Bizkaia Tower Renovation

The Bizkaia Tower, located at the beginning of Gran Vía in Bilbao, is a building whose construction was completed in 1969. Raised to house the Bilbao Vizcaya bank headquarters, it consists of 22 floors above ground and three floors below ground, with a total height of almost 90 meters and an area of 30,400 square meters.  

Fifty years after its construction, it has been completely redeveloped, even partially changing its use: now the first 6 floors are for commercial use, while the rest of the space is still used for offices (65 percent of the total area).   

Given the building's state, it had to be emptied, retaining only the structure to undertake a complete reconstruction and it changed name, now is called BAT (B Accelerator Tower). 
During the renovation, a lot of work was done on the facade of the building, which was protected by municipal regulations. Therefore, before starting the drafting of the reconstruction project, research work was carried out to recreate the original characteristics of the facade by eliminating the changes it had undergone over the years, trying to recreate the pinkish color of the glass used in the original facade.   

iGuzzini fixtures were used for lighting office spaces. The IN60 system with down-emitting MMO optics provides the general, homogeneous and diffuse illumination of the rooms. Used in some cases in the Frame version and in others in the Minimal version, IN60 MMO fits perfectly into the environments with an industrial character that were obtained. In fact, all the fixtures are exposed on the ceiling, the pillars show the rough surface of reinforced concrete, without plastering. These spaces have been completed with warm elements such as carpet, wood and sound-absorbing felt slats or perforated sheet metal panels, trying not to completely lose the original character of the building.