Culture & Commercial Center ELYS

Completed simultaneously by baubüro in situ in 2021, the projects K.118 in Winterthur and ELYS in Basel, proved to be pioneering projects of circular building. They received a lot of attention and were the trigger for the foundation of Zirkular by the involved planners. From the search for components and the closely related architectural design, through the management and storage of the components to the construction, a rich and well-documented wealth of experience created a solid beginning for the new firm.

In the ELYS project of Immobilien Basel-Stadt, Real Estate Management for the Canton of Basel-Stadt, the partial deconstruction of a former distribution centre created an opening in the building of around 1,000 m2. It was closed with a new facade made of corrugated metal sheeting taken from the former roof superstructures, leftover cuttings of insulation material and windows from leftover stock. The partial deconstructions enabled the conversion and thus the preservation of the spacious concrete halls. The combination of preserving the existing building and reusing components resulted in large savings of grey greenhouse gas emissions.