Basel plans new museum building in St. Johann
The Zurich architectural firm EM2N has won the project competition for the new building of the Basel Natural History Museum. At a cost of 190 million CHF, a museum building is to be constructed on Entenweidstrasse near the St. Johann/Vogesenplatz train station, which will house both the Natural History Museum and the State Archives of Basel-Stadt.
The winning project envisages a building around 200 m long, 28 m wide and 18 m high, each with five floors above and below ground and a total floor area of 35,000 square meters. It will be topped off by a 40-meter-high tower, the top floor of which can accommodate a public bar. Access to the archive and museum will be via a shared entrance hall.
125 general planning teams applied to participate in the competition. A jury selected 22 teams, of which two finally entered a revision round. The winning project, ZASAMANE, achieved first place with a large majority. The design was convincing in terms of urban planning and architecture, as well as in functional, operational, energy and economic terms, according to a press release from the canton of Basel-Stadt.
It is planned to start the preliminary project phase with the team of architects EM2N immediately after the competition. The realization is planned from 2018, subject to the approval of the construction credit by the Grand Council. If the approval, planning and implementation process goes smoothly, construction work can be expected to be completed in 2021 and the State Archives and Museum can be expected to open in around 2022/23 after individual furnishing phases. The cost ceiling for the entire project has been set at CHF 190 million.
The State Archives, with 20 linear kilometers of files and documents, and the Natural History Museum, with a collection of 7.7 million objects, are currently still located in buildings in Basel's old town that are in need of renovation. After the renovation, the Museum of Antiquities is to move into the listed Berri Building, where the Natural History Museum is currently located. The old state archive is to be used by the cantonal administration in the future. (ah)
