The Chemical Industry as a Client<span style="color:#000000"> </span>

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. These laid the foundation for future construction activities and a specialization in industrial and scientific buildings. 

In the early years, Burckhardt was continually able to take on projects from the expanding chemical-pharmaceutical industry in and around Basel. These included the 1957 completed Geigy high-rise on the Rosental site, which has been demolished, and the Geigy warehouse on Mattenstrasse, built in 1952, which was later converted into a laboratory and workshop building known as WRO 1055, and now houses an ETH Zurich research department among other uses. Over time, these commitments gave rise to the industrial and scientific buildings division. 

Yet, the connection between Burckhardt and the chemical industry dates back to well before the office was founded in 1951: During the Second World War, Martin H. Burckhardt’s father Karl August Burckhardt-Koechlin had already planned the Sandmeyer Laboratory, which opened in 1941, for J.R. Geigy AG. Based on research by the renowned, self-taught Swiss chemist Traugott Sandmeyer on the synthetic production of indigo, J.R. Geigy AG had built up an extensive dye production over the decades. The ultra-modern research facility was hailed as a milestone that marked the transition from color chemicals to pharmacy and agrochemicals – a development that necessitated building projects on a large scale and further boosted the growing importance of scientific buildings as an architectural category. From 1954 on, Burckhardt specifically addressed the operational, functional, and structural challenges of scientific buildings, paying attention to safety, interior fixtures, and modification options, and supervised the construction activities of the larger chemical companies in Basel. 

Initially, the commissions mainly comprised the design and planning of industrial plants, factory buildings, warehouses, and distribution centers. Later, Burckhardt also increasingly specialized in physics, chemistry, biology, technical, and medical laboratories operated by (higher) education institutions, industrial companies and scientific associations. Close collaboration with clients from the chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, as well as food and beverage industries enabled the architectural office to offer a comprehensive range of industrial construction services from its earliest years. The Industry Division was established and continuously developed. In the 1990s, Burckhardt was also known and active beyond the country’s borders as an architectural office and general planner with its Industrial Buildings department.