The new building would provide the physical environment for collaboration and idea sharing through the internal mix of open workplaces, amenities and informal meeting spaces. Large stairwells between the floors form cascading double-height communal spaces throughout the headquarters. These continuous spaces enhance connectivity between different departments and amenities, which may include basketball courts, a running track, a cafeteria and screening rooms. The amenity floors are located so they can feed directly out onto the roof top parks.
Like a seismic fault line, the architectural crusts of planet earth are lifted and mingled to form an underlying continuous space of caves and niches, lookouts and overhangs. Rather than a single perimeter delineating an interior and an exterior, the façade is conceived as a sinuous membrane meandering across the site, delineating interior spaces and exterior gardens in a seamless continuum oscillating between the city and the park.
Architecture evolves from the collision of political, financial, functional, logistic, cultural, structural, environmental, social and many yet unnamed and unforeseeable interests. Bruce Mau once visited BIGs office and saw a series of projects including a study on Danish harbor activities. He was fascinated by the study and asked us to mail him the slides as he was leaving the next day. When he received it, he replied: No, no. I want the one you explained when we were there. We assured him it was the same one. He said Its interesting. In most cases when you see architects work, itss dead drawings and superficial images. But when you get a tour of the office or visit a building with the architect, you feel the energy and get all these little punch lines and invisible stories that make the whole work come to life! Too bad its so hard to capture in an exhibition, or even worse in a book!
Located on the industrial waterfront of Amager, where raw industrial facilities have become the site for extreme sports from wakeboarding to go-kart racing the new power plant adds skiing, hiking, and rock climbing to the area. Expert skiers can ski down the artificial Olympic half-pipe length ski slope all year round, test the freestyle park, or try the timed slalom course, while beginners and kids practice on the lower slopes. Skiers ascend the park from the platter lift, carpet lifts, or glass elevator with views inside the -hour waste incineration process.
The new multidisciplinary research center, Paris PARC, located between Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe and the open green park of Sorbonnes Jussieu Campus will become a significant addition to the campus, strengthening the international appeal and openness of the leading French University for Science and Medicine. The facility will bring together academic scholars and the business community, while re-connecting the university physically and visually with the city of Paris.