Barbara Buser

Founder, baubüro in situ

After studying architecture at ETH Zurich, Barbara Buser worked in Africa for over ten years: as a site engineer for a water supply project in Southern Sudan, and building up the Maintenance Department as well as renovating the buildings and infrastructure of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Back in Basel, together with Eric Honegger, she opened the architectural practice baubüro in situ, the urban think tank denkstatt, the project for intermediate uses unterdessen and the engineering planner for circularity Zirkular with over 100 collaborators al together today.

Her focus lies on sustainable construction, reduction of waste and CO2 emissions. She initiated and lead various important transformation projects such as Unternehmen Mitte, Gundeldinger Feld, Markthalle Basel, Hanro and Ziegelhof in Liestal, always starting from and valuating the existing structures, buildings and social context. She also co-founded several cooperatives in order to foster affordable housing in the cities.

At Lagerplatz in Winterthur she initiated the pilot project K.118 – a six storey building made up from 70% used construction elements, thus saving 60% of the CO2 as compared to a new construction. The experience is compiled in the book “Reuse in Construction – a compendium of circular architecture” edited by Park Books in 2022.

Buser received several awards for ecological building and sustainability, as well as the Swiss Grand Prix Meret Oppenheim for her life’s work and the Holcim Global Gold award for sustainability for the K.118.

Buser is presenting the urgency of reuse in various conferences all over the world and was asked to join ETH as a visiting lecturer. Her latest civic action is the foundation of the volunteer association RE-WIN for the export of used, yet intact windows from Switzerland to Ukraine, as an answer to the Russian invasion.