This short film gives a personal insight into the creative process of Patrice Gruner (Architect at GRUNER&FRIENDS) and his brother Tizian (Producer/Director at GRUNERFILMS). Both creatives work in their industry but share their passions and combine their fields to create new synergies. This is an important part of their USP (unique selling point). They speak about their projects, experiences, challenges, relationship as brothers and best friends. Many thanks to the director Rubén Darío Bañol for this beautiful film!

We are celebrating our 7th anniversary this summer and would like to take the opportunity to share some projects from the last years with you. Soon we’ll announce further great projects, stay tuned.

We want to upgrade the Dreirosenbrücke with more green space and a wooden pergola to prevent the entire area from becoming a heat island in the city. Additionally, a new symbol for Basel is to be created. The open space on the bridge will serve as a replacement for the loss of the Dreirosenanlage during the construction of the Rhine tunnel. See project See BAZ article See BZ article

Part of our Lago 105 Bar has found a new place at L´avventura Basel after traveling from the Alte Post to Social Club at Art Basel. We’re glad to see our metal bar counter being a great example of design reuse and sustainability. See project

We have recently been named winners in a mixed-use architectural competition. The development covers an area of 15,000 m2, with 73 apartments and 20 commercial units.

At the end of 2023, we redesigned the Winter Group's offices in Shenzhen. Here is a first impression of the showroom. The renovation is in full swing.

In the new year, we are beginning the pre-project for a luxurious boutique hotel in Zürich, near the opera and the lake. The historical building will be carefully transformed into a modern hotel with an experiential restaurant, wine bar, and spa. Excited to design personalized architecture and interiors for an intimate and unique guest experience.

We are glad to release some new photos of our beloved ZUR3. See project

After we were chosen as one of the 5 out of 20 participating offices in the pre-qualification, we have successfully completed the first phase of the competition. In the final phase, we could further develop our proposal and made it into the top 3. See project

With this wonderfully wintry pictures, we bid farewell to the year 2023 and warmly thanked our clients and collaborators for the good and insightful cooperations. See project

We are happy to share these great news with you: we have been designing a multi-family house in Oberwil (BL) with 10 apartments and recently received the building permit. We will start construction soon. See project

We have recently placed 2nd in a competition to transform an existing office building in Zurich into a mixed-use development. See project

We see ourselves as brand and have therefore designed objects of daily life with our logo such as cups, pencils and fish bags for swimming in the Rhein.

Founder and CEO Patrice has given a presentation in Zurich at the Center for Urban & Real Estate Management.

With our software we can check and optimize projects like the residential building for ECOREAL. You can find the magazine from SVIT Zürich here. See magazine

"Rethinking The Future" has published a list of the 80 best architecture firms in Basel. GRUNER&FRIENDS is one of the lucky ones. You can find the full listing here. See article

The full articles and texts about the 5-star hotel resort project can be found here.Rethinking The Future swiss-architects.ch Blick Archisearch

You can read the full interview here. See interview

For the 6-year anniversary, we present 6 built projects from large- to small-scale, ranging from high-tech data center to artsy pop-up bar. Soon we’ll announce further great projects, stay tuned.

In collaboration with the local community and government, we have developed a conceptual vision for the city of Basel. Spanning over 3 different projects with various scales and functions, the Basel Vision has a common aim: A greener and more sustainable city. See project

Besides our digital channels, we believe in the power of the tactile and paper to present our projects. Thus, we designed a 50-page booklet, where you can find our latest projects, competencies, and more.

Our Basel Vision Project gets press attention. It got released in the BAZ Newspaper, one of Basel's most reputable and widely spread media platforms. See article here

Our Lago 105 Bar has found a new place at Basel Social Club. We’re glad to see our metal bar counter reused during Art Basel and show a great example of design reuse and sustainability. See project

Recently, we visited the completed data center ZUR3 near Zurich airport. The building represents the largest data center built in Switzerland in 2023. We’ve celebrated this fact and completion with our team and great pizza. See project

Swiss city of St. Gallen has a rich history in textile production that made brands such as AKRIS famous in the world of textiles and fashion. We’ve created our vision including large showrooms and vertical building extension for this historic monument with great cultural value. See project

In unserem Creative Lab entwickeln wir die Innenarchitektur ständig weiter. In diesem privaten Wohnprojekt in Basel trifft zeitloses Design auf lokale Handwerkskunst. Wir haben einen großen Esstisch aus Eichenholz, ein Küchendesign aus Eichenholz und ein modernes Badezimmerkonzept entworfen. Projekt ansehen

After winning a design competition, Basel’s centennial company Winter Group assigned us to design an expansion for its headquarters. The new space will accommodate the company’s expanding operations and represents its commitment to innovations and sustainability. See project

For the Swiss developer HIAG, we developed an urban planning concept and study for the large-size project Campus Reichold in Canton Aargau on an area of 75'000 m2. See project

We’re convinced that images can tell more than a thousand words. Therefore we believe in the power of the moving images to visualize our project visions and get a precise impression of our future projects such as the Borgo Miranda hotel resort project in Monte Brè above Locarno.

GRUNER&FRIENDS is growing: We're glad to share that several new faces have joined our international team in Basel recently!  

In our Creative Lab, we research on special projects and participate in extraordinary competitions. Under the extraordinary circumstances of Planet Mars, we‘ve developed the vision of a self-sustainable Martian habitat for a handful of researchers and received an “Honorable Mention” for our Marception project. See project

We were one of 8 selected offices worldwide – next to 3XN, Arup, GMP, and the only next Gen office, in competing for the new Red Bull Arena at Munich‘s olympic park, next to Frei Otto‘s iconic stadium. See project

Patrice presented our 5-star hotel resort project “Borgo Miranda” to the residents of Locarno. The hall of the infamous Palacinema, home to the Locarno Film Festival, near Piazza Grande was packed with interested locals and press. 

National Swiss-Italian television RSI visited our Basel office and reported on the future Borgo Miranda project above Locarno.

We completed the overall refurbishment of the KPMG headquarters in Zurich. In this project we‘ve focused on a representative facade and welcoming entrance area, as well as a communal top floor terrace and attractive courtyard. See project

Swiss platform for construction culture “Architektur Dialoge” made a feature on our office and the use of AI in our construction designs. Have a look here and learn more about our use of AI, BIM, Virtual Reality, and more.

In Summer 2022 we created the design for the temporary bar concept Lago 105 in the city center of Basel. If you missed to have a drink at the blue bar in the passage of the old post, you can get a great impression here.

We used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to plan an urban study for the Swiss developer HIAG. In this extensive study, we focused on the potential of the site “Cham North” near Zug, Switzerland. See project

We‘re constantly advancing in the use of the latest design tools and technologies. Our Generative design softwares provide state of the art designing methods that meet the high standards of our office and clients.

Patrice presented our high-rise residential living tower to an architecture and arts audience in Los Angeles. The event took place at a satellite space of the renowned Swiss art gallery Karma International from Zurich.

Patrice and AI specialist Wissam have been lecturing on digital construction and generative design. Thanks FHNW for the invitation and the interesting exchange.

The Rhine is the spine of the city, along which all major institutions are situated. We aim to connect these with urban spaces, for example, by adding greenery to the bridges, thereby reinforcing it, thus providing the city with an added value.