Designing for the Workplace
UNO/WHO Headquarters Extension Competition
by Stanley Collyer
For all its perceived shortcomings, the United Nations Organization (UNO) can make a good case for its approach to the design of its facilities located in Geneva, Switzerland. Leading up to the most recent competition for the Headquarters Extension of the WHO offices, it staged three successful competitions:
• For the 1966 World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters building, won by Swiss architect, Jean Tschumi;
• For the 2000 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) building, won by the German firm, Behnisch Architekten;
• For the 2006 WHO/UNAIDS building, won by the Austrian firm, Baumschlager & Eberle
As the principal anchor of the WHO headquarters complex, the 1966 building, now over a half century old, has not only seen the deterioration of its basic mechanical systems and programmatic changes, but has not kept pace with the needs generated by the world’s health crisis. This necessitated the on-site construction of seven temporary or precast structures, none of which were the result of any architectural guidelines or urban planning and did not conform to present code standards.