Novartis Forum 3

Diener and Diener, Helmut Federle, Gerold Wiederin, Basel, 2005

 

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  •     
  • The south facade of haphazard multicoloured glass panels    
  • The glazed panels of the facade are fixed on tie rods on three different planes 200mm apart    
  • The coloured glass bathes the interior of the building in multicoloured light    
  • The foyer space    
  • Artwork by Helmut Federle hangs in the foyer space    
  • Inside during construction of the rest of the Novartis campus    
  • The helical staircase with an American walnut veneer    
  • The helical staircase linking the upper office floors    
  • Roger Diener in the bar at Forum Three    
  • The     
  • The plant room acts as a retreat on every floor    
  • The dense vegetation inside the     
  • Site plan    
  • Ground floor plan    
  • First floor plan    
  • Section A-A    
  • Section B-B    
  • South elevation study    

Five-storey office building in the Novartis Campus; a 20-hectare former industrial site developed for one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies

Forum Three was the first building to be completed for the Novartis Campus, a flagship building in a redevelopment project in a previously anonymous area of Basel.

The building contains offices, a large foyer space, interior vegetation,a bar, a lounge and support spaces.

The design has a 'cheerful' aesthetic on the exterior with a haphazard multicoloured facade of glass panels. The ever-changing composition of the facade give every part of the predominantly open-plan building an identity of it's own.

Aside from the facade there are two other key features; an outsize helical staircase clad in American walnut veneer, which winds its way through the four upper floors, and the 'plant room', which is in fact a dense cluster of mature trees and greenery that occupies the end of the building in the gap between the two layers of the facade.

Data

  • Begun: 2003
  • Completed: 2005
  • Floor area: 8,848m2
  • Sector: Office
  • Tender date: 2002
  • Address: Novartis Pharma AG, Fabrikstrasse, Basel, 4056, Switzerland

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