SIP Main Campus by Herzog & de Meuron: A Sustainable Innovation Hub in Allschwil

A New Benchmark for Sustainable Office Architecture in Switzerland

Located on the northwest edge of Allschwil, Switzerland—right next to the French border—the SIP Main Campus by renowned Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron stands as a bold new vision for collaborative, sustainable workplace architecture. Completed in 2023, this 40,000-square-meter mixed-use office development is the largest building in the BaseLink site, a growing life sciences and biotech cluster that caters to global leaders in pharmaceuticals, medicine, and advanced research.

A Flexible and Future-Proof Office Design

At the heart of the design strategy is an emphasis on typological flexibility and spatial adaptability. The structural concept minimizes vertical supports and internal partitions, opening up a wide range of potential configurations for tenants. The building is specifically targeted at startups, scale-ups, and established firms in the biotechnology and healthcare sectors. Its flexible layout can easily accommodate a range of work environments—from high-tech laboratories to dynamic open-plan offices.

The SIP Main Campus is also designed with community engagement and work-life balance in mind. The upcoming addition of a Swiss International School primary campus will reduce the commuting burden for families, enriching the campus’s social fabric and fostering a true live-work-play environment.

A Courtyard-Centric Urban Oasis

Inspired by the traditional courtyard house typology, the building wraps around a large, shaded central courtyard equivalent in size to a football field. This inner garden is accessible via two-story open passages at street level, forming part of a larger sequence of green spaces that span the entire BaseLink campus.

The landscaped courtyard contributes to the site's microclimate and biodiversity. Gravel surfaces, seepage pits, and climbing greenery reference the site's original riverbed ecology. Four grand spiral staircases located in each corner of the courtyard allow for intuitive circulation, creating a vertical network of connectivity that supports up to eight different user groups per floor.

High-Performance Facade and Structural Innovation

The SIP Main Campus features a striking grid-like concrete facade, a structural element that absorbs vertical and lateral loads, offering resistance against wind and seismic forces. This robust outer ring reduces the number of internal structural elements, thereby maximizing spatial flexibility and future-proofing the building for evolving tenant needs.

Inner-facing loggias along the courtyard offer shaded outdoor areas for collaboration, social interaction, and passive cooling. The combination of shading devices and energy-efficient ceiling panels ensures year-round thermal comfort with minimal energy use. The building is connected to the geothermal energy network of the BaseLink site, underlining its commitment to sustainable design and low-carbon infrastructure.

Human-Scale Design and Art Integration

One of the most distinctive architectural gestures is the subtle inclination of the facade's vertical elements. This intentional detail emphasizes horizontal lines and scales down the visual mass of the building, creating a more approachable and human-centric design.

The ground floor hosts restaurants, cafes, and a 300-seat auditorium that can be used for public events, reinforcing the campus’s openness to the local community. Each of the building’s five floors is designed to accommodate either office or laboratory use, with generous ceiling heights and a flexible structural grid.

A Dialogue Between Architecture and Art

The four spiral staircases that rise from the courtyard are not only circulation nodes—they are also the setting for a compelling artistic intervention by Basel-based artist Renée Levi. Her installation, composed of interlacing white plaster lines, animates each staircase with unique fluid gestures that follow the movement of users as they ascend or descend. Complementing this is “Nina”, a monumental custom wool tapestry measuring 19 by 7.5 meters, displayed in the auditorium. Together, these artworks elevate everyday moments into immersive aesthetic experiences.

All Photographer are works of Julien Lanoo.