The Unterlinden Museum, founded in the mid-19th century, is now housed in a medieval Dominican monastery complex; in his collection - the masterpiece of the Renaissance "Isenheim Altar" by Matthias Grunewald, as well as the works of Hans Holbein the Younger, Martin Schongauer, works of both the Middle Ages and the 19th and 20th centuries. The quality of the collection is able to put the museum of this French city on a par with the best national collections, but the lack of space does not allow displaying exhibits in sufficient detail, which affects its popularity.
In this regard, the city authorities have made the expansion of the museum a priority task: according to their calculations, after the reconstruction it will be visited by twice as many people, which will have a beneficial effect on the influx of tourists to Colmar.
Herzog & de Meuron proposed to leave the existing building of the museum intact, connecting it with an underground corridor with the adjacent building of the city baths in the Art Nouveau style: the building has not been used for some time, which made it possible to transfer it to the museum. Inside, instead of the main space with the pool, a white exhibition hall with three tiers of exhibition spaces will be created.
A new brick building will appear nearby. Its forms will slightly resemble a medieval religious building, but “in a modern interpretation,” as the architects say. The "Isenheim Altar" will be placed inside. Baths and the new building will form a small courtyard together with a brick entrance wing with a cash register. Another innovation will be the Zinn Canal, which is now enclosed in a pipe, which has been re-brought to the surface in the space between the old and new complexes of the Unterlinden Museum.
The architects emphasized that the main thing in the project was the search for a balance between restraint and originality: it should not be banal, provincial or expansive - after all, Colmar is a small town.
The project budget is EUR 24 million. The opening of the new wing of the museum is scheduled for September 2013.
The Roche tower for Basel, on the other hand, was not so strictly limited in originality: like the now rejected first project of the high-rise headquarters of this pharmaceutical concern, it should become the tallest building in the city and in the whole of Switzerland (175 m). The architects, however, have moved away from the extravagant spiraling option, creating instead a pyramidal-shaped building, slightly reminiscent of their recent project for Paris. The customers wished to see the skyscraper formally associated with the buildings of the "classic" modernist architect Otto Salvisberg that make up a significant part of the Basel campus of the concern.
The echo of his work was both the solution of the facade with tape glazing and the clear functionality of the project. Despite its spectacular appearance, the tower was projected “from the inside out”: the decisive factor was the desire to get away from the traditional organization of the interior around the core with lifts and stairs. Instead of them, multi-tiered "communication zones" with open terraces were created, located outside the central axis of the building. Floor plans allow for easy transformation depending on the current tasks. In addition to the offices themselves, the 41 floors of the tower provide space for numerous cafes and an auditorium with 500 seats. A total of 1,900 Roche employees will work in the building.
The skyscraper's budget is about 550 million francs. Construction is planned for 2012-2015.
