The University of Basel’s Biozentrum is one of the world’s leading institutes for basic molecular and biomedical research and teaching. Its new research building opened on September 21, 2021, and has been praised as “the most modern research building in the world, technically and visually a masterpiece.”

▼项目概览，overall view © Ilg Santer

Located near the Rhine River, the Biozentrum’s 72-meter-high tower comprises 19 floors – 16 above ground and 3 below. The underground floors with a far larger floor area make up 40 percent of the entire volume. A floor area of 23,440 sqm houses research facilities, lecture halls, seminar rooms, and scientific equipment for 400 researchers and 900 students. The building brings together urban public space and cutting-edge research and has been created by Zurich-based Ilg Santer Architects as the first part of the new campus site where all faculties will be concentrated in one place.

The chrome and glass facade refers to the technology inside the building. In the structural design, only the facade columns, the building services and the four cores in the tower are loadbearing. The horizontal forces are transferred via frames in the form of Vierendeel trusses. By combining the façade columns with the four cores, the building abandons the conventional solution for high-rise buildings in favor of a floor plan that is as open as possible in the center, allowing great freedom in the division of the various floor levels. The architects decided not to conceal the great amount of technology in the building but to bring it into visible harmony with the structure and space and to connect these with each other.

The top ten floors are dedicated to scientific research. Each floor can accommodate four professorial and research departments of equal size connected by a common 6 meter-wide meeting space. Adjacent floors are connected by an open stairwell and meeting zone that serve scientific exchange, interdisciplinary research, and innovative ideas that arise from chance discussions. The floor plan has no internal columns and therefore offers considerable freedom in dividing up the laboratory spaces to meet the highly specific needs of the respective research groups. The structure and space, flexibility and efficiency, function, and design of the standard floor are precisely balanced and establish a pattern for the entire building.

▼由建筑上部看周边环境 – 最上部的十层为科研用途， viewing the surrounding environment – The top ten floors are dedicated to scientific research © Daisuke Hirabayashi