Zurich Architecture : Liestal Public Records Office

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft Extension, Liestal 2007 EM2N Competition 2001 1st prize Photos copyright: Hannes Henz Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft Extension - Project Description The public records office is the collective memory of the political, economic and cultural life of a canton. This makes the questions of an adequate urban location and appropriate architectural expression of central importance. The location of the existing public records office amidst smaller and larger residential buildings , cut off from the town centre by the railway line, hardly allows the public character of the institution to be expressed. We interpret the need to double the spatial programme, while remaining at the same location, as a chance to translate the existing building into a powerful, self-confident form. Although the competition brief expressly excludes it, we suggest adding a storey to the archive wing. As a consequence the spatial programme is no longer horizontally but vertically organized. By placing the public zone on the 2nd floor the visitors area is lifted out of the cramped topography. From above the railway line embankment it engages the urban district of Liestal opposite as a glazed roof zone. At the same time it is possible to keep the volume as compact as possible. The outermost plane of the facade of the archive below is planted with ivy, blending the old and new buildings to form a single entity. The clean-edged glazed roof zone rests on a “soft” plinth storey. The greening of the facade fulfils certain requirements in terms of building physics (protection against driving rain, climatic balancing layer, temperature, moisture) . In addition it signalizes the building’s special function, and its organic softness allows it to mediate between the building and the small-scale green valley. Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft Extension - Building Information Project Name: Extension Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft Location: Liestal Client: Department for Construction and Environmental Protection, Canton Basel-Landschaft, Represented by the Office for Building Construction Project Type: Building Architects: EM2N: Mathias Mueller / Daniel Niggli, Zurich Construction Management: Otto + Partner AG, Liestal Structural Engineers: Walt + Galmarini Bauingenieure AG, Zurich Facade planners: Emmer Pfenninger Partner AG, Muenchenstein Public Records Office Liestal - Dates: Competition 2001 1st prize Planning phase: 2001-07 Start of construction: May 2005 Completion: Jun 2007 Site Area: 3,286 m2 Gross Floor Area: 4,705 m2 Costs: EUR 9.7 Mio Liestal Office Building architect : EM2N Liestal Public Records Office Building Photos © Hannes Henz Architekturfotograf, Langmauerstrasse 42, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland T ++41 43 255 08 30 F ++41 43 255 08 31 M ++41 79 228 28 80 hanneshenz@freesurf.ch Swiss Hotel Building : Hotel Castell Zuoz Zurich Architecture