Pionen White Mountain (Wikileaks HQ) designed by Albert France-Lanord Architects is housed in a former 1,200 sqm nuclear bunker an amazing location 30 meters down under the granite rocks of the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm, Sweden.
The starting point of the project was to consider the rock as a living organism. The humans try to acclimate themselves to this foreign world and bring the ‘best' elements from earth: light, plants, water and technology. Architects created strong contrasts between rooms where the rock dominates and where the human being is a stranger against rooms where the human being took over totally.
The choice of lightning has been very challenging. Designers tried to bring as much variation as possible. Otherwise it is very easy to loose the feeling of time in an enclosed space. References come straight from science fiction films, mostly ‘Silent Running' and a bunch of Bond films with Ken Adams set design.
The client had a strong vision from the first brief and the result is only possible because of their persistence, the absence of compromise and great communication/ understanding between all parts under the process.
It should be very exciting to work with a space which at first didn't offer one square angle: the rock. The main room is not a traditional space limited by surfaces but defined by the emptiness inside a mass.
