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News: Danish firm 3XN has been selected as preferred architect to design a new headquarters for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

3XN was chosen ahead of 11 competing architects, including OMA, Toyo Ito and Amanda Levete, to develop its design for a new administrative home for the organisation governing the Olympic Games, to be built on a 24,000-square-metre site on the banks of Lake Geneva.

The new campus would consolidate the IOC‘s existing operations around Lausanne, creating offices for up to 500 employees.

The brief called for “a building that clearly reflects the values of IOC” and that could “serve as a catalyst for collaboration and interaction for the IOC Staff and Olympic Movement Stakeholders”.

“This is an incredible honour for our studio,” said 3XN principal Kim Herforth Nielsen. “The Olympic Movement has many expressions that are about people coming together in the best possible way.”

“We have designed the new IOC Headquarters as a physical expression of the Olympic Movement and its values expressed through architecture,” he added.

The design will be revealed after the IOC has made a final decision on the plans, following negotiations with the Swiss authorities.

Photograph of Lausanne, Switzerland, is courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 3XN chosen to design new Swiss
headquarters for the Olympics appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architects 3XN have completed a star-shaped regional headquarters for the United Nations in Copenhagen – but the real star is the spectacular staircase rising through the centre of the atrium (+ slideshow).

The UN City complex, located at the tip of the Marmormolen wharf in the city’s docks, takes the form of an eight-pointed star in plan and houses 1,700 UN staff.

3XN specially developed the white perforated aluminum shutters that clad the building and which can be controlled by workers via their computers.

Environmental features include sea-water cooling, rainwater collectors to flush the toilets, aerator taps to reduce water use and rooftop solar panels that can generate 297,000 kWh/year.

The sculptural central staircase is intended to encourage staff to circulate and interact, representing the UN’s role in encouraging positive dialogue between nations.

Likewise the star-form of the building is a metaphor for the UN’s work at all the compass points of the world.

See more projects by 3XN, including the dune-shaped Blue Planet Aquarium in Copenhagen, which was today shortlisted for the World Building of the Year award.

Here’s some info from 3XN:

3XN’s eight pointed star shaped UN City is inaugurated in Copenhagen

The new regional head office of the United Nations is designed with clear references to the UN’s identity and values: It is a building that physically reaches out to all parts the world, while the sculptural staircase in its core reflects the UN’s work to create global dialogue.

Delivering as One

Bringing together the various agencies and functions of the United Nations regional offices in Copenhagen, the new UN City is located at Marmormolen (The Marble Pier) north of Copenhagen’s city center. 3XN’s design is a response to the UN’s wishes for an iconic building expressing the organization’s values and authority. More specifically, the design reflects the independent, efficient and professional nature of each UN unit, while at the same time clearly rooted in a mutual set of values – Delivering as One.

Located on an artificial island the building is naturally separated from its immediate surroundings, while still being highly visible from both the city and the water.

The Star

From above, the eight-pointed star shape is a clear visual reference point, which, like the UN, reaches out to all corners of the world. Similar to the surrounding rusty pier edges, the UN city has a dark burnished steel base from which the white main building rises. This is a reference to the elegant white ships that characterize this part of the Copenhagen harbor.

The building has a façade cladding of white perforated aluminum shutters, developed by 3XN and contractor Pihl specifically for the UN City. The shutters ensure solar shading without blocking the view or the daylight. Since the facade is divided into three meter long modules, it is possible for the employees to control the sunshade from their computers. The result is an improved indoor environment, and a dynamic façade expressing a building full of life.

From the core of the star-shaped building, a daylight filled atrium connects the lobby level containing all common functions, with the office levels, where the various UN agencies are distributed.

From the atrium a central staircase binds all levels together. 3XN has created the staircase as a dramatic spatial sculpture, which is to be seen as a symbol of the UN’s work to create dialogue, interaction and positive encounters between people in all parts of the world. In the daily life, the sculptural form inspires the UN employees to want to use the stairs, and thus the staircase also forms the basis for dialogue, cooperation and informal meetings between the various UN organizations.

Sustainability

All office levels are characterized by an open and flexible layout encouraging knowledge sharing and interaction as well as individual immersion. Work stations are ensured plenty of high quality daylight and a good indoor climate. The working environment is further improved by an overall health policy including green recreational areas and a number of sustainable features including:

Air quality – The building has been designed to limit the use of chemicals and pollutants during both its construction and its use. The building is entirely ventilated with filtered outside air. This ensures that only clean, fresh air is present in the building and helps balance the interior humidity level.

Solar panels – More than 1,400 solar panels are lining the roof of the building to support the goal of generating renewable energy onsite. With an estimated total production of 297,000 kWh/year, the solar panels significantly reduce the need for electricity from the grid.

Sea water cooling – Cold seawater pumped into the building’s cooling system, almost entirely eliminating the need for electricity to power the cooling cycle.

Water efficiency – Innovative aerators have been placed in the taps in kitchens, toilets and showers throughout the building. The low-flow taps reduce water usage. In addition, pipes on the roof capture almost 3,000,000 litres of rainwater annually, which is almost enough to flush the toilets of the entire building without using potable water.

Solar shades – Sophisticated solar shades on the building’s facade can be opened and closed to either trap or reflect the sun’s heat.

Reflective roofs – The roof of the building has been coated with a white, recyclable membrane, made from plant-based materials. The environmentally-friendly coating reflects sunlight and reduces the solar warming of the building.

The UN City is expected to become one of Denmark’s most energy efficient buildings with an annual energy consumption of less than 50 KwH per m2 (Danish Energy Class 1). The UN City is registered with the LEED sustainability ratings system with the certification goal of LEED® Platinum. UN City has been awarded the prestigious GreenBuilding Award 2012 by the European Commission.

Project Data

The project is delivered in two phases: Phase 1 was completed in December 2012 and phase 2 will be completed in December 2013. The official inauguration took place July 4 2013 with the participation of the General Secretary of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

Client: FN Byen p.s. (Copenhagen Port & City Development)

Architect: 3XN

Engineer: Orbicon a/s

Landscape: Schønherr

Contractor: Pihl A/S

Interior Design: PLH / UN Common Services

Size: 45,000 m2 office and public facilities + 7,000 m2 archives and secondary facilities

Capacity: 1700 employees

Budget: Approx. 134 mio. EURO

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by 3XN appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish studio 3XN has revealed the first photographs of its whirlpool-shaped aquarium under construction in Copenhagen.

Set to open in the Spring, The Blue Planet aquarium was designed by 3XN to mimic the shapes created by swirling water and different exhibitions will be contained within each of the building’s curved arms.

“We wanted to create an adventure, a story about being carried under water into an unknown world full of fascinating experiences,” said architect and partner Jan Ammundsen. “With this in mind, we came up with the idea of a whirlpool.”

“However, it is one thing to create a story and a building that looks like a whirlpool, but the real challenges lay in creating a design that also has architectural value and quality, something that is elegant and hopefully can stand the task of time. So making the story and the aesthetics go hand in hand has been the main challenge,” he added.

The 9000-square-metre building is located on the waterfront, close to the city’s airport, and is expected to attract 7000 700,000 visitors a year.

A circular foyer at the centre of the building will feature a glass ceiling, allowing visitors to look directly up into a pool above their heads.

This year 3XN has also completed a riverside cultural centre in Norway and converted a warehouse into an experimental food laboratory at popular Copenhagen restaurant Noma.

Photography is by Adam Mørk.

Here’s some more information from 3XN:

The Blue Planet – Denmarks New Aquarium
Copenhagen, DK

Inspired by the shape of water in endless motion, Denmark’s new National Aquarium, The Blue Planet is shaped as a great whirlpool, and the building itself tells the story of what awaits inside.

Into Another World

The walls and roofs form a single, continuous flow and the longest of the whirlpool’s arms follows the shape of the landscape and the building, moving into the land inviting visitors inside. As soon as visitors arrive at The Blue Planet, the building will convey a sense of the special experience that awaits them inside. Here, the whirlpool has pulled you into another world – a world beneath the surface of the sea. If you tilt your head backwards, you understand that you are really a part of this aquarium because the roof above the foyer is made of glass, and at the same time it is the bottom of a pool.

Flexible Flows Between Exhibitions

The Round Room is a centre of navigation in the aquarium, and this is where visitors choose which river, lake or ocean to explore. Each exhibition has its own face towards the Round Room, each with its own entrance, starting with a buffer zone – a platform where sound and images are used to introduce the atmosphere communicated in the ensuing exhibition room.

One with the Surrounding Landscape

In the landscape, the great whirlpool continues through the terrain, the pools and the sea surrounding the building. Like watery currents, the building is not static – the movement continues into the future by virtue of always allowing possible extensions to add more, simply by letting the lines of the whirlpool grow further out.

Complex Building Project

The Blue Planet is a building of great complexity, and 3XN has taken on the role as project manager for 15 sub-consultants – including Kvorning Exhibition Designers and the Australian aquarium experts AAT. Ambitions have been sky high from the outset, and the construction of the special double curved facade has been a development project in itself, which has proven a great challenge to all parties involved.

The Blue Planet is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Address: Kajakvej, 2770 Kastrup, DK
Client: The Building Foundation “Den Blå Planet” (Realdania, Knud Højgaards Fond, Tårnby Municipality)
Competition: 1st prize in invited competition 2008
Project development: 2010 – 2013
Size: 9.000 m2
Budget: DKK 630m / €84.6m
Architect: 3XN
Engineer: Moe & Brødsgaard A/S
Aquarium Specialists: AAT

The post The Blue Planet
by 3XN appeared first on Dezeen.

Slideshow: Danish architects 3XN have completed a riverside cultural centre in Norway with glass hills outlined on its facade.

A roof with a timber underside arches across the interior spaces, which include a theatre, cinema, concert hall, library, gallery and cafe.

White walls feature both inside and out to match the painted wooden houses of the surrounding town of Mandal.

The architects won a competition to design the centre, named The Arch, back in 2003 and are also working on proposals for a bridge leading across the river.

In the last year 3XN have also completed an experimental food laboratory – see it here.

Photography is by Adam Mõrk.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Elegance and conviviality merge under The Arch in Mandal, Norway

Historic white wooden houses, charming narrow streets, a river running though the center and beach and forest nearby. The town of Mandal is the essence of southern Norwegian idyll. Danish practice, 3XN, has designed the town’s new cultural center, a project which required great sensitivity to the town’s special environment.

A House of the People

The cultural center, called “The Arch”, is about creating a common base for the cultural institutions of Mandal. Thus, The Arch contains theater, cinema, concert hall, library, gallery and café, offering activities for all ages of the town’s 15,000 inhabitants. “The Arch is a house of the people, so we designed a building that in an elegant and soft motion gathers the town’s cultural life, while the modern expression bears witness to a town in development”, explains Jan Ammundsen, Partner and Head of Design at 3XN.

The modern expression is created with a deep respect for the history of the town and the surrounding landscape. The arched shape refers partly to the soft hills, located around Mandal, and partly to the industrial center, which previously was located on the site. It is planned that the building will have a green roof, which will contribute to giving the building an organic expression, and will increase integration with the surrounding nature, when looking at the Arch from one of Mandal’s popular vantage points. The white color corresponds with the old white wooden houses, which Mandal is known for and which gives the town its character.

“A Dream”

The wish for optimal use of daylight, and a building that seems open and attractive to visitors, resulted in a facade characterized by panoramic windows facing the river and city. “It is important that the building’s activities are visible, and that the building connects to all the residents. Therefore, we have also emphasized designing the south-facing outdoor areas, so they are attractive sunny, recreational spaces with views to the river. In this way the building brings value to everyone in Mandal,” says Jan Ammundsen.

According to the manager of the cultural center, Alfred Solgaard, The Arch has had no difficulties in attracting visitors: “In just the first two and a half months after we took the building into use 25,000 people visited, and that was even before the official opening”, says Alfred Solgaard, and adds, “the Arch is a dream come true for our entire community”.

Besides the design of the architecture for the cultural center 3XN have delivered the graphic design for the Arch, the area’s master plan and a bridge that will go from the cultural center and over the river. The bridge, which is under construction will, in line with the cultural center, has curved organic shapes and pitches from which the view of Norway’s southernmost town can be enjoyed in full.

Team:
Architect: 3XN, Denmark
Client: Halse Property, Norway
Engineer: Rambøll, Norway
Landscape: Asplan Viak, Norway
Theatre Technique: AIX architects, Sweden
Art Decorations: Marianne Bratteli “Chaos and Gaia”, Norway

Building Data:
Address Havnegt. 2, 4515 Mandal, Norway
Price: approx. 33 million euros
Size: approx. 4,500 m2
Floors: 2
Construction: Concrete
Façade: Aluminum and glass

Timeline:
Construction Start: December 2009
Completion: December 2011
Official opening: April 2012

Here is a complete set of photographs of the heavily criticised Museum of Liverpool by Danish architects 3XN, which opened to the public last month.

Top: photograph by Pete Carr

The bulky dockside museum features huge projecting windows at either end, one facing towards the city centre and the other out across the River Mersey.

Limestone panels surround the facade and are shaped as zig-zagging diamonds on the side elevations, creating the illusion that the building has been stretched.

A staircase spirals up through an atrium at the heart of the museum, leading to three floors of galleries that exhibit social history and popular culture.

Above: photograph by Pete Carr

Although designed by 3XN, the project was delivered by UK studio AEW Architects.

Above: photograph by Pete Carr

Since the museum’s opening it has been unpopular with critics (see our earlier Dezeen Wire) and has since been nominated by Building Design magazine to receive The Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building completed in the UK in the past 12 months.

Above: photograph by Pete Carr

Other stories from the Dezeen archive about 3XN include an educational building in Copenhagen with colourful window shutters – see all our stories about 3XN here.

Above: photograph by Pete Carr

The museum is the third to be published on Dezeen this month – see our earlier stories about a boomerang-shaped museum on stilts that bridges a road and cantilevers over a lake and an underground museum with weathered steel towers – click here to see all our stories about museums.

Photography is by Phillip Handforth, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here are some more details from 3XN:

3XN’s Museum of Liverpool: More than a Building, More than a Museum

The new Museum of Liverpool, opening on July 19th will not only tell the story of its importance as one of the World’s great ports or about its cultural influence, such as with the Beatles phenomenon. It will also serve as a meeting point for History, the People of Liverpool and visitors from around the globe. Therefore, according to the Architect, Kim Herforth Nielsen, the structure functions as much more than just a Building or a Museum.

The Result of a Rigorous Process

As the largest National Museum to be built in the UK in over 100 years, and situated on a UNESCO World Heritage Site next to Liverpool’s famous ’Three Graces,’ Principal Architect and Creative Director at 3XN Kim Herforth Nielsen was fully aware of the magnitude of the challenge, when it came to designing the new Museum of Liverpool.

’This is one of the largest and most prestigious projects in 3XN’s 25 year history. The Museum’s design is a result of a very rigorous process, where it was of utmost priority to listen to the city inhabitants, learn the city’s history and understand the potential of the historical site that the Museum now sits upon.’

The result is a dynamic low-rise structure which enters into a respectful dialogue with the harbour promenade’s taller historical buildings. This interaction facilitates a modern and lively urban space. The design is reminiscent of the trading ships which at one time dominated the harbour, while the façade’s relief pattern puts forward a new interpretation of the historical architectural detail in the ‘Three Graces.’ The enormous gabled windows open up towards the City and the Harbour, and therefore symbolically draw history into the Museum, while at the same time allow the curious to look in.

A Nexus

The Museum lies along the Mersey River in the center of Liverpool, and will function as a nexus, in that it physically connects the Harbour promenade with the Albert Dock, which today contains restaurants, museums and boutiques. The outdoor areas around the Museum offer seating with views to the water adding to the dynamic urban environment and serving as a meeting point for locals and visitors alike.

The theme is carried through into the Museum of Liverpool’s central atrium, with its sculptural sweeping staircase leading up to the galleries further encouraging social interaction. All of these functions result in Kim Herforth Nielsen choosing to describe the Museum as a structure that unites Liverpool.

’This Museum connects the city together on many levels – physically, socially and architecturally. The idea of creating a Museum as a nexus in both physical and symbolic expression has been central from the start. I am very satisfied to see that this ideal is carried out to the full in the completed structure.’

Click above for larger image

A striking new addition to Liverpool

Dr David Fleming OBE, Director of National Museums Liverpool, is thrilled with 3XN’s design and looks forward to welcoming visitors to the museum: ‘To design the building we appointed Danish architects 3XN, who responded to our requirement (…) The resulting structure is a striking addition to the Liverpool cityscape. I can’t wait to open the doors to visitors to show off our new museum and encourage others to discover more about this extraordinary city.’

Click above for larger image

Architect: 3XN
Address: Mann Island, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Client: National Museums Liverpool
Size: 13.000 m2
Engineer: Buro Happold

See also:

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The Hepworth Wakefield by David Chipperfield	Museum of Fine Arts by Rick Mather	La Llotja de Lleida by Mecanoo