LAGO105

Location: Freiestrasse, Basel
Type: Adaptive Reuse, Pop-up bar
Program: F&B
Size: 250 m2
Client: StadtKonzeptBasel
Status: Completed
Team: Patrice Gruner, Nafe Nafe

CONTEXT

Located in the center of Basel, in the old main post office building, Lago105 is a mereexample of how adaptive reuse can be illustrated at its finest. Once a department store from the middle ages whichwas built in 1376, the old main office building is a pure landmark of Basel, thatsignifies the city’s early dates of trade and merchandise.

CONCEPT

The passageway of the main post office between Freie Strasseand Gerbergasse was not a place where one would have wanted to spend timevoluntarily in recent years if it had been open to the public. Originally, itused to smell of horse manure here; mail coaches drove back and forthtransporting people, letters and packages. This has changed, where thepreviously functional, gloomy room was transformed into a blue lagoon. Thespace is meant to be a reminiscent of the Birsig river, that runs just belowthe passage, connecting the below with the above, just as Freie Strasse andGerbergasse are now connected again.

CONTENT

The pop-up bar is revolving around anall-chrome elliptic bar, with a 3-dimensional sculpturehanging above it, by the Basel-based artist Stefan Ebner. The space is meant tobe a hanging-out spot for residents and tourists of Basel city, where they canescape the busy city life and relax in a mesmerizing urban node. Lago105 is notjust the usual bar or eatery, but acts as an urban corridor, activated withinits natural urban context.