WHO opens sleek new site as iconic building cleansed of asbestos

The World Health Organization, which is leading the fight against the Covid pandemic, has relocated its operations to a new building while its 1960s structure is refurbished and cleansed of asbestos.

The United Nations agency held its first in-person news conference since July 2020 on Monday. Journalists were ushered into the sleek new premises through a connecting passageway and open space cafeteria to the state-of-the-art conference room.

"The last time we hosted you, in July last year, none of us could have imagined that almost 18 months later, we would still be in the grip of the pandemic," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

Jean Tschumi, a renowned Swiss architect who designed the original 1966 building with its glass facade and aluminium sun visors, also designed the award-winning Nestle headquarters in Vevey along Lake Geneva.

Both structures are considered gems of modernism.

His architect son Bernard Tschumi was on the jury that selected the design for the expanded WHO campus.

"Our Sunday morning walks were on construction sites", he told the Geneva daily Le Temps.

Significant safety issues including fire risks were identified at the main building, the WHO website says.

"The appropriate precautionary measures will be taken to contain and remove any asbestos (or other harmful material) in accordance with local building codes and health and safety legislation."

The WHO, in a statement to Reuters, said the exact quantity of asbestos containing materials within the main building will not be known until renovation is completed in October 2024.

Exposure to the substance causes cancer of the lung, larynx and ovaries.

WHO staff have moved into the new building, whose design by Berrel-Berrel-Kraeutler is called "Yin Yang" in homage to the original. Overall costs for the renovation and construction are estimated at 250 million Swiss francs ($272 million), about half financed in an interest-free loan from host Switzerland.

The WHO inaugurated the new building at an assembly of health ministers last month, who endorsed a proposed new international agreement to prevent future pandemics.

"The building renovation aims to increase site efficiency and decrease operational budget, by investing in a long-term modern, high standard and energy-efficient building," it says.

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