UBS Monocle
Designs for life
Emanuel Christ
Co-founder, Christ & Gantenbein
Architects Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein are soon to publish a monograph of the sketches and plans from their projects that were never built. It’s a testament to their general approach: deep, studied learning that values the process.
That thinking is also evident in the elegance of the many buildings that they have created, such as the Swiss National Library and the extension of the Kunstmuseum Basel. “As our experience grows, our commitment to staying hands-on remains unchanged,” says Christ. “Hands-on work sustains our connection and relationship to the craft of architecture – and our team builds beautiful models that are integral to our design process.”
Founded in 1998, Christ & Gantenbein’s Spitalstrasse studio is no stranger to cutting-edge technology, as shown by the LED-light frieze that wraps around the new Kunstmuseum Basel building. Academic research influences the practice too and they take a holistic approach to innovation. For a new social-housing building in Paris, the team’s research on housing typologies led them to find ways to optimise light and ventilation.
Christ also remains fascinated by the technical challenges that architecture presents. “Its creative expression, its social implications, the challenges of making sensitively, sustainably and innovatively, and, of course, the need to understand both function and aesthetics.”
Christ & Gantenbein’s Basel buildings
Kunstmuseum Basel: LEDs create a striking ‘intelligent light frieze’ on the museum’s Neubau building.
Café Zum Kuss: A concrete bar pays tribute to its former life as a storage facility, while an opening connects it to greenery.
