Piešťany, Slovakia — 2017

Office Building Respect Piešťany

A rooftop extension to the Respect office building in Piešťany. Additional office space with a modern design and a new facade.

An extension to the Respect office building in Piešťany, adding office space on top of a structure already in daily use. Building upward on an occupied building is a specific discipline: the existing structure sets what the new floor may weigh, the services below dictate where anything can pass through, and the work has to proceed without shutting the tenant down. Those constraints, not aesthetic preference, produced the shape of the addition. The project also renewed the facade, which is what makes an extension read as part of the building rather than as something parked on its roof — an older block with a new floor in a different language announces the seam from across the street. Office space added this way costs less than an equivalent new building and consumes no additional land, which is usually the argument that makes such a project worth doing at all. Adding storeys to an existing building begins with a structural assessment, not a design. The capacity of the frame and the foundations sets an upper bound on what may be added, and where that bound is tight the answer is usually a lighter construction for the new floor rather than fewer square metres. Anything that has to pass vertically — stair, lift, risers, drainage — must land somewhere it can continue through the floors below, which is why the position of the existing cores tends to dictate the new plan more than the site does. Working over occupied offices adds a programme dimension: noisy and disruptive operations are confined to agreed windows, access and craneage have to be arranged without closing the entrance, and the roof has to be weather-tight at the end of each stage rather than only at completion. Renewing the facade alongside is often the economical moment to do it, since the scaffolding is already standing. Densifying a building that already has its access, parking and connections in place is among the least wasteful ways to add floor space anywhere. Delivered for Respect s.r.o. across roughly 650 m² and completed in 2017.

Category

Commercial

Year

2017

Location

Piešťany, Slovakia

Area

650 m²

Client

Respect s.r.o.

Status

Completed