BIS Site Development – Basel
Aerial view of BIS site
Client: Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Type: International, Invited with RfQ
Eligibility: Foreign and domestic architecture firms
Language: English
Fees: None
Timetable:
21 June 2021 – Competition launch
26 July 2021 – Deadline for Questions
6 August 2021 – Prequalification registration deadline
14 September 2021 – Notice of results of prequalification
18/19 January 2022 – Intermediate presentation
24/25 May 2022 – Final presentation
July 2022 – Announcement of results
Awards:
80,000 CHF for each participant who submitted a valid project study and made all presentations
Jury:
• Sacha Menz (chairperson) – architect based in Zurich and professor at ETH Zurich
(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
- Beat Aeberhard – Head of Urban Development and Architecture of the Canton of Basel-Stadt
- Christophe Girot – landscape architect based in Zurich and professor at ETH Zurich
- Louisa Hutton – architect based in Berlin and former lecturer/visiting professor at Architectural Association in London and Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Vittorio Lampugnani – architect based in Milan and professor emeritus at ETH Zurich
- Débora Mesa Molina – architect based in Madrid and Boston and lecturer at the School of Architecture of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta
Design Challenge:
The Bank for International Settlements, situated in the heart of Basel and in the centre of Europe, acts as a regular forum for meetings of its constituency of central bankers, financial regulators and supervisory authorities. Over the last decades, the BIS has extended its presence in Basel as its activities have grown. This expansion has been accommodated over the last decades through the acquisition of premises in close proximity to the Tower.
The current facilities are concentrated in two major locations in Basel, the Tower site and the site of the Botta building. With the exception of the Tower building, the buildings on the Tower site are aging and inefficient or cannot be used at all, requiring the Bank to rebuild at some stage. Therefore, to ensure sufficient flexibility to meet demands over the coming decades, the Bank is looking to modernise its current facilities to support new ways of working and bring all its Basel-based staff into one location to foster collaboration.
The project study will consider two different phases with the main focus on the first stage in the development of the future building extension, the “New Development”. The BIS envisages a possible further building extension at a later stage, the “Second-stage Development”.
The masterplan, which was approved in 2015, enables the BIS to realize on the site around and including the existing Tower building an overall of 68,000 m² gross floor area (BGF) above ground in order to consolidate the entire BIS staff from all facilities in Basel in one place.
Within both the constraints regarding the extension of the facilities and the implementation of the new masterplan in two stages, the BIS has initiated this project study in order to seek the most suitable project for the future home of the BIS in Basel.
Documents download link:
www.bis-campus.org
Contact person:
new.development@bis.org
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Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
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Young Architects in Competitions
When Competitions and a New Generation of Ideas Elevate Architectural Quality
by Jean-Pierre Chupin and G. Stanley Collyer
published by Potential Architecture Books, Montreal, Canada 2020
271 illustrations in color and black & white
Available in PDF and eBook formats
ISBN 9781988962047
What do the Vietnam Memorial, the St. Louis Arch, and the Sydney Opera House have in common? These world renowned landmarks were all designed by architects under the age of 40, and in each case they were selected through open competitions. At their best, design competitions can provide a singular opportunity for young and unknown architects to make their mark on the built environment and launch productive, fruitful careers. But what happens when design competitions are engineered to favor the established and experienced practitioners from the very outset?
This comprehensive new book written by Jean-Pierre Chupin (Canadian Competitions Catalogue) and Stanley Collyer (COMPETITIONS) highlights for the crucial role competitions have played in fostering the careers of young architects, and makes an argument against the trend of invited competitions and RFQs. The authors take an in-depth look at past competitions won by young architects and planners, and survey the state of competitions through the world on a region by region basis. The end result is a compelling argument for an inclusive approach to conducting international design competitions.
Download Young Architects in Competitions for free at the following link:
https://crc.umontreal.ca/en/publications-libre-acces/
RUR model perspective – ©RUR
New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan (2011-2020)
Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC/ Jesse Reiser – U.S.A.
with
Fei & Cheng Associates/Philip T.C. Fei –R.O.C. (Tendener)
This was probably the last international open competition result that was built in Taiwan. A later competition for the Keelung Harbor Service Building Competition, won by Neil Denari of the U.S., the result of a shortlisting procedure, was not built. The fact that the project by RUR was eventually completed—the result of the RUR/Fei & Cheng’s winning entry there—certainly goes back to the collaborative role of those to firms in winning the 2008 Taipei Pop Music Center competition, a collaboration that should not be underestimated in setting the stage for this competition.
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Winning entry ©Herzog de Meuron
In visiting any museum, one might wonder what important works of art are out of view in storage, possibly not considered high profile enough to see the light of day? In Korea, an answer to this question is in the making.
It can come as no surprise that museums are running out of storage space. This is not just the case with long established “western” museums, but elsewhere throughout the world as well. In Seoul, South Korea, such an issue has been addressed by planning for a new kind of storage facility, the Seouipul Open Storage Museum. The new institution will house artworks and artifacts of three major museums in Seoul: the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History, and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.
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Belfast Looks Toward an Equitable and Sustainable Housing Model
Birdseye view of Mackie site ©Matthew Lloyd Architects
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Winning Stage 2 design for the WWll Memorial Competition ©Friedrich St. Florian
The guidelines for the administration a design competition are not a closely held state secret. Still, leading up to the announcement of a design competition for the World War II Memorial, some in the military seemed to think otherwise. In early 1993, an AIA staff person, Frimmel Smith, was appointed to serve as a source of information on the subject. Shortly after President Clinton signed a bill in 1993 authorizing the establishment of a memorial, several military officers appeared in Frimmel Smith’s office at the AIA headquarters, announcing they would like to learn about competitions. Were they asleep during the exemplary administration of the Vietnam Memorial competition, which had resulted in an highly acclaimed product? Or, with another war memorial in the offing, did they not want to be caught off guard this time and again be bystanders as was the case when an enlisted man, Jan Scruggs, was the initiator of the Vietnam Memorial?
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