The street name tells us where we are: Gewerbestraße 16 (16, Industrial estate street) – and that’s exactly what the surroundings look like. All kinds of buildings without any recognizable building style, and in between the young organic drugs company Actelion, which made use of the concept of the Basel architects that opened up the once-in-a-lifetime chance to realize the key values of their company philosophy – innovation, openness and communication – through built architecture.
In 2005 already, during an unrealized competition, the idea of irregularly stacked long office sticks was born. At first glance totally random, however, in reality a highly complex system of precise overlappings. The crossing points take care of the vertical opening within the building at four points per level. Right next to the functional areas are the tea kitchens, meeting and training rooms, supporting the informal exchange of information and ideas.
The inner courtyards have emerged through a punching between the projections and allow for sensing the dynamics of the construction from always new perspectives. And for that special kick during intense meetings, they are often arranged at the glazed endpoints of the floating sticks. Only the first floor is held in a conventional style and welcomes the visitor with a generous gesture. Reception, auditorium, restaurant, coffee bar and 350 work places are spread across seven aboveground and two belowground floors – divided into single, double or unconventional group offices, depending on current requirements.
Five to seven sections between 30 and 100 meters in length and of various widths, connected with each other on four fixed core areas, form one level. These result in all in all 34 ceiling-high prismatic bodies, having caused sleepless nights for the engineers with their various usages and static behavior. A lattice is the reason for disturbing diagonals in front of the glass areas, a Vierendeel girder cuts rectangular window openings, something that is actually uneconomic, so a combination of both supporting systems has been developed. Just by itself no easy maths here, but even tougher through the various floor heights and widths. A total of 1,500 detailed drawings for the steel construction show the complexity of the executive planning. All this is indeed inspiring and ground-breaking, but does it justify the extraordinary effort?
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Construction time: 2007 - 2010
Size: GFA: 27,470 square meters
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