The program demanded that I integrate in one single building a luxury car sales center as well as a financial consulting firm’s offices. The concept was to build three terraces: one in the corner facing the highway, for the auto exhibition hall; another in the back section of the property, for the financial consultants; and the third, to provide access.

The auto sales locale was conceived as a light pipe structure covered in glass walls to ensure transparency from the highway. Both mezzanines for showcasing accessories are a half-story higher than the locale’s level, to clearly appreciate the design of cars and motorcycles.

The building for the financial consultants is low and horizontal, and the offices are organized in a ring-shape around a central space illuminated by natural sunlight. The entrance of light and evacuation of rainfall was solved by designing a double ring of concrete gutters separated by a ring of sunlight. Beneath this light and over the filing closets, plants were strategically placed to filter and screen the intense tropical sunlight. To visually unify the ensemble, we selected simple, long clay tile roofs, without gutters, but with a strong presence to accentuate its arisses and highlight the threads of falling rain.

In addition, the formal repetition of triangular porticos contributes to attaining this unity. The materials used are inexpensive and commonplace in the country, but were applied in a creative fashion in order to bring out their characteristics. The cross-section shows how ventilation and rainfall evacuation issues were resolved. The sales locale has natural, permanent cross ventilation. The project’s outcome is a building that is multi-functional and has diverse materials used in a contrasting manner –albeit with total unity and harmony– while adapting to the functional and climatic demands of the country.