Peter Zumthor Adds Three Buildings to Fondation Beyeler in Riehen

The Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, will open its expansion — three new buildings by Peter Zumthor — to visitors on September 26, 2026. The additions flank Renzo Piano's existing museum and include the Wyss Museum, the Ammann Pavilion, and the Erlen Torhaus, each differentiated by programme, form, and material.

A preview phase runs through January 14, 2027, before the full opening on January 15.

The largest building, the three-storey Wyss Museum, adds approximately 1,500 square meters of exhibition space. Its Y-shaped plan is arranged around existing trees — a ginkgo, a redwood, and a group of plane trees — while large windows frame views toward the Black Forest and the Jura region. An upper-level terrace connects the building to the park via an external staircase. Locally quarried Jura limestone runs throughout: in the rammed-concrete façade, terrazzo flooring, staircases, benches, and wall finishes. The museum will show works from the Fondation Beyeler collection alongside loans from private collections and will host temporary exhibitions.

The single-storey Ammann Pavilion sits between the two museum buildings and the historic structures. Its glass and oak construction opens directly onto the park, with floor-to-ceiling glazing looking across the landscape. During the day it functions as a freely accessible public lounge; in the evening it hosts concerts, performances, talks, and film screenings.

At the site's edge, the timber-frame Erlen Torhaus mediates between the urban fabric and the adjacent nature reserve. It contains artwork handling facilities and workspaces, and its stained oak façade references Zumthor's studio in Haldenstein.

The Park Nearly Doubles

Landscape drives the expansion as much as architecture. Almost 10,000 square meters of formerly private parkland will open to the public, nearly doubling the size of Beyeler Park. Jean-François Caillat laid out both sections in the 19th century as English landscape gardens. The expanded area keeps mature trees and water lily ponds while introducing species-rich meadows, wooded areas, grasses, perennials, and native orchids. A Zumthor-designed bridge crosses the pond, and the park connects directly to the Landschaftspark Wiese nature reserve.

Existing park works by Alexander Calder, Jenny Holzer, Ellsworth Kelly, Philippe Parreno, Thomas Schütte, and Fischli/Weiss will be joined by new pieces from Louise Bourgeois, Pierre Huyghe, Rachel Whiteread, and Fujiko Nakaya.

Historic Structures Restored

Several restored historic buildings round out the ensemble, adapted for art education, music, botany, and experimental projects. India Mahdavi redesigned the heritage-listed Orangerie, combining a small greenhouse with a plant-focused shop. The Ammann Atelier houses workshops and educational programmes. The Salon offers a listening lounge with more than 2,000 vinyl records, and the compact Folly serves as an experimental exhibition space for artists.

A year-long cultural programme begins in autumn 2026. The inaugural exhibition, "Constellations," gathers more than 200 works from the Fondation Beyeler collection and private collections across the two museum buildings, the park, and the historic structures. Running from September 26, 2026, to September 5, 2027, the exhibition will evolve with the seasons, staging shifting relationships between art, architecture, and landscape.

The opening places the Basel-region institution among the most significant European museum expansions of the decade. Elsewhere, recent openings include the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles by MAD Architects, with landscape architecture by Studio-MLA and Stantec as executive architect; Mecanoo's Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College in Toronto, developed with RDHA; and the African Futures Institute's Accra headquarters, adapting a former tile warehouse in Osu into a centre for architectural education, research, exhibitions, and public programmes.