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Soehne & Partner architects

Soehne & Partner architects

Vienna, AT

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United Bank Building, Addis Ababa
United Bank Building, Addis Ababa

United Bank Building

-Main Ideas: Harmony of units-


The United Bank Building is represented in units coming together in to a single
entity - in a seamless fashion. These units are the shares that make
up the bank. The shares are the people that came together to make
this bank a reality. Finally these units cluster into capsules which then
recollect to a single entity expressing unity of units.
One single unit is also the smallest financial unit. They come together
in to hundreds, millions and billions…to create the financial
strength and power in which the bank is well represented in its
business.
Hence, the building form is conceived as a composition of a
tower and podium articulated with diamond shaped unit interwoven
together forming unity of units to symbolize the ‘Hibret’/
Unity Bank. At the ground floor, a common plaza with urban
landscape is created which leads to different entrances: branch
Bank, Headquarters, shopping and rentals. This common plaza,
serving as a transition place, also symbolizes unity- people of
different interest are coming to one shared point.
At the same time the proposed HQ building is thought to respond
to the existing urban fabric by responding to different
existing heights, human scale and creating urban plaza at the
entrance level. Until G+3 is responded by the podium made of
different volumes, from G+3 up to G+10 it was responded by
larger grains or units forming a façade pattern. Whereas, from
G+10 up to G+32 the pattern cascades diminishing upward exaggerating
the perspective.

 
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Status: Competition Entry
Location: Addis Ababa, ET
Firm Role: architect
Additional Credits: in cooperation with BET architects