Basel: WG Riburg plans replacement buildings
The Riburg housing cooperative (WG) wants to replace its properties in Basel's Hirzbrunnen district with new buildings. In a first stage, the properties at Riburgstrasse 3-13 will be demolished and rebuilt.
WG Riburg has 59 properties in the Hirzbrunnen district with a total of 390 apartments built between 1947 and 1969. Because the oldest buildings can no longer be sustainably renovated, they are to be replaced by new buildings. "Our analysis has shown that in the case of individual houses, both the structural and financial cost of refurbishment would be disproportionately high. For this reason, we have decided to replace the properties with new buildings in stages over the coming decades," says Peter Bänziger, President of WG Riburg.
Based on a concept by the well-known Basel-based architectural firm Burckhardt + Partner, the properties at Riburgstrasse 3-13 are now being replaced by new buildings in a first phase. Instead of 36 apartments as before, there will be 59 apartments in the new buildings in future. Around 60 percent of these will have 4.5 and 5.5 rooms. The outdoor spaces facing the neighbourhood street will be added to the ground floor apartments, and communal outdoor spaces will be created in the courtyard. The apartments on the upper floors will have balconies and loggias.
Bänziger announced that the rents in the new buildings will be moderate and "far below the market rates in the surrounding area".
WG Riburg intends to invest around CHF 28 million in the construction project. The building application is to be submitted in the second quarter of 2018, and construction could then begin in the spring of next year. The houses should be ready for occupancy in autumn 2020.
