Modern apartment building in Basel City

This modern residential building is located in Basel, Switzerland, just a few meters away from the historic Spalentor, a former gateway to the city. The building is part of a block perimeter development, and is sandwiched between two firewalls. The dark street façade is immediately adjacent to the sidewalk, and the rear of the building opens up into the garden. Since there is no protective buffer between the building and the street, the volume was increased in terms of spatial depth with the aid of the bay window, which extends over four floors.

The garden façade is fully glazed in order to let in as much daylight as possible. The lighting conditions were decisive for the design of the layout: the apartments are well spaced with two-sided lighting, and the rooms can be connected or separated using various sliding doors.

Architects Staehelin, Gisin + Partner AG have created a flexible room structure which provides closed, semi-closed/open and completely open spaces by using sliding doors. The sliding doors also provide more daylight than traditional doors, and are therefore ideal for layouts with lighting conditions which are on the poor side.

The floor-to-ceiling sliding doors with a ceiling-integrated running track run using the Hawa Junior 80 B fitting. When they are opened, they disappear discreetly into a wall pocket. When they are closed, they give you a place to retreat into – in accordance with your requirements.