Basel, Switzerland

The new building for the Biozentrum University of Basel by Ilg Santer Architekten with Krebs und Herde harmonizes structural and spatial details, creating an open floorplan for a more flexible and efficient building typology. 

The architects decided instead of concealing the building’s technology, they would bring it into visible harmony with the structure and space and connect these with each other. 

In the structural concept for the laboratory building only the facade columns housing the building services and the four cores in the tower are loadbearing. 

The horizontal forces are transferred by facade frames in the form of Vierendeel trusses. 

For its inspired design, Biozentrum University of Basel has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

By combining these with the facade columns and the four cores, the building abandons the conventional solution for high-rise buildings in favor of a floor plan that is as open as possible in the middle, allowing considerable freedom in dividing the different floor levels. 

On each of the standard floors, there are four professorial departments of equal size that share a communal middle zone. More than six meters (about 19.5 feet) wide, this elongated space is a place of arrival, a social meeting point, and the hub of operations. 

The floor plan has no internal columns and therefore offers considerable freedom in dividing up the laboratory spaces to meet the highly specific needs of the respective research groups. 

The structure and space, flexibility and efficiency, function, and design of the standard floor are precisely balanced and establish a pattern for the entire building. 

An important element is the building’s three-story entrance hall. 

Despite it not being part of the client’s original commission, Andreas Ilg and Marcel Santer conceived the building as a public urban forum that would provide additional spatial value beyond its main functions. 

Circular elements contrast with the building’s orthogonal basic structure and produce a spatial system rich in visual relationships. 

It interlocks with its surroundings, making the hall the representative heart of the campus. 

Ilg Santer Architekten were also responsible for the entire interior design.

Project: New Building for the Biozentrum University of Basel
Architects: Ilg Santer Architekten
Landscape Architects: Krebs und Herde
General Contractor: Cantone Basel City and Basel Country
Client: Biozentrum of University of Basel
Photographers: Daisuke Hirabayashi Ana Skobe