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| "deal": junk mail collage & acrylics. |
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2GN2S:
The Completed Headquarters for Swatch and Omega
by Shigeru Ban
credit: Philip Zinniker
credit: Philip Zinniker
credit: Philip Zinniker
Architect Shigeru Ban (previously)
won a competition to design a campus of timber buildings to house the
headquarters of watch brands Swatch and Omega in Biel, Switzerland. Now,
after almost 5 years of construction, the campus was completed with an
inaugural ceremony taking place last week.
The shimmering, curved silhouette of the new Swatch building breaks with
the conventions of classic office building architecture and blends
harmoniously into the urban environment. A timber grid shell forms the basic structure, a material chosen for it's ecological and sustainable
properties, but also because the area is known for its timber
engineering school.
Dotted around the facade are around 2,800 honeycomb elements in 3 varieties: the opaque, the translucent and the transparent element.
A total of nine balconies provide views over several floors.
The lobby’s glazed entrance area features generous dimensions as well as a sense of transparency, openness and lightness.
Two glass elevators take employees and visitors to the upper
floors and
to the glass pedestrian bridge on the 3rd floor,
which connects the
Swatch building to the Cité du Temps
Floor space is spread over five floors for all departments of Swatch
International and Swatch Switzerland. The surface area of the four upper
floors decreases successively from floor to floor
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| 2nd-floor offices |
Located at the very rear of the second floor is the so-called “Reading
Stairs” whose steps and views encourage
brainstorming among colleagues
during creative breaks.
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| the lab |
the glass pedestrian bridge on the 3rd floor, which connects the Swatch
building to the Cité du Temps, an independent architectural unit also
designed by Shigeru Ban that hosts both the Omega Museum as well as
PLANET SWATCH
Several black olive trees extend up to two stories in height. The
evergreen Bucida Bucerias feels very comfortable at room temperature and
keeps its fine leaves all year round.
* My master's degree and post-grad credits are in design. So I have a
keen interest in all facets of design. I'm hoping you might enjoy it too?
Just because ...
A smile for Monday ...
1 comment:
The ephemera with words both help with movement within the piece but also anchor the composition. :-)
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