Christ & Gantenbein
Swiss architects Emanuel Christ, born 1970, and Christoph Gantenbein, born 1971, both graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 1998. In the same year they founded their firm Christ & Gantenbein in Basel.
The office’s activity extends to a broad spectrum of projects—private and public commissions, ranging from small transformations, to housing, office buildings, bridges, and urban master plans. One of their main focal points is museum architecture: The firm's most prominent completed projects include the expansion and transformation of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and the extension of the Kunstmuseum Basel, both cultural landmarks with a global reach.
In 2020, the office completed the Lindt Home of Chocolate, a monumental yet versatile space for Lindt & Sprüngli in Zurich. In 2021, C&G completed the Multifunctional Workspace Building for Roche in Germany, representing a new interpretation of contemporary collaboration. Currently, C&G is working on a diverse range of projects across Europe. Among them are a social housing development in Paris, the extension of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, a housing and office building in the historic center of Hamburg, a new laboratory and office building in St. Gallen, and, most recently, the extension for the MACBA in Barcelona or the Kunstmuseum Main Building Renovation in Basel. Underscoring the diversity of scale and program the office operates in, the Zurich University Hospital project, which is currently in development, will transform an entire district of Switzerland's most populous city, giving healthcare and medical research an unrivaled new home.
Practice and research are intertwined in the work of Christ & Gantenbein, an aspect which is reflected in Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein's ongoing academic teaching. Since 2018, they have been full professors of architecture and design at ETH Zurich and, in 2021, were appointed Kenzo Tange Design Critics in Architecture at Harvard GSD. Before that, they taught at the ETH Studio Basel (2000–2005), the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio (2004, 2006, 2009), the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (2008), ETH Zurich (2010–2015), as well as at Harvard GSD (2015 – 2017).
