Tribunal Arbitral du Sport (TAS)

A new headquarters for the CAS

In 2000, the Beaulieu Foundation, owner of the site, initiated a renovation programme called Beaulieu 2020, aimed at restoring the site to its former status as a major economic, cultural and academic hub for the metropolitan area.

In 2014, the rejection in a popular vote of the construction of a 27-storey tower led to a reorientation of the strategy for the occupation and development of the site. New uses were considered, such as the development of a training centre for the Haute École de la Santé La Source in the 1920 hall, which will be carried out between 2015 and 2018 by RDR architects.
As part of this new plan, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is to be housed on the top two floors and in the attic of the south wing of the Palais, with the lower floors reserved for a restaurant and other uses for the Palais de Beaulieu.

Since its creation in Lausanne in 1984, the CAS has always rented its offices, first near the Olympic Museum, then at the Château de Béthusy, also in Lausanne. The acquisition of the south wing of the Palais de Beaulieu by the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (CIAS) provides it with a location that meets the needs of its expanding activities, its evolving role and its growing requirements, and ensures its future development and international influence.

In 2016, the CAS launched a parallel study mandate (MEP) for the design and construction of its new headquarters in the Palais de Beaulieu.

Based on a feasibility study, the competition specifications detail the CAS's requirements in terms of functions and premises, and propose a layout for the latter within the building.
The premises programme includes a set of work spaces: offices, archives, conference rooms, a library and a cafeteria, as well as public spaces specific to the CAS's activities: a 100-seat auditorium, courtrooms of various sizes, and all the ancillary premises necessary for the functioning of the Court.
The occupancy plan in the specifications proposes locating the public courtroom programme on the first floor and the administrative sector on the second floor and in an attic to be built.

In addition to the usual and predictable requirements for this type of competition - the pursuit of architectural excellence and exemplary environmental and energy performance - the specifications detail specific constraints relating to the incorporation of the new programme into the Palais de Beaulieu: integration into a building of great heritage and historical value, sharing an evacuation route with the Theatre, and the differentiated management of traffic flows specific to a court of this type.


Between tradition and modernity: the challenges of the project

Two main challenges underpin the project for the new CAS headquarters.

The creation of a new headquarters represents an important milestone for the CAS. The project must provide the institution with an efficient working environment that is adapted to its needs, current requirements and the specific nature of its activities, but also a representative working environment that expresses its identity, status and values.

For the CAS, occupying the Palais de Beaulieu is an opportunity (a new vision for the Beaulieu site) but also represents the possibility of investing in a building whose historic architecture lends itself well to the solemnity of an international court.

In addition, the project must be appropriately integrated into a building with recognised heritage qualities - the Palais de Beaulieu is classified as a historic monument of regional interest, a building that occupies an important place in the collective memory of French-speaking Switzerland and Switzerland as a whole, having housed the Comptoir Suisse for many years.

In its conclusions, the historical study notes that ‘the most important element of the Palais, which gives it its identity and unity, is obviously the façade designed in the early 1930s. At the time of its design, the architect created a modern façade whose large glass windows, occupying the entire height of the façade, are its distinctive feature’.

The design of the façade itself must be considered in conjunction with the volumetric expression of the Palais, with its prominent central section and two almost symmetrical lower wings, which give it its classical monumentality.
The treatment of the Palace's façades is therefore one of the key elements of the project in terms of heritage.


The RDR project: historical significance and innovation

Architecture and programme: the importance of making the right choices

The project developed by RDR architects, winner of the MEP award, offers an innovation compared to the feasibility study. The location of the public and administrative programmes is reversed: the offices are located on the 1st and 2nd floors, while the public and representative functions specific to the CAS are symbolically placed in the attic, offering them visibility and a privileged location, with views of the Lake Geneva landscape, the lake and its mountains.
This alternative distribution of the programme makes it possible to better respond to the structural constraints of the existing building and to give the major public spaces a height in keeping with their size and representativeness, but also and above all to better express the identity of an institution such as the TAS.
The new organisation ultimately leads to greater consistency between the programme, architectural expression and image.

The TAS occupies a long strip (82m x 24m) located at the southern end of the Palais along the Avenue des Bergières, bounded to the north by the theatre building.
In response to the particular shape of the available building space, the project proposes to divide the space schematically into three sections lengthwise.

Along the façade, individual offices are located on the first and second floors, with courtrooms in the attic; along the wall adjoining the theatre are service rooms and a few caucus rooms.
The central strip houses an atrium topped by a glass roof that brings natural light into the heart of the building. This central, integrating space connects and distributes the three levels. It houses staircases and meeting rooms, and on the first floor, the library and its consultation area.

A new attic-level volume is added to the south wing. This houses the hearing rooms: a 100-seat auditorium, two courtrooms with around 30 seats each, with their respective translation rooms, a spacious foyer, as well as caucus rooms and the arbitrators' room. The CAS management offices are located at the western end.
The vertical circulation cores (stairs and lifts) are located at both ends of the building, with the stairs on the east side also serving as an evacuation route for the theatre. The programme is completed by a second recessed attic housing the cafeteria and a sports hall.


The façade: adjustment and continuity

As the historical study points out, the most important element of the Palais, the one that gives it its identity and deserves to be preserved, is its façade.
During the project, the treatment of the large windows that make up the façade was the subject of an in-depth study under the watchful eye of the municipal heritage protection services.
The proposal for detached sections in front of the windows aims to emphasise the vertical and monumental proportions of the openings and to restore their tripartite division, already present in the original façades. The creation of a foreground helps to unify the variations and breaks in the horizontal rhythm resulting from the diversity of functions housed in the building.

The architectural treatment of the attic is characterised by a fully glazed façade, the eaves of which emphasise its lightness. Its horizontality crowns the mineral façade of the Palais de Beaulieu, offering a reading of a classic unitary composition, while allowing for the distinction of an emergence suggesting a specific programme.


Materiality, tradition and modernity

The choice of materials reflects the desire to express the institution's values of rigour, efficiency and transparency, and to favour a contemporary response that respects the particular historical character of the Palais de Beaulieu, whose modernity does not exclude a certain classicism.
The authenticity of natural materials is sought: concrete, wood, aluminium and brass – a nod to the historic interior architecture of the Palais de Beaulieu, in a contemporary and rigorous implementation, with sophistication but without ostentation.

RDR's involvement in this project also extended to the choice of furniture and the development of a graphic identity, particularly in the signage elements.