Holligerhof 8

Holligerhof 8, Berne, Switzerland

A housing cooperative with public and commercial space 

Heyday’s signage concept for Holligerhof 8 surprises: ten floors are purely hand-lettered – we are talking about 60 rooms, 29 signposts, 3 complex floor plans and 2 lifts. But why by hand?

The answer can be found in the history and the new usage plan of this place. Back in the days, the Tobler chocolate factory used the building for storage. And for over six decades, the area was used as the waste incineration plant by the city of Berne. Then, creative minds and journalists used the space and shaped it as a creative hotspot. Today’s housing cooperative arose from this inspiring interim use.

The cooperative has converted the building into apartments and commercial space. It is the first out of six buildings in the Holliger area, where living space for around 900 people emerges by 2027. In some cases, the 4.6 m high rooms are rented out without any sort of interior fittings, and the housing communities build their own rooms from scratch. Besides living space, the building also offers a political library, various businesses, a restaurant, day care centres and community rooms.

The concept of Heyday reflects the vibrant, social, improvised, and playful spirit of the place. Subtle humour in the details shape the character without affecting the functionality of the signage. At the same time, the concept draws like a straight line in the history of the building. Heyday got the inspiration for the concept from a wall plan painted by Johanna Schaible during the interim use. The artist, illustrator and child book author had her studio here for some time. It is her who realised the hand-lettered signage for the entire building and thus helps to preserve the history and identity of the place.

The flexibility of the concept is remarkable. If a business moves out, the lettering is simply crossed out or painted over and re-painted. It’s that easy. These changes may leave visible traces and tell of the constant change and agility of the building. 

It took Johanna Schaible 265 hours of pure manual painting work for the realisation of this hand-lettered signage. Besides 55 brushes, she just used one litre of paint.