Travel Agency

 
The Plaza Paz Soldán is emblematic of San Isidro, metropolitan Lima's most exclusive neighborhood, where the business and financial center of the city is located. This travel agency occupies a lot adjoining the plaza and flanked by two monumental constructions: the eighteenth-century Los Condes hacienda and the Church of the Virgen del Pilar.
Uncontrolled urban growth has made the plaza difficult of access, owing to traffic congestion: dwarfed by the awkward neighboring constructions, it is protected behind high walls. The present project represented an opportunity for an urban salvage operation which would give back the plaza its appropriate scale, bring out the historical monuments, and generate public space.
It was therefore decided that the program be concentrated into a compact volume set back behind a "liquid plaza" which would reflect the surroundings and act as a buffer for the building. Instead of walls that segregate, benches that congregate: a long bench for passers-by was installed around the perimeter of the lot, with a pedestrian passageway leading to the entry and the parking area.
The 460 m² of the program include space for offices and a sales area. The sales area represented the principal challenge: an open space with customer services tables and a multimedia section. A central requirement was for distracting views of the exterior to be blocked. This unusual demand was met by a thin skin with polycarbonate panels on the exterior and perforated steel ones on the interior. In addition to its thermal, acoustical, and safety advantages, this veil refracts and reflects the natural light in a highly suggestive way.
Air pollution in Lima causes the façades to be impregnated by a large quantity of particles. An ingenious cleaning system has been devised whereby water streams down from the cornice at regular intervals to wash the polycarbonate. This artificial rain on the façade protects the building and improves the quality of the air.
 

 
Manuel de Rivero (Lima, 1973) graduated in architecture and urbanism from the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima in 1996, and has a Master's degree from the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam (2002). He was head of projects at MVRDV from 2002 to 2005. He is a professor and research fellow at the Univeridad Católica del Perú and a founding member of the think-tank Supersudaca. He received the research award at the IV Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura and the award
for best participation at the 2nd Rotterdam Architecture Biennial.
 
Fernando Puente Arnao (Lima, 1973) graduated as an architect from the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima in 1995, and has a Master's degree in contracting and real estate administration from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2002). In 1998 he co-founded Becerra Puente Arnao Arquitectos. He is a professor at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Peru.
 
César Becerra (Lima, 1974) graduated as an architect from the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima in 1995. He has worked in the area of interior design and housing projects. In 1998 he co-founded Becerra Puente Arnao Arquitectos.