Basel

A sizeable number of Herzog & de Meuron projects is located in Switzerland. In Basel and its surroundings, we have had the privilege of realizing an exceptionally wide range of buildings from private homes to the Roche office and laboratory towers; we have had the opportunity to develop specific solutions in cooperation with our clients, much like working in a laboratory for architectural research. The Schaulager of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, an entirely new type of art space, is a product of this cooperative, experimental approach. The re-use of existing building fabric was an early theme in the conversion of the SUVA office building and has continued to be a core concern wherever we work. A project for the University Hospital, situated within Basel’s historic city walls, will emphasize the qualities of this inner-city hospital complex – the heart of which is a public garden – while densifying it. Two projects in Allschwil, Hortus and the SIP Main Campus project, will soon provide a large amount of flexible, sustainably designed office space for biotech and healthcare pioneers.

Beyond Basel we are working on major projects across Switzerland. In Zürich, two large scale institutional projects – the Children’s Hospital and the Forum building for the University of Zürich – are in planning and under construction. In Geneva, the headquarters of the private bank Lombard Odier on the shore of Lac Léman are to be completed in 2024.

Urban and territorial planning – in cities and between them – has had a strong weight in our Swiss portfolio. In collaboration with the Christoph Merian Stiftung, we have been engaged for 20 years in the continuing transformation of the Dreispitz Areal in Basel. In Sion Ronquoz 21, a master plan will transform a primarily light industrial area into a fully mixed-use new neighborhood with a large central park, with a strategy that groups owners into cooperatives and avoids displacement of people and their businesses. On a larger scale, Cargo Sous Terrain is a territorial project that will revolutionize transport for a large portion of the country.