“Never look backwards or you’ll fall down the stairs.”
– Rudyard Kipling

I was reading the tourism brochure for Basel, Switzerland I got from the airport when I saw this old building with big modern stairs. Though the building and the staircase were done in different generations, they look great together. It was like the old building trying to adapt to the new times by growing a new appendage. I wanted to see it in person.

The building is known as the Werkraum Warteck pp. Werkraum is the German word for workroom as it houses cooperation between different projects, companies and people. Warteck is the name of the former brewery that was using the building. Pp stands for “Permanentes Provisorium” or “permanent provisional arrangement”. The place is now considered a cultural hub in Basel as it is now transformed into art studios and artist’s workshops, and even offices for artists, performers, craftsmen, and musicians . It was just last year that they changed the outer staircase as part of the renovation of the former malt silo.

When we went there, I was amazed of how the staircase has improved the appearance of the building. According to one website, the staircase is not actually a result of styling but because of functional specifications. It needs to connect the existing doors as well as the different levels of the three sections of the building. The thunderbolt-looking staircase seems to modernize the old look of the building. It became an impressive artwork.