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.
The design phase
Following an international architectural competition which was won by ELEMENTAL (Santiago, Chile) and Nissen Wentzlaff Studio (Basel, Switzerland), the BIS decided in June 2023 that it will pursue the project to develop its headquarters site and initiated a design phase, which is expected to run until 2028.
The project secured the approval of a second stage development plan by the Basel-Stadt Governing Council in February 2025, after no objections were received during its late-2024 public consultation. It will proceed with detailed design throughout 2026 and part of 2027.
Working with the BIS' own project team, during the design phase, Nissen Wentzlaff Studio is the project's General Planner along with ELEMENTAL in architecture design.
A thorough tendering process to select a Total Contractor for the construction phase is ongoing and will last until early 2028, after which a decision will be made on whether to proceed with construction. Please note that individual business requests cannot be answered at this time.
4 February 2025: The Government Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt has approved a second-stage development plan for the BIS. See press release (only available in German).
15 November 2024: Master plan amendment for BIS Campus open for public review. See press release.
13 May 2024: Information for residents - Geothermal subsoil investigation / Centralbahnplatz, Basel
28 February 2024: Information for residents - subsoil investigation
24 January 2024: BIS exhibits design proposals for development of Basel headquarters site. See press release.
14 December 2022: BIS announces outcome of architectural competition to develop designs to enhance its Basel headquarters site. See press release (English, German, Spanish).
24 September 2021: BIS has invited a shortlist of applicants to participate in the architectural project study. This phase is expected to last until the second half of 2022.
21 June 2021: BIS calls for expressions of interest to develop Basel headquarters. See press release.
