that allow employees comfort and internal organization suited to their specific needs.

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Preference was given to the conception of more generous social areas and the possibility of these areas enjoying a more privileged view of the interior of the block, in other words have as scenery the historic building, as well as the institution's character, to guarantee protection and control of all the accesses, experiences and circulations.

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In the body C, the social and cultural body, the formal proposal suggestes a set of interlocking volumes, creating a dynamic image in a composition of colors and textures that accentuate the full and empty. The spaces are interconnected by passages, transition zones of living and gardens, whose presence participates in a significant way in reading and living of the proposed spaces. On the top floor was taken advantage of the upper bound on the roofs of the finance building and thus enjoy the panoramic view over the bay of Luanda. Of restricted use to senior staff and their guests, recessed against the facades and with terraces all around.