Confiserie Bachmann, Basel

Coffee house and chocolate shop

Renovation of the Confiserie Bachmann flagship coffee house and chocolate shop. Confiserie Bachmann is Basel’s most traditional and most famous chocolate manufacturer, specializing in high-quality sweets.
With this renovation, the local, but in Switzerland well-known brand has received a bright, elegant, and contemporary expression that adopts the characteristic qualities of the previous chocolate shop despite the visible changes. The renovation optimizes its location by reorienting itself anew to not only the street, but also around its corner to the covered passageway with outdoor seating. An inviting coffee bar flooded with light, as well as the arrangement of the glass sales cabinet, the counter, the furnishings, and the bright colors, create a new openness to the street and the covered passageway. Although the space is small, the renovation creates a spacious, yet intimate atmosphere with the use of reflection and color. Atypical of chocolate shops, the white color of the shop creates a light and spacious feel that is balanced by chocolate-colored furniture. Additionally, the offsetting mirror system embedded into the main wall reflects diagonally to create perceptive depth and complexity.

Confiserie Bachmann AG, Basel

HHF architects / www.hhf.ch
HERLACH HARTMANN FROMMENWILER with Markus Leixner (project architect)