The new Nestlé office building in Esplugues, Barcelona, is in fact an extension to a relatively recent complex constructed in the 1970s. The design parameters were established after a lengthy period of discussions involving considerations of space, corporate image and maintenance raised by the client, together with volumetric restrictions imposed by local planning regulations influenced by the surrounding roads and nearby motorway. These factors, along with the visual and solar conditions of the site, determined the final siting and form of the new building. The existing complex consisted of an eight-storey rectangular office block set on a north-east/south-west axis parallel to the main road, and a two-storey pavilion to the north-west containing laboratories at ground level and a dining room above, overlooking an immaculately maintained garden, almost Swiss in its perfection. Three basement levels beneath the office building provided staff parking which, being insufficient, was supplemented by a large surface car park to the west of the site. A small nursery completed the complex, located to the north-east of the plot, well away from the main buildings. One of the client’s principal concerns was that the new building should provide working conditions virtually identical to those in the existing offices, in order to avoid potential conflict and to allow the free movement of staff and office furniture between the two buildings. This requirement established a basic 1.20 m planning module for internal partitions, offset from the structural grid to avoid clashes with columns. The total above-ground floor area of the new building is just over 7,000 m². An initial client proposal to link the new building to the existing one in an L-shaped block had the advantage of facilitating communication between the two areas. However, the architects pointed out that this would cast shadows over the gardens, block views from the dining rooms towards the wooded area to the south, and create a radically different character in the new office space, facing north or south rather than east or west. These arguments readily convinced the client to accept a separate building, positioned on a north-east/south-west axis at the western edge of the site alongside the motorway (acting as an acoustic barrier to traffic), connected to the existing ground-level entrance by means of a covered walkway. This new arrangement allowed for the construction of six basement levels beneath the garden: five for parking, accommodating 380 cars for both office blocks, and the first basement housing a 900 m² public conference hall together with an experimental and teaching kitchen and dining complex. The form of the nine-storey office building was determined by positioning it as far as possible from the existing building in order to ensure maximum morning sunlight and a wider garden court. As a result, its basic rectangular shape had to adapt to the legally defined building lines aligned with the slopes of the side streets and the motorway. This gives the building a distinctive form that corresponds to its setting. The shape is further articulated by two large three-storey “cut-outs”: one at ground level on the southern corner to “receive” the covered link between the two office buildings and signal the entrance; and the other at the top of the building on the northern corner, forming a giant balcony (scaled to the motorway) overlooking Avinguda Diagonal, the principal approach to Barcelona. These two cut-outs reinforce the sense of place and lend a distinctive character to what might otherwise have been another international-style glass curtain wall office block. Early façade proposals included an external skin of adjustable louvres separated from the glazing by a metal maintenance grating walkway, allowing hot air to rise and dissipate away from the glass. However, this solution was abandoned in favour of a conventional curtain wall, as the client wished to avoid potential maintenance problems and any subsequent deterioration of the company’s image. The additional cost of air conditioning resulting from a fully glazed façade in Barcelona’s climate was not considered significant by the engineers. On this basis, the glass curtain wall was developed to extreme technological and aesthetic limits: the prismatic form is emphasised by reducing the supporting mullions to a flat neoprene joint; it was found that the mirror effect of the tinted double glazing was less distorted when using imported Italian-manufactured glass; the “swimming pool” effect of tinted glazing in the internal offices was reduced by introducing clear glazing corresponding to the depth of the suspended ceiling, thus allowing occupants to perceive the true natural colour of daylight; clear glass was also used in front of the floor slabs, where tinted glazing was unnecessary, and the steel supports of the curtain wall were left exposed and painted yellow to add a functional decorative effect to the façade. Grey glass is used to clad the end walls, base and roof, expressing their distinct function. The covered link between the two office buildings is half tunnel and half bridge as it crosses the garden, spanning the garage ramp and the sunken garden court that provides direct access to the conference centre. It is constructed in steel, clear glass, glass blocks and white tiles, allowing it to integrate fully with the garden. To reduce the tunnel effect, the floor rises towards the centre, creating a variable height and also providing space for structure and air-conditioning services. From this glazed corridor, a triangular branch allows a steel-and-glass staircase to descend in natural light to the conference centre beneath the garden. The retaining walls are clad in bands of rustic and polished stoneware, chosen to emphasise the classical connotation of the building’s base. The remaining walls are finished in white Formica within the main foyer, black glass in the projection rooms and translation booths, and red curtains that allow the foyer to open into the surrounding lobbies. These lobbies are lit from the sunken garden, the car park and a glass-brick light well that extends down through all the parking levels below. The floors of the foyer and surrounding lobbies are unified as a flexible space by means of natural-fibre carpeting, while the access areas are finished in intense green terrazzo cut into 10 x 10 cm tiles. This reduction in the usual terrazzo tile size produces a more uniform paving surface. The conference hall has been rotated by 45 degrees to achieve a better proportion between the conference table area and the audience, and to blur the spatial boundaries, allowing more flexible use for receptions and varying audience sizes. The garden courtyard has been kept as simple as possible, bearing in mind that it is viewed mainly from the offices above. Nevertheless, a pathway has been introduced to allow a lunchtime walk. Water has been added in the shaded area to reflect the light of the sky and to facilitate visual connection with the lower floors of the existing building. In summary, the architects’ principal concern was to avoid the anonymity of the “international glass curtain wall office block” and to create a strong sense of place, related both to the existing buildings and their immediate surroundings, and to its prominent position at the gateway to Barcelona.