Henning Larsen Architects has been selected to design the European Spallation Source research centre. In a large international design contest, two winners were chosen: the concept by the Henning Larsen consortium, and the concept by the BIG/HOK consortium. In the end, HLA was selected to develop the final design.The ESS is Europe’s largest science current project. It will be the world-leading research facility for materials research and life science with neutrons.
European Spallation Source (ESS), in Lund, Sweden from Henning Larsen Architects on Vimeo.
After an international design contest, ESS has chosen Henning Larsen Architects as the architectural partner to design the ESS facility. The concept was considered to show “great skill and sensitivity”, a strong campus concept, and a combination of human and dramatic scale.
The Henning Larsen Architects consortium included the companies COBE, SLA, as well as the engineering enterprises Buro Happold, NNE Pharmaplan and Transsolar. This team will now be assigned to develop the final design of the ESS premises.
The process of designing the ESS architectural design and surrounding landscaping is still in an early stage. The final architectural design will be developed in the coming year.
– The choice of an architectural partner for the design of the ESS facility is a large step. It will mean that we can start the detailed planning of the construction needed to move ahead, says Kent Hedin, Head of the ESS Conventional Facilities Division.
The choice was preceded by an international design contest, in which two winning concepts were chosen by the jury. The second winner, besides the Team Henning Larsen Architects concept, was the concept by the Team BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and HOK International Limited, in which also participated Topotek1/man made land. The BIG/HOK concept was selected because of an “extraordinarily strong design idea, integrating the building complex with the surrounding landscape”, expressed in an “emblematic building”.
After development of the winning concepts with the goal of identifying feasibility, the HLA Team was selected for the continued process of designing the ESS.
The international design contest was conducted during the second half of 2012, and the choice of architectural partner was done in February 2013. In the contest, a large number of recognised architectural firms, and landscaping companies submitted expressions of interest. From these, five architectural consortia were selected to submit design concepts.
Image Credit | ESS
Architecture Image Credit | Henning Larsen Architects Team
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