Humanitarium

The operation aims to complement the international headquarters premises with a new restaurant, conference rooms, exhibition space and offices for the International Commitee of the Red Cross and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. The layout is intended to reinforce the strong symbolism of the former
Carlton hotel, the first building occupied by the ICRC on the site. The design is divided into two parts. The first part comprises the restaurant located on a hill on the site, opening onto the  landscape, at the crossroads of pedestrian traffic. It is sheltered by a sinuously contoured slab that embraces a preserved tree signalling the entrance. The second part brings together the modular conference spaces and offices, hidden behind two glass slides inserted into the hillside, the slope of which has been preserved.

This furtive presence limits the visual impact of this construction so as not to compete with the museum building completed in 1988 by Pierre Zoelly. An extension of the museum’s exhibition spaces can be found in the new building.