tonRaum Basel

tonRaum in Hochbergerstrasse 158

In the middle of Basel's trendy harbour district, tonRaum is part of a larger building community that provides practical infrastructure for the region's independent music scene: rehearsal rooms, guest rooms, coworking and office space with a podcast studio and video rack can be rented on an hourly or daily basis at favourable conditions, expected from October 2025. 

Project

More about the project:

In a former administrative building, in which the canton of Basel-Stadt is building almost thirty attractive, affordable rental flats for small households as part of the 1000+ housing programme, the tonRaum association provides various rehearsal and work spaces for Basel musicians and ensembles on 700 square metres of commercial space and operates three guest rooms.

The combination of affordable living and working spaces is intended to address the living situation of young musicians in particular. A lively house community, affordable practice, rehearsal and teaching rooms are brought together in one place.

To ensure sustainable, self-supporting use by the tenants, tonRaum's guiding principle throughout the renovation was: as much as necessary, but as simple as possible! Simply equipped but reliably soundproofed practice rooms in the basement can thus be rented out to musicians at affordable prices.

Additional areas on the ground floor and basement are also available for rehearsing. They have been purposefully converted into rehearsal, work and meeting rooms in line with requirements and also enable ensembles with manageable project budgets to work professionally. In addition, a guest flat on the top floor offers attractive and comfortable accommodation for visiting musicians.

The coexistence and interaction of residents and non-residents, of young and established ensembles of different styles will be equally beneficial for the Basel music scene and a diverse house community and will also provide exciting impulses for the district and neighbourhood! 

TonRaum Basel - Probenräume und Infrastrukturen für Musiker:innen und Ensembles

Development and parties involved

The canton of Basel-Stadt initiated the conversion, organised an architectural competition and launched a call for tenders for an innovative use. It coordinates and manages the overall project and retains responsibility for letting the 27 flats.

The winning project in the competition to transform the building in 2020 was the design by the Basel-based architecture firm Kooperative E45. 

As the winner of the tender for a utilisation concept, the tonRaum association is the point of contact for the canton during the conversion and development process and will become the tenant of the commercial space and guest rooms from October 2025. The association can also suggest tenants and will be responsible for organising the building community. To this end, it will run an operations office in the building, which will be available to the entire tenant and user community as a point of contact and coordination.

More about the tonRaum association can be found here.

Information on the rental flats can be obtained from Immobilien Basel-Stadt (IBS).

Further information on the work of the architecture firm Kooperative E45 can be found here.

TonRaum Basel - Probenräume und Infrastrukturen für Ensembles und Musiker:innen

We would like to thank our supporters, without whom this project wouldn't be possible.