Basel: Herzog & de Meuron may plan high-rise at the exhibition center
In the anonymous project competition for the Rosental Tower on the site of the current Messe Basel parking garage, the jury unanimously chose the "Rooseli" project by Herzog & de Meuron.
Messe Basel's parking garage at the Rosentalanlage will be replaced by a new building that will combine apartments, offices and uses that serve the district. The parking spaces for the exhibition and congress operations will be relocated to several basement levels. The competition was announced in early 2022 on the basis of a legally valid development plan. Seven architectural firms from Basel and Zurich were invited. The aim was to ensure "that the new development is carried out with an architecturally superior and economical project in accordance with a convincing overall urban development concept."
The new building is intended to help revitalize the trade fair site outside of trade fair opening hours. The design consists of three buildings, a high-rise slice facing the fairground, a low-rise building along Riehenstrasse and a pavilion occupying a new public open space between the tower and the longitudinal building. In addition, new public is planned. It extends the current Rosental area with a loosely planted grove of trees.
350 apartments and 4,500 sqm of commercial space
In addition to around 4,500 square meters of public and semi-public commercial space at square and street level, the project includes 350 apartments with 2 to 5.5 rooms. 100 apartments are to be built in the affordable segment. The present project will be further developed in the coming year towards a building application, with the aim of a start of realization in 2024.
Cooperation between MCH and HRS
The development, financing and realisation of the project are being handled by a cooperation between the MCH Group and the real estate service provider HRS Real Estate AG. On behalf of the MCH Group, HRS was already responsible as a total contractor for the realization of Hall 1 South, which went into operation in 2013, and is responsible for the overall management of the further project development, the search for and selection of investors, and the realization and marketing of the project. (aw)
