BIS Campus development project

The BIS is planning to develop its headquarters site in Basel.

Currently, about 700 Basel-based BIS staff are split between the site around the Tower building, which was designed by Martin Burckhardt and opened in 1977, and the Mario Botta-designed Botta building at Aeschenplatz. In addition to the Tower, the primary site near Basel's main railway station includes four ageing and inefficient buildings.

Planning process

Following an international architectural competition which was won by ELEMENTAL and Nissen Wentzlaff Studio, the BIS decided in June 2023 that it will pursue the project to develop its headquarters site and commence a design phase.

During that phase, the detailed design based on the winning proposal from the competition and related planning will take place until 2027. Towards the end of that phase, another decision regarding the construction will be taken.

The BIS is delighted to work with the firms Nissen Wentzlaff Studio (Basel, Switzerland) and ELEMENTAL (Santiago, Chile) to plan the development of the winning design. In the design phase, Nissen Wentzlaff Studio will take on the responsibilities of a General Planner, and along with ELEMENTAL in architecture design. A thorough tendering process to select a General Contractor for the construction phase is expected to be carried out in due time. Please note that individual business requests cannot be answered at this time.

For general queries about the project, please contact campus.development@bis.org.

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