Extension Public Records Office, Canton of Basel-Landschaft

Surrounding area.

Words from the Architect

The public records office is the collective memory of the political, economic and cultural life of a canton. This makes the questions of an adequate urban location and appropriate architectural expression of central importance.

The location of the existing public records office amidst smaller and larger residential buildings, cut off from the town centre by the railway line, hardly allows the public character of the institution to be expressed.

Rear view of the office.

We interpret the need to double the spatial programme, while remaining at the same location, as a chance to translate the existing building into a powerful, self-confident form. Although the competition brief expressly excludes it, we suggest adding a storey to the archive wing. As a consequence the spatial programme is no longer horizontally but vertically organized. By placing the public zone on the 2nd floor the visitors area is lifted out of the cramped topography. From above the railway line embankment it engages the urban district of Liestal opposite as a glazed roof zone. At the same time it is possible to keep the volume as compact as possible.

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