Volkshaus Hotel Basel

The site goes back to a fourteenth century bailiff’s castle and has always been densely used, a piece of city within the city. A brewery and restaurant came in 1845 and a concert hall in 1874. After the city took it over in 1905, it became a centre of political, social and cultural life, and a competition in 1919 led to a new building by Henri Baur, opened in 1925, with halls of various sizes, offices, meeting rooms, a shop, a restaurant and staff housing.

The building narrowly escaped demolition in the 1970s and was fully renovated, with all floors turned into offices. Since 2011 the design team has been rebuilding it in stages, reinstating lost uses such as accommodation and a shop, with the aim of keeping the multiplicity of the place based on the original architecture of 1925.

Ninety-five years after the opening, and eight years after the first phase that renewed the brasserie, the bar and small event halls, a hotel with 45 rooms now fills the front building in place of the offices. As before, the work began by removing the crust of later additions to reveal the original fabric.