United Bank Building

-Harmony of units-

Compition entry in cooperation with BET architects.

United bank represented in units coming together in to a single
entity in a seamless fashion. These units are the shares that make
up the bank. Shares are the people that came together to make
this bank a reality. These units cluster into capsules which then
recollect to a single entity expressing unity of units.
The unit is also the smallest financial unit which comes 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 lead 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.

Unbuilt
2012

Project Type

Address

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Related links

Credits

  • Söhne & Partner architects
  • BET architects