Em2N Architekten Berlin GmbH

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N

PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE CANTON BASEL-LANDSCHAFT

Em2n

ARCHITECTS
Em2n

AREA
4705.0 m2

YEAR
2007

CATEGORY
Offices

LOCATION
Liestal , Switzerland

Text description provided by architect.

The Public Records Office is the collective memory of the political, economic and cultural life of a canton. Of central importance is an adequate urban location and appropriate architectural expression.

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N

The current location, of the existing building amidst smaller and larger residential buildings cut off from the town centre by the railway line, hardly allows the public character of the institution to be expressed.

We interpret the need to double the spatial programme, on this site, as a chance to translate the existing building into a powerful, self-confident form.

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N

We added an additional storey to the archive wing, although the competition brief explicitly excluded vertical extensions.

As a consequence the spatial programme is no longer horizontally but vertically organized. By placing the public zone on the second floor the visitors‘ area is lifted out of the cramped topography.

In the form of a glazed roof volume, the new public zone engages the urban district of Liestal, which lies on the other side of the railway line embankment.

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N

The vertical extension also allows the volume to be kept as compact as possible. At the ground level, the outermost plane of the facade is planted with ivy, enabling the blending of the existing and new levels, forming a single entity: the clean-edged glazed roof zone rests on a "soft" plinth.

The planting of the facade also fulfills various building construction requirements (protection against driving rain, climatic balancing layer, temperature, moisture).

Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
© EM2N
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft

In addition the plantings signalize the building's special function; the organic softness connects the new building to the small-scaled green valley.


Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft


Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft


Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft
Public Records Office Canton Basel-Landschaft

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