Nichtoffener Wettbewerb | 12/2013
Olympic Campus: a new headquarters for the International Olympic Committee
Finalist
Architektur
Erläuterungstext
I MEMORY
Architecture has the power to evoke in a place many other places, be they real or envisioned. Within a single space it is possible to generate all the spaces that we have someday experienced or imagined. Perhaps for that reason, our proposal for the IOC Headquarters combines and intertwines memories of different sources: the existing chateau, the iconic Olympic symbol of unity and universality, imaginary archaeological fragments of ancient columns, and unexpected links between modern technologies and historical Greek temples. All of them express the will to materialize an idea that connects memory, innovation and landscape.
II LANDSCAPE
The city and the natural space often transcend the boundaries and obstacles separating them, generating a harmonious dialogue between architecture and the landscape. Although this fact is perceived with difficulty in larger cities as a consequence of their scale, it is often heightened in places like Lausanne, where the green terrain, the topography, the Lake Leman, the urban villas and the city centre form structures of a more open character. The unique location of the Louis-Bourget Park at Vidy connects the surrounding green and hilly landscape with the city and the lakeshore. For that reason, the rethinking the IOC Campus is an opportunity to explore the links shared by architecture and the landscape. Thus our emerging proposal is, in essence, a campus-park linked to the sequence of green areas along the lake.
III SYSTEM
Is it possible to start with a simple rule and a constant design approach, and yet manage to avoid repetition? We took a system as starting point for the project, a law generated by a self-similar geometric pattern originating from a cylindrical drum, which we then multiplied and combined to develop different variations and arrangements. The combinatorial permutations of these drums intersected by conical patios generated different buildings that would eventually configure a campus ensemble. This system rises in a constellation of connected volumes scattered across the site, offering different possible itineraries in which the landscape and the new buildings express the close relationship linking them.
IV ENVIRONMENT
The building’s sensibility towards environmental matters is a consequence of the conception of the project itself. The impact that a large volume would have caused on the ground-level surface is reduced by fragmenting the resultant built mass. The office areas are externally wrapped by light vertical elements, which filter and protect the interior spaces from the direct solar effects. Natural light and ventilation, geothermal and solar energy, as well as green roofs collaborate to achieve a sustainable architectural ensemble.
V FLEXIBILITY
The new IOC Headquarters are conceived as flexible offices capable of accommodating alterations and extensions over time. We must consider that the design of workspaces are nowadays in a permanent transformation process due to new technologies and team work organization. A regular system adapted to the circular shape of the buildings defines a modular axis pattern, in which a variety of different workplaces (single offices, shared workstations, IOC members rooms, focus rooms, videoconference, etc.) coexist with common meeting areas and more flexible interactive spaces. The proposed functional organization currently reflected in the drawings is only one of the different possibilities that this scheme allows. Open spaces, transparency, natural light, and views to the lake and the park will create a pleasant and attractive working atmosphere within the campus. The social spaces such as the fitness centre, cafe, restaurant, and points of interest are incorporated as independent volumes that are consequently linked with the other structures through emerging connections. The Chateau de Vidy, patrimony of the community and the Olympic Movement, mantains its protagonism and autonomy in the new ensemble, housing the most representative spaces of the IOC. If we consider the likeliness of future growth and extension of this project, construction by phases becomes a natural consequence; the project emerged from a simple additive process and resulted in a combinatorial variation of a limited number of elements inserted in the existing landscape.
VI MATERIAL
Geometry, structure and construction are part of the same architectural concept. A regular modulation, the preference for building systems susceptible of being repeated, the choice of a similar structural solution for all the cylindrical volumes and the contention in the palette of materials are all arguments of the design strategy. Light colors, natural materials (wood and limestone) and diaphanous divisions created by transparent and translucent glass as well as natural illumination, will interact with the unique surrounding landscape. A filter facade of textured pre-cast GRC elements will wrap around most of the buildings like fragments of an imaginary ancient column that echoes the timeless spirit of Olympism.
Architecture has the power to evoke in a place many other places, be they real or envisioned. Within a single space it is possible to generate all the spaces that we have someday experienced or imagined. Perhaps for that reason, our proposal for the IOC Headquarters combines and intertwines memories of different sources: the existing chateau, the iconic Olympic symbol of unity and universality, imaginary archaeological fragments of ancient columns, and unexpected links between modern technologies and historical Greek temples. All of them express the will to materialize an idea that connects memory, innovation and landscape.
II LANDSCAPE
The city and the natural space often transcend the boundaries and obstacles separating them, generating a harmonious dialogue between architecture and the landscape. Although this fact is perceived with difficulty in larger cities as a consequence of their scale, it is often heightened in places like Lausanne, where the green terrain, the topography, the Lake Leman, the urban villas and the city centre form structures of a more open character. The unique location of the Louis-Bourget Park at Vidy connects the surrounding green and hilly landscape with the city and the lakeshore. For that reason, the rethinking the IOC Campus is an opportunity to explore the links shared by architecture and the landscape. Thus our emerging proposal is, in essence, a campus-park linked to the sequence of green areas along the lake.
III SYSTEM
Is it possible to start with a simple rule and a constant design approach, and yet manage to avoid repetition? We took a system as starting point for the project, a law generated by a self-similar geometric pattern originating from a cylindrical drum, which we then multiplied and combined to develop different variations and arrangements. The combinatorial permutations of these drums intersected by conical patios generated different buildings that would eventually configure a campus ensemble. This system rises in a constellation of connected volumes scattered across the site, offering different possible itineraries in which the landscape and the new buildings express the close relationship linking them.
IV ENVIRONMENT
The building’s sensibility towards environmental matters is a consequence of the conception of the project itself. The impact that a large volume would have caused on the ground-level surface is reduced by fragmenting the resultant built mass. The office areas are externally wrapped by light vertical elements, which filter and protect the interior spaces from the direct solar effects. Natural light and ventilation, geothermal and solar energy, as well as green roofs collaborate to achieve a sustainable architectural ensemble.
V FLEXIBILITY
The new IOC Headquarters are conceived as flexible offices capable of accommodating alterations and extensions over time. We must consider that the design of workspaces are nowadays in a permanent transformation process due to new technologies and team work organization. A regular system adapted to the circular shape of the buildings defines a modular axis pattern, in which a variety of different workplaces (single offices, shared workstations, IOC members rooms, focus rooms, videoconference, etc.) coexist with common meeting areas and more flexible interactive spaces. The proposed functional organization currently reflected in the drawings is only one of the different possibilities that this scheme allows. Open spaces, transparency, natural light, and views to the lake and the park will create a pleasant and attractive working atmosphere within the campus. The social spaces such as the fitness centre, cafe, restaurant, and points of interest are incorporated as independent volumes that are consequently linked with the other structures through emerging connections. The Chateau de Vidy, patrimony of the community and the Olympic Movement, mantains its protagonism and autonomy in the new ensemble, housing the most representative spaces of the IOC. If we consider the likeliness of future growth and extension of this project, construction by phases becomes a natural consequence; the project emerged from a simple additive process and resulted in a combinatorial variation of a limited number of elements inserted in the existing landscape.
VI MATERIAL
Geometry, structure and construction are part of the same architectural concept. A regular modulation, the preference for building systems susceptible of being repeated, the choice of a similar structural solution for all the cylindrical volumes and the contention in the palette of materials are all arguments of the design strategy. Light colors, natural materials (wood and limestone) and diaphanous divisions created by transparent and translucent glass as well as natural illumination, will interact with the unique surrounding landscape. A filter facade of textured pre-cast GRC elements will wrap around most of the buildings like fragments of an imaginary ancient column that echoes the timeless spirit of Olympism.