Whistling apartment blocks in Basel-Land leave engineers baffled
By Jan de Boer
Residents of Aesch, Dornach and Reinach have been beset with sleepless nights and distracted days for the last nine months. The reason? Two 12-story blocks of new rental apartments can’t stop whistling in high winds.
Apartment blocks in Basel-Land cause sleepless nights
Ever since they were completed in the summer of 2024, the so-called “Max Towers” in the town of Aesch, Basel-Land have been given an unfortunate nickname: the “whistling high-rises”. Every time the weather in Switzerland gets windy, the towers produce a loud, high-pitched whistling noise.
At the beginning of April 2025, the whistling noise was so loud it could be heard across the region. "The loud whistling is a real concern for the people in our neighbourhood… especially when it’s been whistling all night," local Kim Ilg told SRF. Ilg added that she is considering leaving the town because of the whistling. “I don’t want to hear the whistling for the next 10 years."
Experts at a loss as to what is causing the whistling noise
In a statement, HRS - the owners of the building - confirmed that they were trying to track down the source of the whistling. They had originally suspected that the balcony railings were responsible, but this proved to be a false dawn.
Speaking to SRF, HRS spokesperson Hans Klaus said that while the whistling is an issue, “we have to keep things in perspective”. He argued that the phenomenon is a common side effect of windy conditions in high-rise areas, adding that "it also whistled in Zurich and other places in Switzerland [in April] because we had a strong north wind".
Nevertheless, Klaus confirmed that they had employed a company to analyse where the noise was coming from: “They are experts in their field and can precisely investigate how a sound is created." However, despite weeks of measurements, Klaus admitted that “the problem has not yet been fully resolved”. Given the complexity of the whistling issue, he said that the public had to be patient and that they would continue to work towards a solution.
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Editor for Switzerland at IamExpat Media. Jan studied History at the University of York and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Sheffield. Though born in York, Jan has lived most of his life in Zurich and has worked as a journalist, writer and editor since 2016.
While he has plunged head-first back into life in Switzerland since returning to the country in 2020, he still enjoys a taste of home at pub quizzes and karaoke nights.Read more