Vidmarhallen

The site where the Vidmar company manufactured cash desk units for almost a century captivates visitors with its unadorned industrial architecture dating from 1900 to 1960. The concept for the renovation and extension works clarified the access routes, streamlined the structures and, in doing so, ensures that the history remains palpable in every corner of the complex.

The buildings were adapted to meet the new challenges through targeted interventions. The former factory has been transformed into a hub for crafts and services, as well as for leisure and culture. With the addition of the Stadttheater’s second venue, the Vidmarhallen have definitively become one of the liveliest cultural hubs in Bern.

In 2008, the former ticket office hall was extended with a two-storey addition. The simple cube was designed as a lightweight structure. The building was clad with a curtain wall façade made of aluminium sheet. The two long sides were fully glazed as a mullion-transom façade.

The ‘Wohlfahrtsgebäude’ was extended with a single-storey addition in 2011. The extension was derived volumetrically from the geometry of the existing building and designed in the style of the 2008 extension to the Kassenbauhalle. 

In 2013, the industrial hall was extended with a two-storey addition. The new structure is very understated in terms of colour and volume. It blends into the roofscape of the Vidmar site. In keeping with the site’s industrial past, the façade was clad in corrugated fibre cement throughout.