Basel Trade Tower and Trade Center
Since 2003, the Basel Trade Tower, with a height of exactly 105 meters, is the highest inhabited building in Switzerland. The skyscraper stands as a widely visible symbol for the new entrepreneurial self-awareness of the trade fair, while the cantilevered base is effective in the spatial proximity, by embraces the square facing out of the city and in the opposite direction, acts as a gate to the city centre. The cantilever arm houses the public functions including service centres, a restaurant and conference rooms underneath a 230-room hotel.
From the bar in the highest floor a previously inaccessible view of Basel is presented to the visitor. The diversity of functions inside the building is bound by a filigree glass skin, which covers both the tower and the base, and enhances the sculptural character of the skyscraper. The facade reacts sensitively to each change in light condition that can cause it to become either transparent or opaque, allowing it to permit a view into the internal structural supports and diagonals, to reflect a cloud passing by or become the projection screen for a fiery sunset.
