The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has just announced that the collaborative project designed by ELEMENTAL (Santiago, Chile) and Nissen Wentzlaff Architekten (Basel, Switzerland) is the winning entry of its international competition to develop its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
The competition jury has chosen the ELEMENTAL/Nissen Wentzlaff Architekten project from a pool of 10 designs by renowned international teams, such as Bjarke Ingels Group together with Gruner; Boltshauser Architekten; David Chipperfield Architects with Harry Gugger Studio; Dominique Perrault; Foster+Partners together with SKREINSTUDIOS; Herzog & de Meuron Basel; HHF Architekten ETH SIA BSA together with Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO; and Kengo Kuma & Associates together with F.A.B. Ther jury consisted of Sacha Menz, Beat Aeberhard, Louisa Hutton, Débora Mesa Molina, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Christophe Girot, Thomas Jordan, Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva, Monica Ellis, Bertrand Legros, and Véronique Neiss.
Aligned with the brief of the competition, the different projects proposed to replace the aging buildings adjoining the main BIS Tower and develop a modern facility that can accommodate expanding activities and growth, as well as create a campus-like work environment for staff and visitors.
In considering our plans for the future, we sought designs that would present concepts for modern meeting and working facilities. It is important for us that any new development on the site would be both environmentally sustainable and fit well into the Basel cityscape. The design selected by the jury helps to create a vision to bring these concepts to life. -- BIS Secretary General Monica Ellis.
The winning proposal puts in place a new highrise structure on the site that seeks to connect and complement the existing tower designed by Swiss architect Martin Burckhardt. The jury appreciated this design gesture and praised the project's extensive use of wood and its “forest” façade.
According to the official BIS announcement, the design complies also with the master plan approved by the city authorities back in 2015, allowing the company to build a total of up to 68,000 m² gross floor area above ground on the Tower site, including the existing Tower, which is 23,000 m2. Nevertheless, if the BIS decides to continue with the winning design, there will be a new planning and approval process at a later stage.
Below, ELEMENTAL shares the description of the project:
The BIS works in different locations dispersed in the city of Basel. In part to bring people together, the Bank launched a competition for an development of the iconic circular 70’s tower. If architecture is about giving form to the places where people live, in this case, where people work, we asked ourselves: What INFORMS the FORM of this project? We identified 5 different forces our project is based on.
- The urban contexts (plural)
One peculiar challenge of this project is that it has to respond to two contexts: the existing tower and the surrounding towers. At the plinth level, the proposal adopts an organic shape integrating with the geometry of the existing building. But when looking upwards, it follows the Cartesian geometry of the neighbors. It is rotated, though, so as to establish a dialogue with the existing tower as if they were having a conversation.
- Time: gaining and preserving it
City regulations push the center of gravity of the interventions to the south corner of the block. Even if counterintuitive, those constraints are good news: being forced to place the majority of the square meters outside the footprint of the existing building, a significant part of the new project is built without interrupting the current function of the bank, maximizing business continuity and consequently gaining precious time. With the extension, BIS site moves from a single building to a campus. The organic shape of ground floor levels widens the sidewalks allowing to enter the new BIS campus in its center, between the two Towers. In addition to that, the old existing trees are preserved, taking care of the embedded time they carry. Their presence provides valuable, shady outdoor areas.
- Collaboration: the Paradigm Shift
Requirements for work environments are subject to rapid change. Asking the question: “Why would one want to go to the office”? physical encounter, informal exchange and mutual visibility have gained importance. Consequently, the emphasis of our design has moved towards the collective and social spaces. The conventional floor plan of a tower was turned inside out: The typical central core is dispersed to a more porous perimeter, freeing the center for transparency and visibility, enhancing the experience of meeting others. This idea simultaneously allows for views, natural light, and natural ventilation. Elevators and stairs can be translucent, and people can look at what others are doing while moving vertically through the tower. Atriums and generous open staircases create interconnected, multi-floor neighborhoods.
- Sustainability: structural hybrid and outdoor spaces
Sustainability strategy for our project is developed from a holistic perspective: the reduction of carbon footprint is as important as social well-being and durability. If energy is going to be spent, make sure to spend it only once; make sure that the things last. In accordance with the concept of grouping floors, every third floor is made of concrete, allowing for the extensive use of structural wood in the tower and thus reducing embedded energy to a minimum. Vertical circulation, technical shafts and structure are moved to the periphery, the floorplan offers maximum flexibility for future adaptations. Low-tech climatization provides comfort while energy consumption is reduced. Outdoor terraces can be reached from each workplace within a short distance, offering views and access to the outdoor climate.
- Character
In addition to numerous rational aspects of the design, a project will also be perceived symbolically and emotionally. Our approach to the question of the character of the project has three dimensions:
The first one was that given that the existing BIS tower has a pure geometrical form, we asked ourselves whether the new tower had to mimic its circular shape or not. Our proposal is to respond to the tower with another pure form: a square. The project is about a classical dialogue between a circle and a square.
The second dimension was that – in order to create trust- a central banking institution should be perceived as a transparent organization. That is why our proposal used the paradigm shift of the porous perimeter to create a structure that can be perceived as open.
Finally, after the pandemic, it seems that we all have a desire to return to nature. That is why a forest of columns is proposed. Thicker columns working in compression towards the center give room to thinner elements towards the edge, giving the building a natural feeling in this dense, inner-city environment.
