SRF Studio Basel moves into new high-rise building at SBB station

The new location for the studio will be the Meret Oppenheim high-rise building by architects Herzog & de Meuron, which is to be built next to the south exit of the station in the Gundeldinger quarter from 2016. According to an SRF spokesperson, a 20-year lease has been negotiated. The detailed concept for the new Studio Basel will now be developed by 2015.

SRF plans to bring the entire culture department together at the new location in Basel. Due to these convergence plans, an estimated 100 employees from the Zurich cultural departments of radio and television will work in Basel in future. 173 people from several editorial offices and the administration currently work in the Basel studio.

SRF Director Rudolf Matter is quoted in the communiqué as saying that the building offers contemporary conditions for program production and is centrally located for employees and visitors. The current SRF studio, built in 1940 and later extended, is located on the Bruderholz hill in the middle of a peripheral residential area.

In railroad instead of post office building

For years, several properties had been examined for possible new SRF studio locations. Most recently, in summer 2013, plans to move to the post office building to the east of the SBB railroad station came to nothing despite a preliminary agreement for a ten-year lease. The planned 81-metre Meret Oppenheim high-rise was announced in 2011 under the project name "Stapelvolumen". The 150 million building consists of a six-storey base and a 20-storey tower made up of large, slightly offset elements. 45 percent of the building's 28,500 square meters of floor space will be apartments, 22 percent retail space. According to the spokesperson, SRF wants to occupy a total of around 9,200 square meters on four floors in the Meret Oppenheim high-rise. (SDA)