HHF Office

Before being converted to an architects’ office, the building at the back side of the courtyard at Allschwilerstrasse 71 was used for decades as a small ice cream factory well-known throughout the city. Over the years the former factory had been continually added on to and rebuilt. Eventually, however, because of the deteriorated state of the overall structure and outdated technology of the production facilities, the firm decided to move to a new location and build a new building.

In order to convert the structure to an office and studio complex, it was necessary to thermally insulate the building. Aiming to keep the industrial character only the interior side walls were insulated. The windows in the entry façade were left in their original condition, yet were thermally optimized by means of attaching a new additional (second) layer of windows at the outside. Everything – even detailed touch-up work – was completed in such a way that the original character of the exterior of the building could be maintained.

Through newly added elements, such as the black-brown colour of the façade, the entry out of chrome-plated steel and the new second layer of windows, the house was upgraded and a mixture of original essence and the new resulted. While the overall impression of the building is shaped during the day by the new outer windows, at night this effect is reversed and the old wooden windows illuminated from inside dominate allowing the historical qualities of the building once again to clearly reappear.

In its original condition the ground floor had almost no openings and the relation between inside and outside had to be adapted to accommodate the new use. Opening the closed space of the former refrigerated storage space was employed to create the entry facing the courtyard and establish a new relationship to the street. In the rear area a newly inserted inner courtyard not only serves as a light well, but also as a garden and space for breaks. The inner courtyard is also the focal piece around which the central work area and a conference room are grouped. Untreated larch was used for the floors of the terraces and large windows, which will acquire a pleasing patina over time.

In the workspace on the upper floor a new terrace was shifted beyond the perimeter of the original structure, which – like a boat – was laid on top of the roof of the former production hall, successfully avoiding the risk of penetrating the roof skin. In order that the use of the building remain flexible by allowing subdivision into more rental units as necessary, the staircase that was originally located in the real part of the structure was shifted to the entry area. All plumbing facilities were concentrated around the new core. The kitchen not only serves the everyday function as a space for taking breaks, but also as a conference room and is therefore designed to be unusually large.