Prototype

SOM developed the Global Interior Design Standards and Manual for BBVA, an international retail banking institution. The standards guide a complete transformation of BBVA’s workplaces around the world, aiming to reinforce the company’s core values, strengthen its focus on client services, and amplify opportunities for growth. To achieve these goals, BBVA is shifting its workspaces to a completely open plan environment—a move that supports the company’s evolution from a traditional, hierarchical structure to a more flexible and collaborative one.

The standards define a workplace model with four primary components: Individual Work Settings, Collaborative and Confidential Work Settings, Support Spaces, and Business and Client Centers. Each of these components is designed to enhance collaboration, agility, and the user experience. In addition to office interiors, the standards direct the design of elevator lobbies, reception and waiting areas, conference facilities, and support areas. They also outline a global procurement strategy, with criteria for fixtures and finishes in accordance with local manufacturing, installation, and maintenance recommendations.

With the standards in place, BBVA is making the most of the opportunity to transform its culture and workplace design across its facilities worldwide. As of 2018, the standards have been implemented in four of BBVA’s buildings: the Operations Center, in Mexico City, and the Centro Tecnológico in Atizapán, Mexico, both designed by SOM; the headquarters in Mexico City, designed by Rogers and Legoretta; and the headquarters in Madrid, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The guidelines will continue to be rolled out in other BBVA locations as new opportunities arise for development and renovation.

Mexico City HQ

The Mexico City headquarters for BBVA Bancomer is part of a complete transformation of the company’s workplaces around the world. The design is guided by the Global Interior Design Standards that SOM developed for BBVA. The Standards create a high-performance workplace that conveys the company’s core brand values, allows it to serve clients more effectively, and amplifies opportunities for growth. To this end, the Mexico City headquarters features flexible working environments, transparent conference rooms and breakout areas, and a variety of workplace amenities, including a double-height cafeteria and dining area. The design promotes social interaction and a sense of community.

The office interiors work in tandem with the building’s distinctive architecture. Collaboratively designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Legorreta+Legorreta, the 235-meter-tall Torre BBVA Bancomer responds to the region’s geography and climate. A primary design goal was to protect against tremors, a significant risk in Mexico City. Each structural beam includes a fuse that absorbs seismic shocks, making the tower exceptionally safe for a building of its size.

Along the facade, a series of “sky gardens” overlook the city and adjacent park. These spaces feature brightly colored ceilings and spiral staircases. Exposed diagonal trusses across the facade create lattices that reduce solar heat gain and direct sunlight. The external structure opens up the building’s interior floor plates, providing a total of 79,000 square meters of office space that can accommodate up to 4,500 employees. At the ground floor courtyard, the trusses transform into a dynamic structural element. The triple-height lobby is set back from the street. Finished with faceted ceiling forms and reflective gray tiling, it provides an elegant entry to one of Mexico City’s most prominent buildings.

Operations Center

The Operations Center is an architectural landmark that consolidates and repositions BBVA Bancomer’s physical presence in Mexico City. Rising 135 meters, the state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable building raises the bar for new commercial projects in Mexico’s capital and elevates the profile of BBVA Bancomer in Latin America.

The 154,000-square-meter building reimagines BBVA’s work environment for the 21st century. SOM’s design accommodates the transformation of the company’s operational structure from a traditional, hierarchical model to a more horizontal, collaborative organization. With open offices and shared social spaces, the building provides opportunities for informal meetings and collaboration.

As part of a planned development, the Operations Center relates to its dense urban context through massing and scale. The building is conceived as a “vertical city,” a bundle of volumes shifted at their intersections to create points of articulation. It is filled with amenities including cafeterias, lounges, outdoor terraces, and meeting spaces to reinforce a sense of community. The building’s scale and visual dynamism contribute to the area’s pedestrian character, while creating an interior environment that supports productivity.

Certified LEED®-NC Gold, the Operations Center elevates the level of building quality and performance in Mexico City’s commercial marketplace. A host of energy- and water-saving features are integrated in the design. Its sophisticated glass facade is wrapped by a screen of staggered vertical louvers that are calibrated to the angle of the sun, in order to reduce solar heat gain while maximizing views and filtering daylight.

The Operations Center contributes to the revitalization of the Parques Polanco neighborhood, a formerly industrial district. Located next to a verdant open space, the tower provides a commercial anchor for the neighborhood’s mixed-use master plan. The project has spurred improvements to the public realm, and residential and retail development has increased in the surrounding area.

Madrid HQ

SOM designed a comprehensive interior design strategy for the BBVA Madrid Headquarters. The design is based on the Global Interior Design Standards and Manual, a guide SOM developed to help BBVA transform its locations worldwide. It defines a workplace model that aims to reinforce the company’s core values, strengthen its focus on client services, and amplify opportunities for growth.

Situated on the city’s northern periphery, the 59,000-square-meter headquarters site is adjacent to an interstate highway and surrounded by new commercial and residential development. Given this context, the project architects, Herzog & de Meuron, chose to design an inward-facing campus that would function as a complete ecosystem. The design features a network of passages, courtyards, and gardens that weave between three-story structures. The central building, a 93-foot pebble-shaped tower, features an undulating brise-soleil fixed between floor slabs. This solar shading system significantly reduces solar heat gain and glare without reducing daylighting benefits. A longer brise-soleil with the same geometry spans the three-story facade along the perimeter of the complex.

SOM’s interior design reinforces the collaborative nature of the campus, with glass-walled offices and conference rooms that bring daylight deep into the space. The high level of visibility between workspaces is a core tenet of the interior design standards that SOM developed for BBVA, emphasizing the horizontal organization of the company. While the larger campus represents an interconnected, urban-scale system, the interior programming reflects this ecology on a personal scale—a synthesis of exterior and interior design.