On the Erlenmatt Ost site in the north of Kleinbasel a new urban quarter is developing. At its heart sits an abandoned silo, built in 1912 for the Basler Grain and Cacao Beans Dry Storage Company which is now converted into a multi-faceted venue for the wider local community. Based on the ideas of Stiftung Habitat Foundation and Talent Verein, a socio-cultural offer of different uses is to be created, which is accessible and can be experienced by everyone. This includes ateliers and studios as an affordable space for cultural workers, service providers and young businessmen, as well as a hostel and a restaurant at the heart of the project. The overall aim is to create and promote diversity.

The originally free-standing silo building is now integrated into a row of buildings along the Signalstrasse. Its neighbours are a house for students and a residential and work building for artists. Noise pollution from the adjacent motorway, high sustainability goals, and the internal spatial organisation characterise the project. As one of the first steel-reinforced concrete structures in Switzerland and with a unique inner industrial condition defined by a vertical division of spaces, our aim was to preserve and celebrate the genius loci.