On the Messeplatz in Basel, Herzog & de Meuron stacks three offset volumes wrapped in twisted aluminum bands to create Messe Basel New Hall, an 83,000 square meter exhibition complex.
Exhibition halls present a contradiction: they must be flexible enough to host any event while simultaneously addressing the city around them. In Basel, the Messe occupies a central position in the Kleinbasel neighborhood, where the new hall replaces outdated facilities that no longer met modern requirements for ceiling heights, column spacing, or floor load capacity.
The building bridges over the Messeplatz, creating a covered public space the studio calls the City Lounge. Open at all times, this ground-level passage functions as an urban room comparable to a railway concourse or market hall. A generous circular opening in the ceiling draws daylight into the covered space, while tram lines run directly through, connecting the fair to the surrounding streets.
Three exhibition levels stack atop one another, each floor offset from the one below. This articulation breaks down what would otherwise read as a monotonous row of large boxes. A continuous skin of twisted aluminum bands wraps the entire exterior, the diagonal patterning shifting in appearance as viewers move around the building. The material choice turns potentially repetitive facades into surfaces that modulate light and frame views from the social spaces toward the city.
Inside, the exhibition halls offer column-free spans and ten-meter ceiling heights, their exposed steel structures and polished concrete floors providing a neutral backdrop for exhibitors. Black-painted mechanical systems hang overhead, while linear fluorescent fixtures mark out a grid across the vast interiors. Escalators clad in dark metal move visitors between levels.
At ground level, the City Lounge ceiling curves in aluminum waves, a softer counterpoint to the angular volumes above. Cylindrical concrete columns punctuate the space at intervals. The floor transitions from exterior paving to polished terrazzo in the lobby, where a curved illuminated band traces the perimeter of the central oculus. During Baselworld and Art Basel, these spaces become some of the most concentrated meeting points in Switzerland.
