Herbs are the most important raw material in all Ricola products. The new Ricola Kräuterzentrum is a central location for processing these herbs from the Swiss mountains. The forward-looking construction project was completed by based Basel architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and the company Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH. The opening ceremony gave guests at the largest loam building in Europe the opportunity to refuel with real "Chrüterchraft".

Following 16 months of construction, the new Ricola Kräuterzentrum, which is directly adjacent to the production facility in Laufen, entered into operation at the beginning of May 2014. The center will clean, dry, cut, store and mix 1,400,000 kilograms of fresh herbs every year at a central location to create the unique Ricola herb blend that is the vital ingredient of all Ricola products. The building, which has a solid rammed earth facade, is over 100 meters long, around 11 meters high and was designed by Herzog & de Meuron. This is the seventh project to be completed by the Basel-based architecture firm for Ricola. The company Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH was brought in for the loam facade. Martin Rauch, the company's founder and managing director, is Europe's leading expert in loam construction techniques.

Europe's biggest loam building now stands in Laufen.
 

Description of the project by Herzog & de Meuron.

Architecture and Landscape
The new Kräuterzentrum (herb center) is situated like an erratic block in the midst of a landscape dotted with conventional industrial buildings. Its elongated shape echoes the pathways and the hedges that have long been a distinctive feature of this area. The length of the building also reflects the steps involved in the industrial processing of herbs, from drying and cutting to blending and storing. The new processing plant enables Ricola to integrate these important steps in the company's own in-house production.

Architecture as Landscape
The Kräuterzentrum is built largely out of locally sourced earth; it is like a geometrical segment of landscape with its dimensions and archaic impact heightened by the radical choice of material. Herbs and earth define the purpose-built, distinctive character of the center, following in the footsteps of Ricola‘s other buildings: the fully automated storage building of 1987, the production and storage building of 1993 in Mulhouse-Brunstatt with its screenprint façade and the glazed marketing headquarters of 1999 in Laufen. These buildings not only embody Ricola's exceptional philosophy and commitment to the environment, they each make a striking contribution to their locations.

The delivery entrance and warehouse sections of the herb center’s façade are monolithic, with the loam walls visible in the interior as well. The prefabricated earth elements are manufactured in a nearby factory out of ingredients extracted from local quarries and mines. Clay, marl and material excavated on site are mixed and compacted in a formwork and then layered in blocks to build the walls. Thanks to the plasticity of the loam, the seams can be retouched giving the overall structure a homogeneous appearance. To arrest erosion caused by wind and rain, a trass mortar achieved mixing volcanic tuff (trass) with lime, is compacted every 8 layers of earth directly in the formwork. Large round windows illuminate the rooms. The façade is self-supporting and simply linked to the concrete loadbearing structure of the interior.

Energy and Sustainability
Energy and sustainability are not simply treated as technical auxiliaries; they are built into the architecture and essential features of the project as a whole. Earth as a material that regulates humidity has a positive, sustainable effect on the use of energy and overall climate control. Photovoltaic modules on the roof and the use of waste heat from the production center nearby also contribute to improving the ecological balance of the Kräuterzentrum. Visitors will be able to watch the processing and blending of the herbs in a special visitor center on the top floor.

Text.- Herzog & de Meuron, 2014.

CREDITS.-

Herzog & de Meuron Team.- Partners: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Stefan Marbach (Partner in Charge). Project Team: Michael Fischer (Associate, Project Director), Nina Andrea Renner (Project Manager). Zdenek Chmel, Wolfgang Hardt (Partner), Harald Schmidt, Hendrik Steinigeweg, Luca Ugolini, Freya Winkelmann.

Rammed Earth Facade Specialist.- Lehm Tom Erde Baukunst Gmbh, Schlins, Austria. Martin Rauch, Thomas Honermann, Hanno Burstcher. Client: Ricola AG, Laufen, Switzerland.

Client Representative.- Dr. Hans Batzer, Ricola AG, Laufen, Switzerland.

Planning.- Design Consultant, Executive Architect: Herzog & de Meuron, Basel, Switzerland. General Planning, Cost Consultant: Kundert Planer AG, Schlieren, Switzerland. General Contractor: Priora Generalunternehmung AG, Basel, Switzerland. Electrical Engineering: Pfister + Gloor Engineering, AG Baden-Dättwill, Switzerland; Selmoni Ingenieur AG, Basel, Switzerland. HVAC Engineering: Cofely AG, Basel, Switzerland; Kundert Planer AG, Schlieren, Switzerland. Structural Engineering: Schnetzer Puskas AG, Basel, Switzerland. Engineering Design: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany. Plant Layout: Kundert Planer AG, Schlieren, Switzerland.

Specialist / Consulting.- Cost Consultant: Rapp Arcoplan AG, Basel, Switzerland. Acoustics: Martin Lienhard, Langenbruck, Switzerland. Building Physics: Zimmermann + Leuthe GmbH, Aetigkofen, Switzerland; Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany. Civil Engineering: Schnetzer Puskas Ing. , Basel, Switzerland. Facade Engineering: Emmer Pfenninger Partner AG, Münchenstein, Switzerland; Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH, Schlins, Austria. Geometrician: Peter Jäckle AG, Laufen, Switzerland. Geotechnical Consultant: Kiefer & Studer AG, Reinach, Switzerland. Sustainability Consultant: PE CEE GmbH, Vienna, Austria.

Building Data.- Site Area: 15,354sqm / 165'269sqft. Building Footprint: 3,218 sqm / 34'660 sqft. Building Dimensions: Length 111m / 365ft; Width 29m / 95ft; Height 11m / 36ft. Gross Floor Area (GF): 4,800sqm / 51'667 sqft. Number of Levels: 3.

 

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Herzog & de Meuron Architekten is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 (and in 1989) and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999. They are co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, which started a research programme on processes of transformation in the urban domain.

Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by five Senior Partners – Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. An international team of 38 Associates and about 362 collaborators.

Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988).  The firm’s breakthrough project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987).  Renown in the United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the Küppersmühle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999). Their most recognized buildings include Prada Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan (2003); Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany (2005); the new Cottbus Library for the BTU Cottbus, Germany (2005); the National Stadium Beijing, the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China; VitraHaus, a building to present Vitra’s “Home Collection“, Weil am Rhein, Germany (2010); and 1111 Lincoln Road, a multi-storey mixed-use structure for parking, retail, a restaurant and a private residence in Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2010), the Actelion Business Center in Allschwil/Basel, Switzerland (2010). In recent years, Herzog & de Meuron have also completed projects such as the New Hall for Messe Basel Switzerland (2013), the Ricola Kräuterzentrum in Laufen (2014), which is the seventh building in a series of collaborations with Ricola, with whom Herzog & de Meuron began to work in the 1980s; and the Naturbad Riehen (2014), a public natural swimming pool. In April 2014, the practice completed its first project in Brazil: the Arena do Morro in the neighbourhood of Mãe Luiza, Natal, is the pioneering project within the wider urban proposal “A Vision for Mãe Luiza”.

Herzog & de Meuron have completed 6 projects since the beginning of 2015: a new mountain station including a restaurant on top of the Chäserrugg (2262 metres above sea level) in Toggenburg, Switzerland; Helsinki Dreispitz, a residential development and archive in Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland; Asklepios 8 – an office building on the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland; the Slow Food Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy; the new Bordeaux stadium, a 42’000 seat multifunctional stadium for Bordeaux, France; Miu Miu Aoyama, a 720 m² boutique for the Prada-owned brand located on Miyuki Street, across the road from Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of that practice being the collaboration with Rémy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael Craig-Martin.

Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, “We work in teams, but the teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.”

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