EOS Headquarters

The head office for EOS (Energie Ouest Suisse SA) occupies a peaceful plot in the heart of Lausanne, in the shade of majestic cedar tree. The building houses more than a hundred employees and provides seventy-three offices, conference rooms, lecture rooms, and a cafeteria. The archives, technical room, and parking for fifty-two vehicles are located in the basement levels. The steep slope of the site, which allows for only three levels above ground at the back of the buildings, led to the creation of large internal light wells to allow for a maximum use of daylight and natural ventilation. The basic architectural concern was to make a single building in term of function and image, starting from two distinct volumes of different heights imposed by the urban regulations. The façade’s details search for this unity by suggesting the missing volume between the two blocks, therefore treating the internal lateral façades as sections, and by stressing the horizontality through the apron and the brise-soleils that appear as if they were detached from the facade. The fifth floor, obviously out of this horizontal continuity, is treated differently, almost as a joint between the main body and the roof.