Earlier this month, Roche held a foundation stone-laying ceremony for their new office building that is currently being constructed in Basel, Switzerland. Designed by the Basel-based architecture practice of Herzog & de Meuron, the 178-meter-tall tapering structure will be formed by superimposed floor slabs that narrow as the high rise ascends. Its simple shape and predominantly white color scheme will anchor itself within the urban setting of Basel and become one of the few high rises scattered throughout the city’s skyline.
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“The new office high-rise will provide workspace for people in research, development, production and marketing”, explained Roche CEO Severin Schwan. “Dialogue is the basis of all innovation. We are convinced that locating departments close to each other is crucial in ensuring that they work together successfully. That’s why we’ll be bringing most of the 2000-plus employees who currently work in offices all over the city back to our main Basel site.”
Roche Building 1 will house around 2,000 workstations, numerous meeting rooms, a staff restaurant and a 500-seat auditorium. Shell construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2014 and full occupancy is planned for 2015. The approximant cost of the building is 550 million Swiss francs.
