rchitect Héctor Ruiz-Velázquez specified Neolith by TheSize for the interior stairway and bathrooms, as well as the outer walls and stairways of the office building. The end result is quality aesthetics that remain sustainable, energy efficient and attentive to the employees’ needs.

With overwhelming evidence linking office design with occupants’ health, wellbeing and productivity, Hector’s team focused on the effects of light and materials to ensure the comfort of the employee is never compromised. Combined with Hector’s affirmation that “spaces have to provide shelter as well as catch the visitor’s eye”, he opted for an interior design that was not just concerned with quality and functionality, but also oozed warmth and personality.

A growing architectural technique, to create interiors which encourage cognitive activity whilst remaining comfortable, is the rise of biophilia; the suggestion that we have an instinctive bond to nature. According to Hector: “Specifying Basalt Black and Arena from the Neolith Fusion collection enabled the colours and the sensations of nature in the products to be transferred to the surfaces. Arena, with its parallel traits to natural limestone and its random game of light and dark veins, in conjunction with Basalt Black models that offer an organic colour and texture to mirror natural basalt stones, allowed for a delicate interpretation of biophilic design.”

Hector continues: “Connecting spaces to merge the outside with the inside, and ensuring the entrance provides the building with a connecting arrival, was of vital significance to the design. Linking the space we are coming from, to the space we are going to, ensures continuity. Using 3.6 x 1.2m Neolith slabs for the main interior stairway created a spectacular visual extension which showed the remarkable and adaptable features of Neolith; bringing the facets of nature to the inside of the building.”

Specifying the Neolith Fusion collection was not just an artistic decision but a conscious effort at sustainability.

Hector mentions: “When specifying a material, it should first of all be functional and secondly, aesthetically pleasing. Quality is the most important condition of a material and Neolith offers maximum strength and resistance. The structure of the outer walls and staircase were the perfect places for the material because it is a space full of natural light. Additionally, Neolith responds perfectly to temperature changes and humidity, and it resists all of these factors better than other materials which do not stay intact and tend to lose colour.”

There is a fine line to tune when creating a remarkable design with sustainable quality in office builds. At The Lariza Building, the two have been joined in complete harmony. For Hector, using materials that adhere to the needs of the employees, as well as the building owners, meant he was able to create an all-round building that could boost work productivity, remain artistically significant and withstand the test of the climate. Building something beautiful is key but as Hector crucially comments: “Sustainability is not a commercial label, it is the professional responsibility of us all.”