Kantonsspital Pharmacy, Basel, Switzerland

Related people

John P. Schooley Jr. (was created by)
Pierre de Meuron (was created by)
Jacques Herzog (architect)
Herzog and de Meuron (was created by)

Date

1995-1997

Description

"The Rossetti Spitalapotheke - hospital pharmacy - is part of the Kantonsspital Complex in Basel; medicine for the hospital is produced there. For functional reasons the building was conceived as a huge continuous form, which expands like an organism from every side: Moving from an internal system of courtyards outward, the structure seems to correspond with the heterogeneity of the immediate environ, which is comprised of various structures from the 19th and 20th century. The surrounding are demarcates the external form; a form which can not be immediately comprehended in its entirety... Although the building is large, it seems to vanish through this adaptation to the area. The facade acts like a partition between the expanding organism/building and the surrounding area. It is entirely glassed-in, whereby the interior and exterior (internal courtyards, external courtyards, facades) melt into one another. The glass is crystal clear and the building structure is once more relativized. Bringing the external form further into question is the vertical composition of the facade's steel cross-sectioning which has an effect comparable to a wire-frame-computer drawing. Through this the horizontal edge above disappears, so that the building loses almost all of its three dimensional demarcations. Theoretically, it could be even larger without taking on the appearance of a body." -- Marquez, F., & Levene, R. (Eds.). (1997). Herzog & de Meuron: 1993 1997 (El Croquis 84). El Escorial, Madrid: Croquis Editorial. p.192. The cladding is comprised of glass panels suspended on metal clips with small dots silkscreened on the glass. This image was taken in 2001 by John P. Schooley, FAIA, during the 'Berlin: Building the New City' tour. This tour was planned for architects and planners so that they could see first-hand how this once-divided city emerged from the Cold War to become a leading commercial and cultural center in Europe. Keywords: health and welfare facilities, fritted glass. Submitted by John Schooley, FAIA.

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