Herzog & de Meuron replaced two of the older halls at the Messe Basel, which hosts Art Basel each June, with an extension that stacks three new ten-metre-high halls on top of one another to create volumes that appear displaced.

Brushed aluminium clads the exterior of the building and has a textured surface to create the impression of a basket weave.

Part of the extension bridges across the neighbouring Messeplatz public square to creates a sheltered area with a huge circular skylight.

Glazing surrounds the space and leads into a ground-floor lobby filled with shops, bars and restaurants.

The building was completed in February, but only opened to the public in April. Read more about the Messe Basel New Hall in our previous story.

Since completing the building, Herzog & de Meuron has also started construction of a football stadium in France and an outdoor bathing lake in Riehen.

The pair were also controversially chosen to design the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. See more architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers' website.

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The Messe Basel, which hosts Art Basel each June, is undergoing a development programme to relocate exhibition areas around the neighbouring Messeplatz public square, so Herzog & de Meuron was asked to replace two of the existing halls with a new extension.

The architects have stacked three ten-metre-high halls on top of one another, creating a 2500-person events space on the ground floor and two additional exhibition rooms above.

Externally, these halls appear slightly displaced from each other. Textured aluminium clads the exterior, creating the impression of a woven facade.

Each hall features a wide-spanning construction to reduce the number of columns, while zig-zagging elevators provide a link between each of the levels.

A ground-floor lobby connects the extension with the existing exhibition halls and a series of shops, bars and restaurants. Glazing surrounds the facade to attract as many visitors inside as possible.

Part of the extension bridges across the Messeplatz and creates a sheltered area that has been dubbed the "City Lounge". A large circular skylight punctures the roof above the space, framing the main entrance into the building.

The New Hall will be officially opened on the 23 April and the old building will be redeveloped and converted into apartments and offices.

Herzog & de Meuron, led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, also recently completed the Parrish Art Museum, an art gallery on Long Island, New York. See more architecture by Herzog & de Meuron, including interviews we filmed with both architects at the opening of the 2012 Serpentine Gallery pavilion.

Photography is c/o MCH Group AG.

Here's a project description from Herzog & de Meuron:

Messe Basel - New Hall Completed

The New Hall of Messe Basel is complete. Its realization is a key development in the Messe Basel's aim to concentrate its exhibition halls around the Messeplatz (Exhibition Square). The surrounding Kleinbasel district will also benefit from the continuing upgrade of the Messeplatz and, at the same time, regaining former exhibition areas to convert into apartments and offices that will contribute to Basel's urban development. Replacing two out-of-date halls, the new three-storey extension offers modern, flexible and versatile exhibition spaces with wide uninterrupted spans and tall 10m heights.

To provide the required indoor connection to all halls, the extension bridges over the Messeplatz and creates a new covered public space called the City Lounge. This key architectural and urban planning element defines the south end of the Messeplatz and is illuminated from above by a generous circular opening. Open at all times, the City Lounge not only defines the entrance to the fair spaces, but will be a focal point of public life in Kleinbasel.

The New Hall features three levels. The ground floor entrance level seamlessly links the City Lounge to the existing halls, the new event space for 2'500 spectators, and a number of shops, bars and restaurants. The dynamic sweep of the street level facade reacts to the flows of people and corresponds to the space required at the tram stop and entrances to the exhibition centre and Event Hall. Here, large expanses of glass create the spatial transparency both necessary and appropriate in order to achieve the openness envisioned for the exhibition hall complex and the enlivening of public urban life.

The two upper exhibition levels are offset from each other as separate volumes allowing them to respond and shift to specific urban conditions. From each point of view, the new hall offers a different perception and thus avoids the repetitive monotony typical of exhibition halls. This constant architectural variation is reinforced by applying a homogeneous material (aluminum) over all exterior surfaces.

The facade of articulated twisting bands strategically modulates and reduces the scale of the halls large volumes to its surroundings. This is not simply a decorative element but a practical means to regulate the fall of natural light on adjacent properties and to provide views in to the new hall's social spaces and out towards specific views of the city of Basel.

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Swiss architect Aurélie Blanchard has lined every wall and surface in the bar of this Basel restaurant with copper, while a dark green dining room looms just behind.

The green walls of this room were inspired by the colours of painted doors throughout the city and are subtly highlighted by a series of wall-mounted light bulbs.

Spherical copper pendant lamps are suspended above a row of long oak tables, where diners sit in large groups.

In the bar, slightly flatter lamps illuminate a table and bar at standing height, both of which have chamfered edges.

Other dark restaurants worth a look include one with a chandelier made from jam jars and another with a fanning timber canopy.

Photography is by Mark Niedermann.

Here's some more information from Aurélie Blanchard:

Situated in the heart of Kleinbasel, UNION restaurant is a new hotspot of this multicultural neighbourhood where immigrants, expats, students and creative industries coexist. Jérome Beurret and Stefan Grieder, owners of the well-known Rhyschaenzli in Basel, along with their new partner Pascal Salathe, appointed the architect Aurélie Blanchard to design their new restaurant.

The architecture aims to capture the spirit of a traditional American kitchen with fine Eastern influences. At UNION rustic meals such as burgers and ribs are revisited with contemporary touches. The design intends to create a warm dining environment with a vibrant metropolitan bar for both evening and daytime.

The dark green dining room with its oversized oak tables engages with the street whilst the dark envelope creates an intimate environment despite the room’s size. Basel’s traditional painted wooden doors inspired the room’s colour. Copper globes suspended above the tables cast warm islands of light between the diners who sit in clusters around these large communal dining tables. Domestic bliss of home-cooked meals and candle-lit dining atmosphere finally tie the room together.

The bar in contrast is a precious copper niche that opens onto the dark green dining room at the back. Shelves and standing tables emerge from the copper walls; masking the room surfaces with a seamless copper coat. The oversized standing table and new bar are an extension of the wooden floor, finished with a thick copper plate. Rounded corners, solid copper elements and cast glass lamps evoke metropolitan industrial times.

Throughout the space, a dark wooden floor unifies the restaurant and bar. Touches of copper jump into the green room through the folded bar, globe lamps and vintage copper vases.
Next to the bar, the existing courtyard is a lush and fresh space where the green of the plants echoes the Basel green of the restaurant.

Address: UNION restaurant - 95 Klybeckstrasse 4057 Basel
Clients: Jérome Beurret, Stefan Grieder, Pascal Salathe
Architect: Aurélie Blanchard
Graphic design: Ludovic Balland
Completion: March 2012
Area: 200 sqm
Cost: 150'000 SFr

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Architects Herzog & de Meuron have positioned a scaly crown over the top of this Basel museum (photographs by Roland Halbe).

The renovated Museum der Kulturen reopened in September and exhibits ethnographic artefacts and images from around the world.

The architects added a new gallery floor to the building, beneath the irregularly folded roof of shimmering ceramic tiles. A steel framework supports the roof, creating a column-free exhibition area.

On the existing storeys the architects extended a selection of windows down to ankle-height and removed a floor to create a new double-height gallery. The entrance to the museum is relocated to the rear, where a courtyard slopes downs to lead visitors inside.

Dezeen visited Basel back in October and talked to Herzog & de Meuron partner Christine Binswanger about the recently opened museum - listen to the podcast here.

Click here to see more stories about Herzog & de Meuron.

Here's some more text from the architects:

The Museum der Kulturen Basel goes back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Replacing the Augustinian monastery on the Münsterhügel, the classicist building by architect Melchior Berri opened in 1849. The “Universal Museum,” as it was then called, was the city's first museum building. Designed to house both the sciences and the arts, it now holds one of the most important ethnographic collections in Europe thanks largely to continuing gifts and bequests. In 1917, with holdings of some 40,000 objects, an extension by architects Vischer & Söhne was added. A second extension was projected in 2001 to accommodate what had, by now, become holdings of some 300,000 objects. Modifications would include an entrance especially for the Museum, thereby giving it a new identity.

Extending the building horizontally would have meant decreasing the size of the courtyard, the Schürhof. Instead the Vischer building of 1917 has been given a new roof. Consisting of irregular folds clad in blackish green ceramic tiles, the roof resonates with the medieval roofscape in which it is embedded while functioning at the same time as a clear sign of renewal in the heart of the neighbourhood. The hexagonal tiles, some of them three-dimensional, refract the light even when the skies are overcast, creating an effect much like that of the finely structured brick tiles on the roofs of the old town. The steel framework of the folded roof allows for a column-free gallery underneath, an expressive space that forms a surprising contrast to the quiet, right-angled galleries on the floors below.

Up until now, the Museum der Kulturen and the Naturhistorisches Museum shared the same entrance on Augustinergasse. The former is now accessed directly from Münsterplatz through the previously inaccessible rear courtyard, the Schürhof. The courtyard, in its patchwork setting of the backs of medieval buildings, has now become an extension of the Münsterplatz. Part of the courtyard has been lowered and an expansive, gently inclined staircase leads down to the Museum entrance. Hanging plants and climbing vines lend the courtyard a distinctive atmosphere and, in concert with the roof, they give the Museum a new identity. We look forward to having the courtyard become a social meeting place for all kinds of Museum activities and celebrations.

The weighty, introverted impression of the building, initially concealing its invaluable contents, is reinforced by the façades, many of whose windows have been closed off, and by the spiral-shaped construction for the hanging vegetation mounted under the eaves of the cantilevered roof above the new gallery. This is countered, however, by the foundation, which is slit open the entire length of the building and welcomes visitors to come in. These architectural interventions together with the vegetation divide the long, angular and uniform Vischer building of 1917 into distinct sections. The white stairs, the roof overhang, the climbing plants, the series of windows in the “piano nobile” and the glazed base lend the courtyard direction and give the building a face.

The windows were closed up not just to enhance the weight and elegance of the building; the additional wall space provided by this measure was equally important. The few remaining openings have been enlarged and now extend to the floor. The window reveals are so deep that they form small alcoves that look out onto the old town.

The sequence of rooms follows the same pattern on all three gallery floors. Only two rooms stand out: on the second floor, directly above the entrance, a large room with windows on one side faces the courtyard. Further up, a ceiling has been removed, creating a two-story room with a narrow window slit, where larger objects in the collection can be displayed. Visitors can look down on this new anchor room from above, much like the room containing the Abelam House, thus also providing orientation within the Museum.

The renovation of the galleries followed similar principles throughout. The older rooms have classicist coffered ceilings; those added later have concrete beams in one direction only. With the goal of restoring the original structure of the rooms, dropped ceilings were removed and technical services integrated as discreetly as possible into existing architectural elements.

Project Name: Museum der Kulturen
Address: Münsterplatz 20, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
(formerly Augustinergasse 2)

Project Phases: Concept Design: 2001-2002
Schematic Design: 2003
Design Development: 2003-2004
Construction Documents: 2008-2010
Construction: 2008-2010
Completion: 2010
Opening: September 2011

Project Team 2008-2010 Partner: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger
Project Architect: Martin Fröhlich (Associate), Mark Bähr, Michael Bär
Project Team: Piotr Fortuna, Volker Jacob, Beatus Kopp, Severin Odermatt, Nina Renner, Nicolas Venzin, Thomas Wyssen

Project Team 2001-2004 Partner: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger
Project Architect: Jürgen Johner (Associate), Ines Huber
Project Team: Béla Berec, Giorgio Cadosch, Gilles le Coultre, Laura Mc Quary

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Bjarke Ingels Group have won a competition to convert a Basel warehouse with their design for an extension that will zigzag across the roof like a bolt of lightning.

The Danish architects propose to convert the industrial Transitlager building into offices, apartments and galleries.

The apartments are to occupy the three new upper floors and will open out onto triangular rooftop gardens.

Four storeys inside the existing concrete warehouse will house offices and galleries, facing a new public square proposed by site masterplanners Herzog & de Meuron.

Other projects by BIG on Dezeen include a power plant that doubles up as a ski slope and a centre for women's sports - see more projects by BIG here.

Here's some more information from BIG:

BIG Transforms Transitlager In Switzerland

BIG wins an invited competition to renovate and extend an existing 1960's concrete warehouse situated in a Basel industrial district which is being transformed into an alternative Arts District.

Located in Basel’s upcoming Dreispitz neighborhood, which is envisioned as an attractive and inviting urban quarter in Herzog de Meuron's master plan from 2003, the existing 18.000 m2 ”Transitlager” built in the late 1960s is to be renovated and extended by up to 7.000 m2 for residential and commercial purposes.

The development is undertaken by St. Gallen -based real estate development company Nüesch Development for the landlord, the Christoph Merian Foundation and investor the UBS (CH) Property Fund – Swiss Mixed ‘Sima’.

The winning entry which included engineers Bollinger Grohmann and HL Technik was chosen among proposals from Harry Gugger Studio and Lacaton Vassal among others.

The Transitlager’s surrounding industrial area is characterized by the geometries of infrastructures - the intersecting railways, loading docks and turning radiuses that weave through the city and create a puzzle of linear buildings with pointy corners and staggered façade lines into an untraditional and adventurous urban area consisting of galleries, restaurants and creative businesses.

The iconic character of the existing Transitlager, its generous surrounding public spaces, and connection to the city’s botanical garden makes the building a natural focal point of the Arts District.

By re-programming and extending the former warehouse into a multifunctional series of floors for various uses, BIG proposes a cross breed of art, commerce, working and living.

Two distinct buildings on top of each other form a mixed-use hybrid with activity and life 24 hours a day.

“We propose a transformation of the Transitlager that builds on the industrial logic of the existing building and of the surrounding area. The extension doubles the size of the Transitlager and becomes an opposite twin – based on the same structure, but with a different geometry. The combined building becomes a spectrum of optimal conditions: From open and flexible plans to tailor made units, public programs to private residences, vibrant urban space to peaceful green gardens and from cool industrial to warm and refined. ” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner, BIG.

The wide dimensions of the former warehouse, the mix of programs, the structural limits and the sun orientation creates a typology that is neither point house nor slab – a folded geometry adapted to the specifics of the existing structure and optimized for daylight and views.

The staggered edge and pointy ends echoes the geometries of the industrial buildings of the neighborhood, creating a surprising familiarity with the heterogeneous surroundings.

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Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Jakob Henke
Team: Gul Ertekin, Ioannis Gio, Ricardo Palma, Alexandra Gustaffson, Bara Srpkova, Marcelina Kolasinska, Ryohei Koike

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