The City of Basel, with its historic streets, winding rivers, and warm golden light, is intrinsically connected to art and architecture. Its skyline is a continuous dialogue between past and future, punctuated by contemporary and historical masterpieces. Over the past three decades, the city has seen the rise of iconic buildings like Mario Botta’s Tinguely Museum, Renzo Piano’s Fondation Beyeler, and Herzog & de Meuron’s Schaulager.
In this context, the architectural firm Buchner Bründler, founded in 1997 by Daniel Buchner and Andreas Bründler, stands out for its ability to create architectures that challenge formal conventions: an approach that underlines ambience rather than form, a careful dialogue with the environmental context, and attention to light and structure are typical characteristics of their projects.
Thanks to them, in the Dreispitz district, south of the city, an industrial building for champagne production becomes the new Kunsthaus Baselland, a new landmark dedicated to contemporary art.
Buchner Bründler’s Lighthouse Towers
From the Freilager tram stop, you can already spot the distinctive triangular prisms of the Swiss studio’s project – three lighthouse towers, 25 meters high, that seem to dance above the square in front. Buchner Bründler’s project, selected in the spring of 2015 for its high functionality, offers flexible and well-lit exhibition spaces.
The building features a spacious foyer adaptable to various functions thanks to a long sliding wall. Next to it is the reception area, which also serves as a bar, entirely made of wood, as is the small library conceived as a single large shelf. The structure has seen the restoration of the steel load-bearing part and the limestone sandstone canopies.
On the upper floors, well-proportioned exhibition galleries overlook both sides of the central nave, where the imposing exposed concrete towers rise. These architectural solutions promote a unique exhibition experience and offer a suggestive interaction between visitors and contemporary art, thanks to the natural light entering through the glass doors and windows and the large skylights in the three lighthouse towers.
The Fundamental Role of Light
Light plays a fundamental role in this project: large windows, openings in the towers, and LED light strips on the ceilings create dynamic lighting that varies throughout the day, generating ever-new atmospheres and interactions.
The Triangular Concrete Towers
The central element of the Kunsthaus Baselland’s lighting design is the three triangular concrete towers emerging from the sloped roof. These towers capture and channel natural light Inside the building, transforming a dark warehouse into a bright exhibition space. This solution reduces the need for artificial lighting during the day but also creates an environment that changes with the external light, enriching the visual experience of the exhibited artworks.
Inside, the lighting is further integrated with light lines following the structure of the old steel truss, maintaining a visual connection with the building’s original use. This minimalist approach to lighting emphasizes the exhibited art without overshadowing it, creating a neutral and flexible environment that can adapt to different exhibitions and installations. In the multifunctional spaces on the ground floor, general diffuse lighting is achieved through ceiling-recessed fixtures with wide diffusion optics, providing homogeneous and comfortable light and allowing good visibility of the spaces.
Color Temperature and Color Rendering
The warm colour temperature of the lighting and the high colour rendering index create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere, typical of a museum environment, ensuring faithful reproduction and viewing of the colours of the artworks. The spatial fluidity and delicate lighting design of Kunsthaus Baselland represent a challenge for curators and artists. Every corner, every white or grey wall, offers opportunities for new artistic narratives.
Architecture and Light According to Buchner Bründler
For Buchner Bründler, light is not merely a decorative element but a raw material which shapes architectural space. The skilful use of natural and artificial light is a distinctive element of their work, expressed in projects of spatial and functional impact. For Buchner Bründler, light becomes a constructive element capable of defining volumes, articulating surfaces, and creating atmospheres.
Choice of Materials
Attention to light also translates into the choice of materials and construction details. Buchner Bründler prefers to use translucent and reflective materials, such as glass and metal, which allow light to propagate in space, creating dynamic and unexpected effects. Buchner Bründler’s approach to light comes from a deep knowledge of the physical and perceptual phenomena related to lighting.
The studio frequently collaborates with lighting engineers to develop customized solutions for each project, ensuring an optimal result in terms of functionality, visual comfort, and aesthetics.
