UNStudio’s green-roofed TBC Forum breaks ground in Tbilisi | Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building

Construction has recently broken ground on the TBC Forum, a green-roofed complex in Tbilisi designed by UNStudio to champion openness, sustainability and creativity throughout. Located within the Lisi Lake resort outside Tbilisi’s city center, TBC Forum will consist of the new headquarters for the TBC Bank, an Innovation Lab, and a mixed-use Culture Hub. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding highland landscape and traditional Georgian architecture, the large-scale development features a terraced design covered with green roofs to tie the buildings together with the Lisi green valley.

The design for the new TBC Forum was conceived as a contemporary take on the historic highland village of Shatili, a stepped stone and mortar village that embraces the landscape with its clustered towers, large balconies and terraces. As a result, TBC Forum features buildings of varying heights grouped into three main clusters — the Headquarters Cluster, Subsidiaries Cluster and Public Cluster — surrounding a centrally located TBC Plaza and public esplanade. The Subsidiaries Cluster will include the Innovation Lab, a new center for research and development, while the Culture Hub will offer gallery spaces, restaurants, a children’s daycare facility and co-working spaces.

Health and social sustainability were key driving features in the design of the interiors that are filled with natural light, plants and natural materials. In contrast to the “closed and introverted working model” traditionally used in the banking industry, UNStudio wanted to create an open environment conducive to socializing, collaboration and connection with nature. The headquarters will include diverse and flexible workplace environments, from seated work areas and standing desks to open lounge areas and flex spaces in the corridors and stairways.

“UNStudio has carried out extensive research into the design of optimal work environments and the positive impact these can have on the health, wellbeing, creativity and therefore, productivity,” the firm said in a press release. “Within the design, both physical vitality and psychological wellbeing are understood to be synonymous, while the creation of community is considered fundamental to the encouragement of communication, interaction, knowledge exchange and creativity. In the design of the TBC Forum, environmental concerns are not merely related to the energy performance of the building, but to social sustainability and the performance of its users.”