{"id":52332,"date":"2026-04-20T20:56:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52332\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:56:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:56:51","slug":"herzog-de-meuron-designed-tower-opens-at-roches-new-hq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52332\/","title":{"rendered":"herzog & de meuron-designed tower opens at roche’s new HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

in basel, global healthcare company roche<\/a> has opened a new office building that forms part of the firm\u2019s enlarged headquarters. working in their home city, swiss architects herzog & de meuron<\/a> have completed a structure designed to encourage collaboration across departmental boundaries, while stimulating creativity and innovation. named \u2018building 1\u2019, the 41-storey tower is heated entirely with waste heat from the site, and contains a 500-seat auditorium.<\/p>\n

\"herzog
the tower is the first visible sign of roche\u2019s site development
all images courtesy of roche \/ herzog & de meuron<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

pierre de meuron explains the project as follows: \u2018whereas externally, building 1 is in keeping with the architectural idiom set forth by roche, internally it fulfills the ever-changing demands on a modern and innovative workplace environment. building 1 is innovative because its inner structure was designed first and foremost with the patterns of movement and communication needs of its occupants in mind.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"herzog
the project is designed to encourage collaboration across departmental boundaries<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018the media in particular make much of the fact that it\u2019s the tallest building in switzerland, as well as the tallest herzog & de meuron have built to date\u2019, adds jacques herzog. \u2018however, neither roche nor we as architects set out to break records. rather, building 1 exemplifies our position in the current discourse surrounding the problems of uncontrolled development, both in basel and throughout switzerland. in areas where there is already dense urban settlement, the aim should be continued, targeted densification.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"herzog
a spiral staircase forms a sculptural aspect of the project\u2019s interiors<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

the site\u2019s development was announced<\/a> in october 2014, and will be implemented in stages over the next few years. the plan for the new R&D center, building 2 and the other structures has already been submitted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018building 1 is the first visible sign of roche\u2019s site development strategy at its basel headquarters,\u2019 said roche CEO severin schwan. \u2018we will be investing three billion francs in new research and office infrastructure here, equipping the site for continued success. we also regard building 1 as a clear commitment to switzerland and to basel.\u2019 see designboom\u2019s previous coverage of the development here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"herzog
the 41-storey tower is heated entirely with waste heat from the site<\/p>\n

\"herzog
an outdoor terrace provides sweeping vistas across the city<\/p>\n

\"herzog
the view across basel from the scheme\u2019s upper storey<\/p>\n

\"herzog
sectional drawing indicating the tower\u2019s internal program<\/p>\n

\"herzog
rendering illustrating the scale of the entire complex<\/p>\n

philip stevens I designboom<\/p>\n

sep 23, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"in basel, global healthcare company roche has opened a new office building that forms part of the firm\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[4076,8489,134],"class_list":["post-52332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-roche","tag-architecture-in-switzerland","tag-herzog-and-de-meuron","tag-roche"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116439039681181371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}