Packing and distribution building Ricola Europe, Mulhouse-Brunstatt, Rue de l’Ill 1992-1993

When the Swiss decided against joining the EU economic area in a referendum held in 1992, it became necessary for the company to set up a sales company in the EU and to build a hall for Ricola Europe in neighbouring France.

This hall was built in a few months in 1995. It is situated on the periphery of Mulhouse, on the west bank of the Rhine-Rhône Canal, facing Brunstatt. It is a simple building, 60 m long, 30 m wide an 8 m high. The roof projects outwards and slightly upwards for 8 m on each of the two long sides. It creates large, protected areas, those facing into the yard being used for loading and unloading the trucks, and those facing a small park for rest periods. Here, the roof is of a material which allows the light through, so that these areas are bathed in soft light.

The hall is constructed of steel which has been painted black. The supports form a free outline. Various areas are separated off by plastic panels: facing the yard are the stores for the herbal throat drops, delivered from Laufen in large sacks bearing the relevant codes, and for the cartons ready for shipment; on the other side are the rooms for the machines which fill these herbal throat drops into the "boxes". The two long walls of the building are constructed, to their full height, of three-ply panels of light-permeable polycarbonate, 8 m long by 0.5 m wide. The panels form a smooth skin, with only gates, of different heights, and large windows, 2 m high, being cut out of them. The windows look from the rooms in which the work is carried out on to an environment which arranged virtually in tiers in front of the hall: the meadow with a row of trees, a road, the canal mentioned above, the Basel-Paris main line, and the old village of Brunstatt. The inside walls of the panels are printed with a motif which is repeated six times upwards. This motif is a photograph of a leaf by Karl Blossfeld, dating from the nineteen-twenties. The imprint can be seen only faintly from the outside in daylight, and only if the shine of the plastic does not make it disappear. But from the inside it has a powerful presence. It mutes the light pleasantly in the high hall and gives the panels the effect of curtains. The architects pursued this effect further in the marketing building for Ricola using real curtains - and real plants.

But at night, when the lights have been switched on inside, the effect is reversed: the building becomes, to some extent, a printed box, on which the structure and the objects in the hall – machines and containers – stand out like stains. These containers, which were bought ready-made and placed in the hall, delimit the spaces to be enclosed, offices, recreation areas and cloakrooms.

Printing the plastic panels is part of the Herzog & de Meuron’s "recherche architecturale". It is geared to revealing the atectonic essence of the non-load-bearing strata of a building. In the same way, in an earlier design, the architects had glass panels printed with the image of the thermal insulation which was protected against moisture by these panels. The material in the Ricola Europe hall points in the same direction (a recollection of the fifties with their predilection for organic forms). This material also lines the underside of the overhanging roof allowing one to forget the static forces occurring in such a broad projection. However, the choice of this particular motif should also be considered in connection with the goods which Ricola produces, with their plant-based origin.

In conclusion, we must still mention the other two walls of the hall. They are made of dark-coloured concrete and they reinforce the structure. The rainwater which collects on the roof flows down over the concrete. When the walls are wet, they reflect; when the rain starts to dry, it forms dark tracks; and when the walls are dry, patches of brown and green discoloration can be seen, which originate from soot, rust and lichen. They are part of the design. They are part of the architect’s idea of the effect of aging in a building. In this sense, they are not soiling but traces of life, like the wrinkles in our skin as we grow older.