Securitas Group protects Roche Tower
Standing at 178 metres, Roche Tower, also known as “Bau 1” is Switzerland’s tallest building. Opened in September 2015 and designed by the famous architect’s office Herzog & de Meuron, the building has provided a new workplace for around 2,000 Roche employees since this spring. When it comes to fire protection, the pharmaceutical company relies on the comprehensive security solutions and services offered by the Securitas Group.
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG – or Roche, for short – is the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical company. Based in Basel, Roche employs a total of some 88,500 employees and is a leading company in the fields of cancer, virus and transplant medicine. The company is also a global leader in research and development.
Expansion of the Basel site
The new Roche headquarters makes a clear statement, and is the tallest building in Switzerland at 178 metres. The 41-storey office building cost 550 million francs. There is space here for 2,000 employees, with a café and outdoor terrace on the top floor giving ample space for relaxation. The building is also home to an auditorium with space for 500 seats. Roche Tower (Bau 1) is part of a comprehensive restructuring of facilities at the Basel headquarters, and will be joined by further new buildings in the coming years. As the Roche site measuring 120,000 square metres in Kleinbasel cannot be expanded further in terms of area, taller buildings have to be built to provide the additional space required. According to the latest plans, another Roche Tower (Bau 2) will be added in 2021 – another record breaker at 205 metres.
All-round peace of mind
Several Securitas Group companies were commissioned by Roche with a wide range of security tasks. Securiton installed a fire detection system that is absolutely second to none. For example, the entire building is completely protected by 3,700 SecuriStar MCD 573X combined smoke and heat detectors. In areas such as lift shafts or cable ducts in hollow floors and ceilings, over 140 SecuriRAS ASD 535 aspirating smoke detectors with 25 kilometres of halogen-free sampling pipes take care of zone monitoring. Thousands of sensors and over 800 fire incident controls are controlled by 11 SecuriFire 3000 fire alarm control panels, which have a modular design and are connected via fibre-optic cable. Up to 12 Securiton employees worked 6,000 hours – some in a dual-shift system – to install the complete fire detection system. Also connected to the SecuriFire fire detection system is the high-pressure water-mist system from Contrafeu. In an emergency, nine active pumps and two redundant pumps are on hand to supply any number of the some 8,500 installed sprinklers with water for fighting fires. 36 kilometres of stainless steel pipes had to be laid here. Installation was made by Basel-based affiliate Babberger Brandschutz, who provided 16 installers for mounting the high-pressure water-mist system during the main installation phase.
Downloads
Reference report
Pharmaceutical company Ginsana SA | (101 KB)
Reference report
Roche Tower | (321 KB)
Reference report
