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
-
Inside Kazakhstan’s brutalist Tselinny cinema – now a hub for contemporary cultureTselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, a modernist landmark redesigned for its new purpose by Asif Khan, gears up for its grand opening in Kazakhstan
-
Oliver Spencer’s orbiting installation offers a meditative shopping experience during London Design FestivalAt Oliver Spencer’s Shoreditch store, a sensory light installation by Studio Rhythmics offers a calming moment during LDF
-
These benches are made from £2.5m worth of shredded banknotesYou could be sitting on a fortune this London Design Festival, as the Bank of England Museum explores the creative repurposing of waste with furniture made from decommissioned banknotes
-
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
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
We'd happily move into this super-stylish New York architecture officeMichael K Chen’s newly expanded Midtown workspace is a calling card for his intuitive style and inclusive approach
-
How LA's Terremoto brings 'historic architecture into its next era through revitalising the landscapes around them'Terremoto, the Los Angeles and San Francisco collective landscape architecture studio, shakes up the industry through openness and design passion
-
Inside the Waldorf Astoria's dazzling restoration, from cigar smoke to snowy owlsHow a team of architects from SOM and a group of art conservators brought New York's grand dame back to her original Art Deco splendor
-
Inside a Donald Wexler house so magical, its owner bought it twiceSo transfixed was Daniel Patrick Giles, founder of fragrance brand Perfumehead, he's even created a special scent devoted to it
