The home for the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations has just completed in New York. Designed by leading architecture studio SOM, the building is the first such ground-up headquarters to be launched in a decade, with the UAE Mission to the UN joining the Turtle Bay neighbourhood of Manhattan, which boasts classics such as the modernist arcitecture icon that is the United Nations (UN) Headquarters, completed in 1950 to a design by Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier.
The new structure for the UAE Mission to the UN was purpose-built for its diplomatic mandate. Occupying a tight urban plot, it is ten storeys high, in keeping with the area's volumes and wider cityscape. ‘Its architecture is designed to embrace the city – to harmonise with New York’s architectural past, while also reflecting the identity of the UAE and the traditions of Middle Eastern hospitality,' explain the architects.
A dramatic verticality defines the overall design, with a pattern of long, slim fins out of Indiana limestone highlighting this on the front façade cladding. A 75ft-long frieze carved into the limestone on the ground level depicts a series of palm leaves, matching the abstract nature of the fins above. This sense of verticality, drama and an uplifting spirit are mirrored inside too, as visitors step into the main lobby and are greeted by a powerful, double-height space, featuring a dark, cascading staircase.
Beyond that, creating a space that is elegant and modern, but also welcoming, comfortable and warm was crucial, reflecting the Middle Eastern traditions of hospitality to all. Apart from the striking ground floor lobby and the event spaces on the first three floors, the building includes offices for staff and executives above. Principles drawn from the UAE region's architecture, such as the use of courtyards, are reintepreted here in a contemporary way. SOM collaborated with Lebanese designer Nada Debs on furniture and furnishings throughout.
A sustainable approach and a design that puts the employees' wellbeing at its heart played a key role in the development of the building, while its use of natural materials and its green roof terrace, alongside other environmentally friendly measures, meant the UAE Mission to the UN now hopes to achieve a LEED Gold certification.
‘There is a timelessness in its materiality, as a well as a durability,' the architects conclude. ‘The permanence of the material will make the new building of the UAE Mission to the UN a lasting work of architecture that will serve the UAE for decades to come.'
INFORMATION
-
Apple and Design Miami celebrate the new guard of creativity with the inaugural Designers of TomorrowApple and Design Miami's Designers of Tomorrow make Paris debut with a cohort of four designers, including Atelier Duyi Han, Jolie Ngo, Marie & Alexandre, and Marco Campardo
-
Step inside Casa Moncler, the brand’s sustainable and highly creative Milanese HQCasa Moncler opens its doors in a masterfully reimagined Milanese industrial site, blending modern minimalism and heritage, courtesy of ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel
-
Rains Amsterdam is slick and cocooning – the brand’s ‘store of the future’Danish lifestyle brand Rains opens its first Amsterdam store, marking its refined approach with a fresh flagship interior designed by Stamuli
-
Explore Tom Kundig’s unusual houses, from studios on wheels to cabins slotted into bouldersThe American architect’s entire residential portfolio is the subject of a comprehensive new book, ‘Tom Kundig: Complete Houses’
-
Ballman Khaplova creates a light-filled artist’s studio in upstate New YorkThis modest artist’s studio provides a creative with an atelier and office in the grounds of an old farmhouse, embedding her practice in the surrounding landscape
-
The most important works of modernist landscape architecture in the USModernist landscapes quite literally grew alongside the modern architecture movement. Field specialist and advocate Charles A. Birnbaum takes us on a tour of some of the finest examples
-
Jeanne Gang’s single malt whisky decanter offers a balance ‘between utility and beauty’The architect’s whisky decanter, 'Artistry in Oak', brings a sculptural dimension to Gordon & MacPhail's single malt
-
This perfectly cubed house sits atop a hill in Hudson ValleyForma’s ‘House on a Hill’ resembled a black wooden box – all straight lines and sharp angles against the rolling backdrop of New York State
-
An idyllic slice of midcentury design, the 1954 Norton House has gone on the marketNorton House in Pasadena, carefully crafted around its sloping site by Buff, Straub & Hensman, embodies the Californian ideal of the suburban modern house embedded within a private landscape
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in PhiladelphiaThe new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
