Founded in Zurich in 1997 by Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli, the studio EM2N has gradually shifted its attention from a sober, rational design based on stylistic simplification – heir to the Dutch avant-garde and characteristic of Swiss contemporary culture – towards an architecture strongly attached to its context. In this sense, the design of the extension of the Public Records Office of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, located in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Liestal and separated from the city center by railway tracks, takes the study of the site as point of departure. The construction of a glazed volume atop the existing building seeks the views of the city while a green surface conceals the facade creating a sort of pedestal that melds into the landscape...
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