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Founding and Historical Background
Burckhardt Architekten SIA was founded in 1951 by Karl August Burckhardt-Koechlin, his son Martin Heinrich, and his son’s friend Karl Eckert.
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The Chemical Industry as a Client
Martin H. Burckhardt’s good relationships and family connections with decision-makers in Basel’s chemical industry led to the first major commissions for the architectural office.
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Locations, Branch Offices and Subsidiaries
From the 1960s onwards, in addition to numerous projects for the chemical industry in Switzerland, Burckhardt was also able to complete an increasing number of commissions for J.R. Geigy AG, Ciba-Geigy AG and Sandoz AG abroad.
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Basel
When Burckhardt Architekten SIA was first founded in 1951, the small team gratefully first made use of the premises of its predecessor firm, Burckhardt, Wenk & Cie., at Malzgasse 16 in Basel.
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From Name to Symbol
The surname «Burckhardt» appears in various spellings across the German-speaking world. However, the distinctive version with «ckdt» is closely tied to Basel and a patrician family traceable back to the 15th century.
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Architecture as Building Culture
In the first decades after its founding in 1951, a number of buildings were constructed with a design quality – and in some cases even an iconic character – that has endured to the present day. The architecture and the office culture were shaped by Martin H. Burckhardt.
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Founding of the Joint-Stock Company
At the beginning of the 1980s, the partners Martin H. Burckhardt, Guido Doppler, Timothy O. Nissen and Edi Bürgin took a groundbreaking decision to convert the company into a joint-stock company.
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The Shareholders’ Agreement
On July 1, 1993, partner Peter Epting introduced the groundbreaking shareholders’ agreement. To this day, it provides for partners, associate partners and associated staff to have a stake in the company.
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Sustainability
Martin H. Burckhardt had recognized early on the importance of all three dimensions of sustainability – social, ecological and economic – and emphasized them time and again.
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Investment in Digital Technologies
Burckhardt has consistently been an early adopter of emerging technologies, beginning its digital transformation as early as the 1970s. The first computer, a remarkably powerful Honeywell for its time, was introduced in 1971.
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Burckhardt International
In the decades following its founding, Burckhardt thrived amid the postwar boom and the global expansion of Basel’s chemical industry. Starting in the 1960s, the Basel-based architectural office followed companies like Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz around the world.
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Crisis Years
The oil shortages of 1973 triggered an oil price crisis that not only brought Switzerland’s economic engine to a standstill, but also brought about a severe political and economic crisis in virtually the entire Western world.
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Zurich Office
On November 1, 1979, Burckhardt opened the office at Neumarkt 28 in Zurich, where it is still located today.
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Burckhardt Developments
The early 1990s were marked by an economic recession that hit architecture firms hard, with a noticeable decline in new construction projects.
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Western Switzerland
In 2004, under former CEO Peter Epting, Burckhardt expanded its presence beyond the borders of the German language region into French-speaking Switzerland by acquiring the tk3 AG and establishing offices in Geneva and Lausanne.
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Germany
In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Burckhardt was already delivering major industrial construction projects in Germany. Consequently, in 1989, the subsidiary Burckhardt+Partner GmbH was established in Grenzach-Wyhlen, just across the German border.
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A Secure Future
Burckhardt set up a foundation back in 1959, to offer all employees and their families a comprehensive pension scheme for old age, disability, and death, in addition to the statutory company social insurance.
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Bern Office
By the mid-1990s, the collapse of the renowned Basel architecture firm Suter + Suter had become inevitable.
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Burckhardt Immobilien AG
Commissioned by Erika and Willi Fehlbaum – the founders of the Vitra company – Burckhardt planned and completed the «Im Freuler» residential development near the furniture manufacturer’s headquarters in Muttenz (BL) in 1986.
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Paris Office
A French employee made it possible for Burckhardt to move into a construction hut in a Paris suburb in autumn 1965. This new location had become necessary to let Burckhardt efficiently manage the construction of the headquarters and the planned laboratories for Sandoz AG in France.
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Vienna Office
The office in Vienna was founded in 1967 in collaboration with the Basel-based engineering firm Gebr. Gruner for the area of construction management, under the name «B+G, Industrieplanung Ges.m.b.H., Wien».
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Burckhardt and the Star Architects
The rise of a generation of star architects in the 1990s had a profound impact on the status of architecture in Switzerland.
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Key lines of the company's development – from its beginnings to the present day – are narrated through individual topics and illustrate Burckhardt's transformation over the decades.
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