In the austrian city of Graz, a corner lot surrounded by residential blocks and animal feed silos was chosen by a ceramic products distributor as the site of its new showroom headquarters. The building asserts its independence in such a heterogeneous environment by means of a cubic volume that announces its content through bright orange tile cladding. Massive and ceramic, this enclosure reveals the constructive process by leaving horizontal gaps between the undulating bands of reinforced concrete panels, and letting the heads of the cantilevered beams that support them peep out, giving the whole the appearance of a pile of building materials. The autonomy of the building from its context also affects the interior, which is composed of eight floors that have absolutely no relation whatsoever to the horizontal cracks of the exterior...
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