Our project Kunsthaus Baselland has been awarded the Swiss Arc Award 2024 in the «Freizeit & Lifestyle» category!

«It has been created a surprisingly complex spatial structure, that amazes with its calm and openness.», wrote the jury in its laudatio.

The Swiss Architecture Awards will be awared in September. Buchner Bründler Architekten has a nominated project in both categories. The residential building Missionsstrasse has been nominated for the best conversion and the Rötiboden housing developoment has been nominated for the best new building.

Online voting for the «Audience Award» runs until September 29^th.

Architect's and director's tour.
Thursday 13.6., 10-11am

Tour focusing on the new architecture with Andreas Bründler and Ines Goldbach, director of KHBL.
In English

We are delighted that our projects “Wohnsiedlung Rötiboden” and “Kunsthaus Baselland” have both been shortlisted for the Arc Award.

The online voting for the «Audience Award» has started this week.

Our projects «Housing development Rötiboden», «Kunsthaus Baselland» and «Residential development Eisenbahnweg» are new and with current photos on our homepage.

With the exhibition "Begin Again. Fail Better." at the Art Museum Olten, works from four archives and 50 architecture firms are shown.

The focus is on hand drawings and sketches that stand at the beginning of an idea. The sketch that manifests initial thoughts or serves as a collector of ideas for projects.

Our office is represented with two sketches of the "Missionsstrasse residential building".

The exhibition lasts until August 25th, 2024.

Continue building – Continue growing!

The existing school complex in the heart of Sissach, which has grown structurally over the centuries, is being reorganized and supplemented with a new extension. The result is a campus situation oriented to all sides, which creates a conscious dialog with the new buildings and outdoor spaces of the school and the public buildings in the center. In the architectural formulation of the new extension, themes of the existing building such as plasticity and staggering are transferred into a contemporary timber construction.

Buchner Bründler Architekten, Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure AG, Maurus Schifferli Landschaftsarchitektur, Bogenschütz AG HLKS and Quantum Brandschutz GmbH.

We are looking forward to opening the New Kunsthaus Baselland on Dreispitz site in Basel soon!

13.4. - 14.4.2024 - Opening Weekend New Kunsthaus Baselland

13. April 2024, 5 - 5.30pm - Architectural Input. A discussion between Andreas Bründler and Ines Goldbach.

We are delighted to receive the 1st prize for MARIAGE!

PRESERVE, RENOVATE, EXTEND - WITH DIGNITY

The existing "Im Brüel" retirement center is to be expanded to include additional beds and new residential units. The current complex is formed by two interwoven building complexes dating from 1967 and 1995. The extensions will be constructed in wooden superstructures, which take over the existing structures. A new wooden building with a public character completes the complex. In addition to the required operational efficiency, our most urgent goal is to create a dignified, harmonious and loving place. For the residents as well as for the neighbors.

Consortium Buchner Bründler Planer AG with Proplaning AG, MOFA Studio GmbH Landscape architecture, Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure AG Supporting structure, Abicht Zug AG Building technology, Quantum GmbH Fire protection.

The new administrative building will initiate the development of the Kreuzboden site into an open campus. The project proposal provides two building volumes that create a flowing park through their solitary placement.

The main building, designed as a timber skeleton construction, contains the usable areas of two administrative offices. Two-storey loggias each span two levels and serve as superordinate meeting points. A rotunda for gastronomic use with an extensive rammed earth wall is located in front of the main building.The administrative center will be designed to meet the highest sustainability standards during construction and usage.

Consortium Buchner Bründler Planer AG with Rapp AG, MOFA Studio GmbH Landscape architecture, ZPF Structure AG Supporting structure, Abicht Zug AG Building technology, immoing GmbH Electrical planning, Quantum GmbH Fire protection, INCHfurniture.

Our construction site of Kunsthaus Baselland is shortly before its completion. We are looking forward to handing over the building to his owner shortly.
Commissioned by Kunsthaus Baselland, artist Dirk Koy took another look at the construction site.

This year, photographer Jan Rothstein visited our WDR construction site in Cologne and documented the progress of the construction work in impressive pictures. On site, the structure has been completed and the facade is sealed.

House Allschwil received the award «Auszeichnung Gutes Bauen 2023 der Kantone Basel-Landschaft und Basel-Stadt» on November 3rd, 2023.

The project was awarded for its artistic approach in continuing the construction of the existing building. We were delighted to accept the prize and would like to thank the jury for the wonderful laudation.

The Rötiboden residential development is based on the vision of the property owner to create a "lively" place for families.

On Saturday, September 30^th, friends of architecture were allowed to visit and experience the project shortly before its completion.

Eleven family-orientated, individually-developed studio houses have been realized; they are comparable to the classic terraced, single-family house. The houses have three floors and room heights of up to 3.80m.

All outdoor spaces of the two buildings are used collectively. Visitors repeatedly discovered new meeting places and places of retreat. On the garden level, the interior spaces open onto the meadow via verandas. In the communal courtyard, facing the slope to the south, a level space, characterized by its habitable quality and protection from the street, was created. In the center of the settlement there is a square with a community room and a bathing fountain, from where two generous spiral staircases connect the different levels. From terrace levels, to the large roof hosting a view into the distance, living together is supported and encouraged.

We are looking forward to handing over the studio houses to their residents shortly, and are excited to see how all the children will explore and liven up their new, colorful home.

Local photographer Maris Mezulis captured a striking documentation of our construction site in Dreispitz in Basel. From a distance, one can already grasp the full height of the three towers with their openings. Inside, the spatial volumes can be identified. They are structured by the gallery level, the partition walls and the three towers. By now, the scaffolding on the towers has been removed and the roof is closed. We are looking forward to the opening next year!

The structural work has been completed at the end of March. This includes the three towers with their openings, which are visible from afar. They are essential architectural elements for transforming the former warehouse into a house for contemporary art. They provide a structure to the warehouse space and support the upper gallery level, resulting in a variety of spatial situations. Furthermore, they allow visual references between the two exhibition levels and bring daylight into the rooms. Commissioned by Kunsthaus Baselland, artist Dirk Koy took a look at the construction site.

Our project Missionsstrasse House is presented in the exhibition Internal Plaster at the Materials Hub of the ETH Zurich. The exhibition is based on the latest publication by Professor Annette Spiro, which was produced as a handbook for planning rendered surfaces in interiors. Besides the historical development and traditional application of the material, numerous project examples are used to discuss material properties and contemporary design options.  

The exhibition is on view from May 10 to July 14.

A public opening will take place on May 10th at 18:30.

The last two studio/loft houses with lake views in the Rötiboden housing development are currently for sale. The project consists of two buildings with a total of eleven homes. The property benefits from its unique location with panoramic views and is intended to become a place worth living in, where community life is fostered. The listings can be found on Homegate.

Our exhibition at the Architekturforum Zürich is now open.

Fourteen projects from our monograph Buchner Bründler Bauten II are showcased within a simple wooden construction which creates a prismatic form for each project.

Printed fabrics suspended from this structure creates graphic spaces in which visitors can immerse themselves. Here, architectural photography, chronological texts of the sites and the works of Ludovic Balland and Annina Schepping enter into direct dialogue.

The simultaneity thus generated creates a field of tension that can be experienced more immediately than in the two-dimensionality of the book.

Many thanks to the authors of the images and texts Georg Aerni, Ludovic Balland, Michael Blaser, Daniela Droz & Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Rory Gardiner, Isabell Koellreuter, Mark Niedermann, Alexander Rosenkranz, Annina Schepping, Oliver Schneider, Franziska Schürch, Hansjörg Walter, Ruedi Walti. Special thanks to Architekturforum Zürich and Hürzeler Holzbau Magden.  

The exhibition will run until April 22, 2023.

Architekturforum Zürich, Zollstrasse 115, 8005 Zürich

Following an invitation from the Architekturforum Zürich for a Carte Blanche, we are showing our recently released second monograph in a new format.

In collaboration with Ludovic Balland and Annina Schepping, the book contains a post-production of a selection of conversions and new buildings. In independent series of images, the essential features of each concept are presented in depth. In addition to architectural photographs, chronological texts about the locations create a third, evocative level.

The three narrative levels, which - due to the form of the book - have to be freely assembled, enter into a direct dialogue in the exhibition. For the same project selection, prismatic pictorial spaces - resembling actual triptychs - are created to generate a synchronicity. They scale the two-dimensionality of the book directly into the realm of space.

The exhibition is on view from February 11 to April 22.

A public opening will take place on February 10th at 18:30.

A new housing estate is being built on Rötibodenstrasse in Wädenswil. The shell and core of the houses is now almost complete. The two buildings of the new development contain a total of eleven houses, which are arranged similarly to rowhouses and where the living space is distributed over three floors.

Since the beginning of September our new monograph Buchner Bründler Buildings II is finally available. It focuses on our work during the last ten years. The starting points for the editorial dialogue were reflections on our own work, processes, methods, and questions about the visual language of the built works.

Fourteen buildings are presented in detail in the main part of the book. In addition to detailed photo spreads and execution plans, Ludovic Balland and Annina Schepping evaluated existing photographic material in the workshop chapter and simultaneously experimented with other methods of representation.

Contributions by Tibor Joanelly, Urs Stahel, Franziska Schürch, Isabel Koellreuter, Oliver Schneider and Ludovic Balland. 

The book can be purchased in bookstores and online.

Photographer Basile Bornand visited our construction site on the Rhine in Basel and produced a striking serie of images.

The corner-like structure complements the existing block edge fragment to form an open square and thus stabilizes the existing building structure of the neighborhood. The façade is made of clinker brick in colored earth tones, thus referencing the larger context of the river landscape with its dense shoreline vegetation. The structural work is well advanced. The first part of the scaffolding of the annex has now been removed.

Buchner Bründler Architekten and Christ & Gantenbein share an archival space directly by the Rhine in Basel's Klybeck area. During the Architekturwoche Basel, this model and object archive will be open for the first time. Both offices will show selected architectural models in an exhibition that reveals a diversity of scales, programs, and typologies. 

Dates: Friday, 13 May 3:00 - 8:00 pm and Saturday, 14 May 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Address: Westquaistrasse 62, 4057 Basel

We are delighted to build in Hamburg again thanks to our winning proposal for one of three Water Houses in Hamburg's Hafencity. The high-rise residential building will be built directly into the basin of Baakenhafen harbour and can be reached via a double footbridge. The house will be built in an innovative wood-hybrid construction.

On March 30^th it finally happened. Instead of a conventional groundbreaking, the beginning of construction was celebrated by

spectacularly opening the doors of the building and by projecting the piece “Bildraum”. This dreamy sequence by the artist Dirk Koy with music from Ben Kaczor shows the building atmospherically and celebrate the transitory moment between planning and execution.

On May 14th and 15th the doors of 100 buildings in and around Basel will be open to visitors. The house in Bläsiring  can be visited which has not been the case for a long time (reservation required). Like last year our residence in Allschwil can also be toured.

We were able to win the competition for the reorganization of the Kunstmuseum Olten. The existing buildings will be largely retained; like the Kunstmuseum, an annex will be added to the neighboring residential and commercial building. The new museum block appears like a grown fitting piece, which enters into a relationship with the existing buildings and thus creates an attractive square space at Munzingerplatz. The progressively growing form finds its conclusion with the precise keystone of the museum addition.

Finley, Pierre and Mateo visited our office for three days to get an insight into the work as draughtsmen. Among other things, the three bright and dedicated scholars measured, sketched and drew in CAD. A visit to our construction site at Eisenbahnweg was an exciting finale for all.

Our conversion of the Hotel Nomad has made it to the shortlist of the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA in the category "built heritage". Material analyses confirmed the original concrete façade, which could be uncovered again from the layer of paint added in the 1980s. Newly added window boxes with wide aluminium frames differentiate with the fine-textured concrete relief that has reappeared.

A part of the Maag areal in Zürich-West is to be restructured. In direct relation to existing buildings of the former cogwheel factory and in dialogue with the surrounding solitary buildings, a precisely placed high-rise volume forms an atmospheric complex which supplements the existing urban body.
(Invited study commission 2020, without rank)

On 12 and 13 June 2021, the doors will open in and around Basel for a weekend. As in previous years, the Cooperative Building Stadterle, the Hotel Nomad and the St. Alban Youth Hostel are open to the public. In addition, our conversion of a residential building in Allschwil can be visited. Image: © Open House Basel

April 2021: We are very happy about having received the building permit for the Kunsthaus Baselland. The next steps for the conversion of the Dreispitzhalle can be planned: A concrete structure is introduced into the former warehouse that reorganizes and translates it into an exhibition space for contemporary art.

Over the next few years, a vibrant quarter district with mixed-use will be developed near Pratteln railway station. We were able to win the study commission for the conversion of the former Rohner AG area. Derived from the historically grown building arrangement, we propose a settlement of the building structures that continues the story of the site and translates its industrial past into a public place with generous green and open spaces.

Our project Cooperative Building Stadterle was awarded first prize in the AIT Awards 2020 in the category Social Design / Participatory Architecture. The jury of the international award explained their choice as follows: "If housing is a socio-spatial practice of caring for oneself and the community – for family and neighbourhood as well as for city and world – then housing is possible right here”. We are also very pleased to receive a mention for the project Casa Mosogno in the Living Single Family category.

In 2020, a former carriage house in an idyllic, park-like courtyard was converted into a family home. The unfavorable daylight situation presented a particular challenge. Vertical light from large roof windows now illuminates the entire building volume and falls through circular openings into the rooms further inside. Therefore, a natural brightness with different light qualities is being created throughout the whole house.

A mock-up was set up on the building site not far from the Rhine in Basel, showing various construction principles and wall connections of the clinker brick façade in natural colours. The façade of the building is enlivened by buckles aswell as projections and recesses, so that it is perceived in a differentiated way even from a distance. The haptic and naturally irregular material also gives the building a homely and lively expression.

Our project Allschwil House was nominated for «Die Besten 2020», which is awarded by the Hochparterre. We are very pleased to have received the «Bronzener Hase». A report will follow in the issue 12/20 of the magazine.

The Horburg residential from the 1940s is to be developed into a future-oriented, sustainable residential complex. We were able to win the competition held in 2017. The former works settlement will be preserved in its entirety and supplemented with a single component: a new overall ensemble will be created that continues the independence of the district and interprets its structural development in an equally contemporary way. The development plan for the “Horburg Dreirosen" housing development was published in November 2020.

The work is progressing well, the temporary bracing of the building has made it possible to dismantle the interior fittings and the façade of the media house. In October 2020, the actions for reorganizing the internal spatial situation are clearly visible – a deep cut is made through the building structure from the 1970s. In the future, a staircase conceived as a continuous cascade will connect the floors. New lines of sight will determine the character of the space and enable open, transparent communication across the floors. There are new impressions.

Concrete is produced like hardly any other building material in a comparably direct production method by casting it into its defined form. Prepared on site, it defines structure, space and form in one. On 22.10.2020, Andreas Bründler will reflect on the intensive examination of building materials as part of the event series "Material Talk" at the Baumuster-Centrale in Zurich.

On the Campus Hönggerberg of the ETH Zurich, an meeting and training place with offices, multipurpose rooms and workshops will be build. We were able to win the anonymous project competition. The new building expresses its autonomy and legibility through a strong structural play that reacts situatively to the different conditions of the building's sides - and thus enters into a lively dialogue with the context of the campus.

Casa Mosogno was selected from over 300 entries for "Constructive Alps" and nominated for the international award along with 27 other projects. Relevant for the jury's choice is not only the climate-friendliness of the buildings, but also their contribution to a future-oriented life and economy in the Alps. The project will be shown together with the other finalists in a travelling exhibition during the next two years.

Under the title "Basel 2050", an overall view will be presented from 11 to 27 September 2020, which will shed light on the urban development of Basel. The forum, which includes an exhibition and nine events at Swiss Architecture Museum, offers space to think, talk and develop. Not least, the question of what Basel will look like thirty years from now will be explored. As a member of the accompanying group "Urban Development for Basel 2050", Andreas Bründler will take part in four panel discussions.

August 2020: With the completion of the ceiling above the ground floor, a first interim goal has been reached. Floor by floor, first the two staircase cores and the peripheral frame construction are raised to the height of the next. Only then can it be constructed. Parallel to the work on the main building, curved steel plates were joined together to form a spiral ramp, which will in future provide public access to the tracks of Uri's cantonal railway station.

In its 03/2020 issue, the magazine Casabella deals with the concept of continuity in the context of different forms of housing in the era of globalization. Mosogno, located in the Onsernone Valley in Ticino, has suffered, like many other municipalities in the region, from the consequences of the population's departure over the last few decades. The conversion of the house below Mosogno was a balancing act between securing the old substance and new interventions.

Flats shall be created in the industrial area Webergut on the edge of the Bernese suburb Zollikofen. As part of the study commission, we have proposed a conversion of the existing structures, which is characterised by a high quality of living standards and which turns a former office building into a lively and collective place. 
(Study commission 2020, without rank)

The Allschwil House will be exhibited at the Museum Kleines Klingental as part of the "Modern Living" exhibition from 10 June 2020 to 14 March 2021. Together with other examples of reconstructed single-family houses from post-war modernism in and around Basel, the detached house in its cultural-historical and architectural significance is examined.

Starting in the autumn semester 2020, Andreas Bründler will teach at the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland for one year and head one of the three focal points of the master's programme: "House, Settlement, Landscape".

We are very pleased to receive a mention for Casa Mosogno from Premio SIA Ticino. The Premio SIA is awarded every four years and honours works in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. The jury appreciates the in-depth and almost archaeological study of the interventions, which mediate in-between authenticity and contemporary interpretation.

Three of our projects, the Allschwil House, the Cherry Storehouse Nuglar and Casa Mosogno, have made it into the 10 nominees for the architecture award The best conversion. We are very happy to receive the jury award for Casa Mosogno! The project convinces by the dignified handling of historical substance in cooperation with traditional craftsmanship to secure the cultural heritage of the stone houses, without following the logic of modernizing conversions.

A report on the award will follow in the 03/04 issue of Umbauen+Renovieren.

Andreas Bründler's lecture Constellation Correlation, held at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London on January 6th, 2020 is now available online. By means of several case studies Andreas Bründler illustrates how conceptual approaches are developed and established from hands-on experience.

We are happy to receive a mention for the cooperative house Stadterle of the Premio Europeo di Architettura Matilde Baffa Ugo Rivolta. The jury of the international prize for social design emphasizes in particular the participative process between the housing cooperative and the architects, the diverse housing typologies and the richness of private and common spaces.

This year Jascha, Kaniyan and Pierre got an insight into the work of our office. The three bright-eyed and motivated students made drawings of an ongoing project. Afterwards they built models and visited the construction site.

Rory Gardiner's photographs of House Münchenstein and Cherry Storehouse Nuglar were published as a photo essay by DIVISARE. The books in small format with hardcover were published in a limited edition of 200 copies and give insight into the two buildings by Buchner Bründler Architekten.

Towards the end of 2018 Buchner Bründler Architekten won first place in a competition initiated by the municipality of Interlaken to extend the existing school campus on the Alpenstrasse. The proposal extends the existing assembly hall and envisages versatile and flexible connecting spaces between existing volumes as well as a meeting place for the occupants. The winning project is on public display in the "Aula“ (assembly hall) of the school campus at Alpenstrasse from October 26 until November 3, 2019 alongside five further competition submissions.

New on our website: The Cherry Storehouse Nuglar. The conversion of this former cherry storage facility into a residential building with an architectural studio was completed in July, 2018 in a collaboration between lilitt bollinger studio and Buchner Bründler Architekten. The house, constructed in 1968, sits on the site immediately next to the distillery dating back to the 1920s and was mainly used to receive cherry deliveries.

In late August, 2019, the office travelled to Belgium for four days visiting buildings, construction sites and the studios of our Belgian colleagues who shared their work, their thoughts and their spaces with us: De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, Marie-José Van Hee Architecten, OFFICE KGDVS, Robbrecht en Daem, 51N4e und noAarchitecten. Below are some impressions of our trip.

We are designing and realising ten new studio / loft houses at Rötibodenstrasse in Wädenswil. A sales brochure with all information about the development is available for download on our project website.

The design of the development promotes a lively and interactive lifestyle between residents who benefit from the site's breath-taking panoramic views.

The official construction of our Bahnhofplatz Altdorf project commenced on September 9th with a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony. After its expansion, the Altdorf railway station is set to become a central hub on the new transalpine route as well as the main station of the Canton of Uri.  The first trains will stop at the Buchner Bründler Architekten designed station after the SBB’s timetable changes take effect on December 12, 2021

We completed the conversion of a 1960s residential house in Allschwill in March 2019. The illegibility of the design of the house caused by earlier additions was replaced by a new architectural cohesion inside, without entirely concealing the discontinuities: the walls are fully clad with tall wooden panels. A new annex offers a reinterpretation of the themes of the existing building. 

An idle paper mill at the northern edge of Cham will be turned into a new quarter. We were able to win the study competition held for the boiler house. A conversion reduced to the essential elements and opening up to the new quarter in various ways, is intended to reactivate the area.  

During the conversion of the WDR Filmhaus into a cross-media centre the existing volume from the 1970's is redimensioned and simplified to clarify the urban situation. Polygonal glass membranes are clamped into the generously shaped structural framework in light pigmented concrete. The new elements of the facade shape the narrow inner basic grid anew and thus create a more open overall effect. In October 2018 the demolition of individual elements began, and in April 2019 a part of the interior with its facade was installed as a mockup. 

More than 80 houses will be open to the public in Basel on 18 & 19 May 2019. Daniel Buchner will offer several tours.  Saturday, 18 May 2019: 12:00 Youth Hostel St. Alban, 14:00 Hotel Nomad, 16:00 Cooperative Building Stadterle

Our exhibition was opened in the House of Art in Budweis (Czech Republic). In contrast to many architectural exhibitions, projects are not presented in a room-by-room series by a succession of illustrative images and models. The exhibition relies completely on images, released from their implementation in conventional visual project presentations, giving each image a special significance. A variety of projects of differing scales are juxtaposed: photos of interiors and exteriors, details and long shots, material presence and contextual relations. The exhibition is on display until 17 March 2019.

House of Art České Budějovice, Náměstí Přemysla Otakara II. 38 

České Budějovice, Czech Republic

A monographic exhibition about our work is opened in the House of Art in the Czech city of České Budějovice. In a precisely choreographed, sensual sequence of images, the exhibition invites to a dialogue between the individual projects and buildings. A search for similarities, interrelationships and differences begins in a constantly reshuffled, combined perception of the images. We cordially invite you to join us.

Vernissage: Thursday, 14 February 2019, 19:00

At 17:00 Andreas Bründler will give an opening lecture on the exhibition.  

The exhibition will be on display until 17 March 2019. 

With the Kirschgarten House we were shortlisted for the Best New Private House in the Wallpaper Design Awards 2019 as one out of five projects. It is a house, that interacts with the play of sunlight in the course of a day: Although there is an intimate hiding wall, light is flooding the house through big windows. In the garden it casts sculptural shadows through a gridlike pergola, that is a direct extension of the roof. 

An exhibition on the project competition “Forum UZH” was opened in the atrium of the college building (Kollegiengebäude) of the University of Zurich on 8 January 2019. Our design of the Education and Research Centre of the University of Zurich was developed in a working group with Rapp Architekten and won the second prize. It is characterised by an openness towards the city and a clear utilisation transparency within, both aiming towards a low-threshold usability of the building. Images and plans are now available. The exhibition will be on display until 24 January 2019.

We have been ranked 5th in an open project competition for a new building for the Swiss Embassy in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. An ensemble of two houses with courtyards, verandas and pergolas refers to the surrounding garden, the subtropical climate and the traditional Ethiopien building techniques. The houses, made of loam and wood, respect the local constructive culture. (Competition 2018)

Solitary structures surrounded by an extensive open green space characterise both the dispersed settlement of Arlesheim and the site making up the Ita Wegman Clinic. The new building at the centre of the site is also an individual structure composed of three aligned merging cylinders with polygonal inner courtyards. The organic shape accentuates the solitary impression, while the flowing contour facilitates integration in the soft garden landscape. (Competition with pre-qualification in 2018: participation without ranking.)

The University district Zürich City Centre should extend. A new large education and research centre will be developed for the University of Zürich at an important location in the Wässerwies area. In cooperation with Rapp Architekten we won the 2nd prize in the project competition “Forum UZH”. On 8 January 2019 an exhibition about the competition will be inaugurated in the atrium of the collegiate building of the University of Zürich. 

The exhibition entitled “Dichtelust– Forms of Urban Coexistence in Switzerland” is about to open at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum. The term “density” (“Dichte”) often has a negative connotation in an urban development context. The exhibition tries to interpret density in a positive light – as a “sensible utilisation of buildable territory”. We are represented with the Cooperative Building Stadterle, where limited individual living space is supplemented by communal rooms.

Vernissage: Friday, 23 November 2018, 19:00

The Cooperative Building Stadterle received the Arc Award in the Residential Buildings category offered by the Schweizer Baudokumentation on 7 November 2018. The cooperative building was developed in a participative planning process and aims to create a sense of community. Its rough materiality pays tribute to the industrial history of the place. 

The two projects Hotel Nomad and Cooperative Building Stadterle received the Good Buildings Award Basel Stadt Basel Landschaft on 30 October 2018. The Hotel Nomad attempts to contemporize the atmospheric qualities of a 1950s ensemble in a new architectural context. In times of redensification, Stadterle combines scarce, intimate living space with plenty of communal areas in order to meet differing ways of living with a variety of residential units. 

The November/December 2018 issue of the magazine Domus is dedicated to residential architecture. Kirschgarten House is designed as a structural and constructive interrelation of two spaces: a shielding exterior space encloses a transparent interior space. Openness meets intimacy, living space and garden form one entity. 

Kunsthaus Baselland is planning to move to the Dreispitz Area. Buchner Bründler are designing a new exhibition building for the institution by conversion of the Dreispitz Hall. The project will be presented by Andreas Bründler and Ines Goldbach, Director of Kunsthaus Baselland, within the scope of the Oslo Night.

Saturday, 22 September 2018, 16.00 to 16.45 

Dreispitzhalle, Helsinki Strasse 5, Münchenstein

The conversion of an ensemble of stone houses in the Onsernone valley, Ticino, was completed in August 2018. A summer hall and winter living space were developed from the existing structure using simple means. Respectful handling of the historic substance was of great importance: living spaces of the past are clearly recognisable through the new interventions.

September 2018:  Our website is now available in English (EN). Please come in and have a look.

Andreas Bründler will hold a lecture at the Architecture and Art International Congress in Porto Portugal, which is organized by AMAG and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto among others.  

Monday, 3 September 2018, 16.30

Real Vinicola, Casa da Arquitectura, Porto 

A residential house providing considerable privacy with maximum openness was completed in May 2018. Hidden behind an enclosure is a transparent building surrounded by a garden, designed to interact with the course of sunlight. A broad flat roof with a rib structure covers and connects both the house and exterior space. 

Plans envisage a clinker-faced building structured by projections and recesses. The building right next to the banks of the Rhine serves as a connecting element between city centre and the eastern urban periphery. The zoning plan for the Eisenbahnweg area was published in March and April 2018. Intensive project planning work continues while the procedure for approval of the land-use plan is in progress.

The May issue of the publication focuses on facades. In the Garden Tower, a vertical vegetation layer grows out of troughs that are flush with the ground, forming an integral component of the architecture. The construction of the facade is based on a repetition of three pre-fabricated elements: plant trough, upturned slap and bow-shaped structure. 

Summer temperatures have permitted Stadterle residents to extend their individual living space to the access balconies, turning them into collectively used verandas. Sunlight imparts the facade – a collage of a variety of materials – with an air of lightness and motion. A lively community is matched by a lively materiality.

The lecture “Mutations” by Andreas Bründler is an investigative comparison of the influences and interactions between smaller buildings and projects with a comprehensive urban development approach. We regard the larger projects – often resulting from competitions – as a kind of research. As far as the smaller projects are concerned, the outer complexity is replaced by an inner depth: an opportunity for a condensation of our architectural thinking.

Thursday, 7 June 2018, 19:30

CAMP, Vysehradská 51, Prague 2

Andreas Bründler will give a talk on “Form versus Space and Space versus Form” in Geneva as part of the lecture series “10 Ans 10 Regards”.

Thursday, 26 April 2018, 18:30 Pavillon Sicli, 45 Route des Acacias, 1227 Acacias, Geneva

More than 60 houses will be open to the public in Basel on 5 & 6 May 2018. Daniel Buchner will offer several tours.

Saturday, 5 May 2018, 10:00 and 12:00: Cooperative Building Stadterle

Sunday, 6 May 2018, 10:00: Hotel Nomad Sunday 

6 May 2018, 12:00 and 15:00: Youth Hostel St. Alban

The interventions in the old farmhouse in Mosogno are very cautious, but all the more specific. Old and new are combined to form a lively, patinated spatial sculpture. Completion of the house is scheduled for early summer.

March 2018: Work is progressing, the strong plasticity of the house is taking shape. Wood and concrete form an atmospherically consolidated entity both inside and outside. New impressions are being created. 

Andreas Bründler and Oliver Elser, curator at the German Museum of Architecture (DAM) in Frankfurt a. Main, will talk about the relationship between architecture and concrete.

Tuesday, 17 April 2018, 19:15

Druckereihalle Ackermannshof, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 19/21, Basel

The building creates a new access to the train station from the Bubenbergplatz. The stilted ground floor permits urban space to flow through the building. Distinctive rib structures formulate the space and accentuate the public character of the building. A place of arrival is created. (Competition with pre-qualification: participation without ranking.)

A change in the infrastructure requires the construction of a new building on the Bahnhofplatz in Altdorf. We were able to win the competition. The deliberate elongated shape of the clearly cut structure accentuates the square in front of the train station and bundles the incoming routes as a new hub. 

The project has been nominated for the RIBA International Prize. In the meantime, the vertical garden continues to grow: a metal mesh climbing aid turns the garden into a living integral component of the sculptural facade. In times of redensification, we seek closeness to nature. 

A black bitumen skin envelops a simple architectural structure. The strong material presence of the Residential House Münchenstein is presented in the November issue of the magazine. The shape of the structure is reduced to the basic principles of the concept “house”. 

The work was given a Special Mention in the competition for the Fritz Höger Prize for Brick Buildings (Fritz Höger Preis für Backsteinbauten). The vivid clinker facing makes reference to the existing industrial buildings in terms of material vocabulary. It joins two buildings to form an ensemble and unites a comparatively delicate lakeside facade with a more massive rear.

Still empty on completion, first signs of life are apparent in the access balconies of the Cooperative Building Stadterle in Basel. The inhabitants have already turned them into homely places. Community is also the key architectural topic of the building.

Symmetries, framing and filling elements are used to reinterpret the adjacent Aarhof facade with its intarsia ornamentations and textures. The apartments also reflect the old town mansion, yet the sequence of rooms is flowing and succinct in terms of material.

The building shell is complete and the formwork stripped. Interior and exterior spaces are merged in terms of structure and construction through the sculptural design of the single-family home. Work will be completed in April 2018.

The Zurich project can be seen on the online platform swiss-architects. Andreas Bründler presents the complex featuring interwoven facades made with roughly sawn wooden beams. As regards urban development, the buildings symbolise the transition between city and landscape. 

Our renovation of a house by Justus Dahinden from the 1960s has been nominated for best conversion. The intervention incorporates a significant characteristic of the building – the element of joining together – thereby emphasising spatial impressions and light situations.

Only a few copies of the second and last edition of this book are still available on the market. Full of images and drawings, this documentation of eighteen buildings, five interviews and a project archive offers numerous ways to get to know our work. Well-known buildings as well as smaller projects are presented.