Reception and auditorium building

Reception and auditorium building with underground parking (2013-2018)
Client: F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
Architects: Nissen Wentzlaff Architects BSA SIA AG, Basel
General planning/construction management: Itten+Brechbühl AG, Basel

Key figures reception building 211
External dimensions: 52.5 m x 25.8 m
Total height: 11 m
Floor area SIA 416: 4'456 m2
Building volume SIA 416: 20'782 m2
Number of floors: 4

Auditorium building construction 218
External dimensions: 41.30 m x 42.90 m
Total height: 19 m
Floor area SIA 416: 5'506 m2
Building volume SIA 416: 38'819 m2
Number of floors: 6

Underground car park building 298
Number of parking spaces: 672
External dimensions: 96.90 m x 127.90 m
Total height: 7.70 m
Floor area SIA 416: 19'847 m2
Number of floors: 2

B.211 PORTE, B.218 AUDITORIUM AND B.298 PARKING

SPACE SITUATION
The porte building consists of two basement levels, a first floor and an upper floor. The two basement levels house technical and storage rooms as well as checkrooms. The first floor houses the large reception hall with waiting areas, toilets, a Roche store and various offices. The upper floor is used as a gym with checkrooms and classrooms.

The auditorium building is located southwest of the Porten building. It consists of two basement floors, a first floor and two upper floors with an additional mezzanine. The rooms of the basement floors are mainly used for storage and checkrooms. On the first floor, in addition to the assembly area with temporary buffets, there are two auditoriums, toilets, checkrooms, offices and storage.

The second floor will be mainly used by a large auditorium for 450 people and an assembly area with temporary buffets. The remaining space consists of restrooms, storage and mechanical rooms. The second floor includes meeting rooms, exhibition space and catering facilities, as well as toilets, checkroom, storage and technical rooms. The mezzanine floor is used exclusively for technical equipment.

The materialization of both buildings is chosen in a restrained way, concentrating on the facades on surfaces in exposed concrete with white aggregate and fully glazed mullion-transom facade with triple insulating glazing and profiles made of architectural bronze or anodized aluminum. Inside, the dominant materials are terrazzo or parquet on the floor; on the walls, exposed concrete and wood paneling; and on the ceilings, seamless heating-cooling-acoustic ceilings, exposed concrete or open wood structures in the auditoriums.

A parking lot with 686 parking spaces for visitors and employees is located on two basement levels. The central park for the Roche site in Kaiseraugst is built above the parking area and forms an attractive outdoor space.

The parking garage consists of two underground levels. Entrance and exit is via a ramp to the east of the Porten building. An escape staircase is located on the southeast and northwest sides. On the ceiling above the 1st floor there is a park with paths, meadows and woods.

LIGHTING CONCEPT
The high-quality lighting of the Porte and the Auditorium, consisting of LED semi-recessed glass luminaires, visually connects both buildings. The transparent brilliant luminaires have a noble and precious appearance even in daylight and are simple and restrained in their form, making them timeless and stable in value. With their high-quality appearance, they emphasize the importance of the buildings and at the same time fulfill the requirement of uniform basic lighting.

The simple lighting concept emphasizes the transparent appearance and restrained materialization of all premises. The transparent, glass luminaire, whose arrangement blends into the structure of the buildings, becomes part of the space and yet is perceivable as an independent object. For the basic architectural lighting, all rooms are treated equally on the façade side.

The impression of brightness of a room is determined by the perception of its surfaces, i.e. its luminance levels. Due to the fact that the entrance hall of the Porte has a strong relation to daylight, it is important when passing through the Porte that the interior of the room has a similar quality of light as the exterior. To raise the level of brightness in the center of the room, the luminaires are condensed in the center of the entrance hall.

The lighting for the entrance area on the 1st and 2nd basement levels of the Porte is designed to be just as high-quality as the lighting on the upper floors. The transparent glass luminaire emphasizes the importance of the entrance areas in its high-quality appearance and at the same time fulfills the requirement of uniform basic lighting.

In order to achieve a uniform high-quality appearance, recessed glass luminaires are also provided in the staircase. In the handrail of the main staircase of the Porten building there is a LED light strip, which provides uniform illumination of the steps. The large representative spiral staircase of the auditorium is illuminated with an asymmetrically radiating Led light line located in the outer handrail.

In the Welcome Coffee, swiveling downlights are set in addition to the basic lighting, allowing the wall behind the counter to be illuminated. A powerful LED light strip is also integrated into the counter for task lighting. LED strip lights in the shelves also provide uniform illumination of the shelves in the Roche Shop.

For the normative office workplace lighting in the office area of the Porten building, the basic lighting is supplemented with additional table lighting. The entire 1st floor of the Porten building is used for Fit@Roche.

In order to achieve a uniform external appearance of the Porten building, the lighting concept of the entrance hall is adapted in the entire Fit@Roche area and in the checkrooms. In the massage/physio, tea kitchen and health check rooms, the glass luminaire also serves as the basic lighting. In the reclining room, an additional floor lamp is provided for atmospheric lighting.

In the representative WCs on the upper floors and in the corridors leading to the WCs, there are smaller recessed glass ceiling luminaires. Above the mirrors, there is a linear surface-mounted luminaire in each of the ceiling recesses.

The checkrooms and WCs in the basements and the Tavero Offices are equipped with recessed LED downlights. In the control and interpreting rooms, recessed spotlights are set, which can be directed by the user due to their swiveling capability.

The precise warm lighting mood of the large auditorium and the two smaller auditoriums with their wooden surfaces emphasizes the materiality of the space and brings it to the fore. Since the auditoriums are used in very different and flexible ways, a versatile basic lighting system has been implemented that illuminates the entire space uniformly, glare-free and brilliantly in each case. The narrow-beam linear LED luminaire, which is set in regular lines and integrated into the grate of the wooden structure, recedes in its appearance and is only discreetly perceptible. In addition to the basic lighting, there is a requirement for an audience light. So that the audience can also be captured by the camera, there is an illumination that serves to illuminate the audience. In the lines of the basic lighting there is another linear LED light that is tilted 25° towards the audience.

In order to give the large auditorium an additional festive character, the high quality bronze panels of the ceiling are illuminated by means of a rod luminaire, to each of which one or two LED bronze shells are attached.

To ensure maximum visibility of the light in the parking, the driveways are kept bright and the parking areas dark. The LED damp-proof luminaires are mounted on mounting profiles, some of which are surface-mounted and some of which are pendant, resulting in a uniform light spot height for the entire area. At less than 2W/sqm connected load and 75 lux illuminance, the parking garage is very efficient and economical.