Olympic Campus: a new headquarters for the International Olympic Committee

QUANTUM LEAP
Both in terms of quantity and quality the new IOC Headquarters will be essentially different from today’s situation. On a short term the staff on the Vidy site will triple, and in a later stage it even might get four times bigger. While the configuration of the existing premises is a traditional one, the new space will need to be a much more interactive workplace. It will be an adaptable, collaboration-based, inclusive environment where departments merge together into one vibrant campus, an Olympic Village.

CHATEAU
With this ambition in mind and reconsidering the organization of the site, it is evident that the castle is the essential piece on the chessboard. Not only is it a historical and representative building to be preserved, linked with the Olympic Movement, the castle also dominates and divides the site in two halves : the functional west part and the more representative east part, while the most qualitative area is situated in front of it.
The castle is at the origin of the actual spatial strategy, an ‘enfilade’ of buildings that are supposed to never dominate the castle. But already today this submissive attitude does not convince, while the question is to conceive a much larger building that does not overpower it.

CONCEPT
The ‘enfilade’ strategy has certainly reached its limits and is no longer suitable for the actual demand. It will not be able to cope with a premise of 10.000 m² above ground level. Nor does it allow the configuration of a fully interactive work environment. In order not to compete against the castle, XDGA proposes to literally provide a large work-field on ground level, situated at the central part of the site, with the castle positioned inside. All activities are gathered in a large open space, all the supporting facilities are organized under this surface.

ONE BUILDING
The building that contains this surface, is conceived as a transparent, prismatic volume, an intermediate structure in between the castle and the surrounding nature. It has a constant perimeter height of 13 meters, allowing a free view from the castle towards the park and vice versa. The castle, in its glorious new role, defines the inside space together with a patio, similar in size.

ONE ROOF
As immaterial as the outside skin is intended to be, as tectonic is the roof that slopes down from this horizontal perimeter to the patio and upwards to the castle. The sloping planes along the facades reflect the park or the work spaces inside, thus blurring the boundary between inside and outside. The planes in the middle bring in filtered daylight, the one on top of the castle is fully transparent. The roof symbolizes and visualizes such values as unity and collaboration.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
Primary and secondary workspaces, meeting spaces, social spaces and public space are gathered under one roof. The field is considered as a micro-size urban plan, with enclosed volumes that, through their precise configuration, allow the open space to function well. The castle and the patio make basic, un-flexible divisions in the field. The whole range of smaller separated spaces – private offices, meeting rooms, project rooms, classes, collaboration units, video booths –, conceived as glass boxes with different transparencies and opacities, further articulate the open space. All workspaces are in direct visual contact with the park. The comfortable large scale of the volume is sized down by means of all kinds of furniture and curtains system.

FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility and adaptability are in the genes of this building concept. Evolution in terms of organization structure, new programs, technological changes, can all be easily organized inside this media-village like building type.

EXTENDED CAPACITY
Bringing the staff to the second phase number is possible without fundamental interventions, by using the roofs of the bigger pavilions inside the building as office space, and by slightly densifying the workspace from 10 m² per person to 8.5 m² in the open space, other programs are modified accordingly to the densification.

SITE ORGANIZATION
The IOC site remains fully open to its surroundings and the local community. A network of orthogonal paths that define the internal organization is giving access to the exterior. The ‘point of interest’ is positioned next to the existing roundabout, allowing visitors to watch the headquarters from a distance without disturbing the staff. A series of canopies is used to increase activity in the park. Although the new building’s footprint is more extensive than the existing buildings, its simple geometry allows to clarify the relation to the surrounding nature. By removing the existing Olympic House, the once residual space to the east is transformed into a large well defined and valuable open space at the entrance of the park, where the public can enjoy leisure activities with a direct view towards the lake. To compensate the loss of some of the valuable trees, new trees, conform to the Lausanne’s charter of trees and plants, will be planted on the south and west sides of the new building. The access road and the existing parking remain almost unchanged. From the parking area, a covered platform is giving access to the underground deliveries. A slope, next to the roundabout gives access to the underground car parking, bicycle parking and small deliveries.