Project details:

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



Dates:
Competition 2001st prize
Planning phase: 2001-07
Start of construction: May 2005
Completion: June 2007
Site Area: 3,286 m2
Gross Floor Area: 4,705 m2
Costs: EUR 9.7 Mio



Photos copyright: Hannes Henz

Project write-up:

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.





Swiss buildings



Liestal Office Building architect : EM2N



Photos: copyright:
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



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Liestal Building - page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt