Välismaised võistlused

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an international design competition to redevelop and extend its 1966 headquarters in Geneva. The new facilities, a 25,000 square metre office block and 700-space underground car park will replace a series of smaller additions, hastily constructed in response to various health crises in the years after the main building was completed.

In addition, the new building will facilitate a redevelopment of the original building, housing extra staff while work on the Jean Tschumi-designed building is carried out.

“The extension will be functionally connected to the existing main building, and must therefore be conceived in harmony with this building and the whole site,” states the brief. It continues “The new building must reflect WHO’s transparency, international character, as well as the economic pragmatism it wishes to achieve. WHO considers the quality of the project and its functionality to be decisive factors in achieving its own objectives.”

The new building is planned to be completed in 2019 on a budget of €90 million. The competition will be judged by a panel that includes Dominique Perrault and the son of the original building’s architect Bernard Tschumi. It is open to all architecture practices registered to work in a WHO member state.