Santander Bank, Sao Paulo

Santander Bank – Headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil

Project overview

Santander Bank’s headquarters in São Paulo sits within the bustling business district of Vila Olímpia, forming part of the JK Iguatemi mixed‑use development. The complex comprises office towers, a shopping mall and supporting infrastructure. In the early 2000s Santander sought a daylighting solution that would deliver ample natural light to its offices while controlling glare and thermal gains under the intense Brazilian sun. Architect Edo Rocha was commissioned to design the headquarters, and daylight planning was undertaken by Köster Lichtplanung in Frankfurt
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.

Design challenge

The 25‑storey building features broad, glazed façades that expose workspaces to abundant daylight but also to substantial solar heat and glare. Occupants require good visual comfort throughout the day and the ability to maintain outward views across the city. Conventional exterior shading would have blocked the view and still allowed the glazing to heat up, while fully drawn interior blinds would have plunged the deep floor plates into darkness and increased reliance on artificial lighting.

RetroSolar strategy

To reconcile these conflicting demands, RETROFlex Micro 25 mm louvers were installed on the interior side of the façade. These louvers are characterised by an extremely fine microstructure embossed into a material only ~0.3 mm thick
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. The upper surface of each louver is a Fresnel mirror that retro‑reflects incoming sunlight back out through the glazing; the lower surface is matte to diffuse transmitted light. The micro‑louvers were manufactured by RETROSolar and assembled into blinds by Hunter Douglas do Brasil. A total of 9 000 m² of blinds were produced and installed within three months
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Building physics and performance

The retro‑reflective strategy allows the blinds to remain in an open, horizontal position while rejecting direct sunlight. During peak sun, the mirrors reflect solar radiation back to the sky, dramatically reducing heat gain and preventing glare. Simultaneously, diffuse daylight from the sky vault is redirected onto the ceiling, creating a soft and uniform ambient illumination. Measurements indicate that the system enables 80 % daylight autonomy for illuminance levels around 500 lx up to 5 m deep into the floor plate
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. Because the blinds remain open, views to the outside are preserved, and the façade maintains its transparent appearance.

Architectural outcome and significance

The interior of Santander’s headquarters benefits from abundant natural light throughout the day without the discomfort of direct sun or excessive heat. The slender, horizontal louvers are almost invisible from both inside and outside, giving the façade a clean, light expression that complements the modernist architecture of the building. The project demonstrated how micro‑structured mirror louvers could be manufactured and installed on a large scale within a tight schedule, paving the way for their adoption in other high‑rise offices in warm climates. By achieving a high daylight autonomy while minimising energy use for cooling and lighting, the Santander headquarters exemplifies RetroSolar’s principle of light in, heat out.