Rather than a single hermetic entity, BIG has dissolved the ESET Campus into an urban village of interconnected buildings, framing public paths and urban squares. The diverse cluster of individual pavilions is unified by the undulating solar roofs – forming a single silhouette rising from the forested park like a man-made addition to the Little Carpathians mountain range. The ESET Campus is expected to open in .
Daily users and visitors enter directly into the Gastro Hall, the backbone of GOe. This central space runs from the ground floor all the way to the roof. Like a promenade, the grand staircase connects all programs and levels within the building and doubles as an amphitheater for events and lectures, allowing visitors to observe the showcase kitchens and ongoing research during their visit. Moving up, visitors can continue into the auditorium, public terraces, or experience world-class cuisine at the top floor restaurant.
The main loadbearing system of the building is based on V-shaped timber columns providing a structural function while also serving as a reference to both the iconic Swiss alpine landscapes and the centuries-old tradition of timber construction and traditional pitched roofs. Arriving passengers will be welcomed by this distinctly local architecture that showcases high-quality craftmanship while underscoring the airport’s pledge to sustainability.
Through an intensive curatorial process in close collaboration with the neighborhoods residents, more than objects from cultures appear throughout Superkilen. Ranging from exercise equipment from Muscle Beach in LA and sewage drains from Israel, to palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia each object is accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing the object, what it is and where it is from. The art group Superflex took the public participation further into the extreme by handpicking five groups of people and travelling to the country of their origin to document the process of selection.
By harnessing the economies of scale associated with greenhouse structures it is possible to provide a % transparent enclosure to provide the future massive silhouette on Uppsala’s skyline with an unprecedented lightness while allowing the citizens to enjoy educational glimpses of what happens within. Rather than the conventional, alienating hermetic envelope of traditional power plants the crystalline volume serves as an invitation for exploration and education. The next generation of creative energy.