Façade in Esmeraldas

Textile architecture in Ecuador

The city of Esmeraldas on Ecuador’s west coast is best known for its port and the head office of Flopec, the national oil company. Previously, the city’s seaside was dominated by industrial areas.
The local population had hardly any access to the ocean. That changed significantly this year. After Flopec decided to build a new head office building, the local municipality succeeded in combining this with an urban landscaping development.

More than just a textile wrap for the new head office

The architect Marlon Guillén used a steel construction which was first filled with the
primary façade. The secondary façade stands in front of this façade: a 4,000 m² textile wrap. The façade seamlessly blends into the colour of the sky.

A huge opening on the building’s ground floor frames the view of the ocean. At the same time, it is a doorway to the beach huts situated directly behind the paved area.

In order to avoid mechanical and individual sun shading systems, the architect chose a universal wrap for the whole building. The MEHLER TEXNOLOGIES® VALMEX® TF 400 mesh fabric simultaneously reduces the wind loads significantly. Half of it is carried by the primary structure, the other half by the secondary structure. In combining these two functions, the architect introduced a unique look to Esmeralda’s coastline.
In addition to the functions mentioned above, there is another positive spin off: the TF400 façade doubles as a cinema screen in the evenings.
There is now not only the new office building, but also lots of recreational space, restaurants and small businesses. In order to give a unifying appearance to all these structures, the designers used textile architecture as the common element. This consists of the office building façade and a prismatic roof over the restaurants and shops.