Expansion on the periphery

While some departments, such as the Europainstitute, shifted to more peripheral locations, others, such as the newly unified Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, found a new home in the center of the city.

The Europainstitut – Institute for European Global Studies (EIB) relocated from one peripheral area to another in autumn 2019, moving from Gellertstrasse to Riehenstrasse into the late Baroque Sandgrube, the former summer house of the Leissler manufacturing family. With its China Room, decorated with original eighteenth-century Chinese mulberry tree wallpapers, the new location perfectly complements the institute’s focus on “European global studies.”

The merging of the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science at the new site of Spiegelgasse 1 enabled a comprehensive renovation of Rheinsprung Street 21 (also addressing earthquake safety and accessibility), which has been home to parts of the Department of Social Sciences since 2016. By approximately 2028, the fully renovated building of the old trade school (Petersgraben 52) is set to house the entire Department of Social Sciences (including Sociology and Political Science, which are currently located elsewhere) along with the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The old university building at Rheinsprung Street 9/11, in need of renovation, was made earthquake-proof and accessible in 2014. A substantial bequest to the Basel City Department of Parks and Gardens (the Stadtgärtnerei) allowed for the university’s long-neglected first Botanical Garden to be reimagined with garden conservation in mind and opened to the public.

Modernization is also happening in the historical university center: since late 2015, the Lernoullianum at Petersgraben 45 has been open, taking over the space previously occupied by book collections moved to the Büron (LU) storage library. The University Library is also adapting to new learning needs with an interior renovation completed in 2022.

Thanks to the relocation of the Dentistry Department to the Rosental area, the old premises at St. Peter’s Square 14/Hebelstrasse 3–5 can be renovated by the Canton of Basel-City starting from 2026. This will make it possible to consolidate all the Rectorate and administrative functions of the university in one building.