Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
Achtung: die Landschaft
Building on the built. Projects for the transformation of the agglomeration of Basel from within
Premises
In 1955 Max Frisch, Lucius Burckhardt und Markus Kutter published Achtung: Die Schweiz, a warning about the increasing sprawl throughout the Swiss landscape and a plea for a new and more controlled level of urbanity in the form of high-density settlements. Sixty years later, the level of alarm against the increasing urban sprawl has not diminished and yet single-family houses and low-density settlements are still unabatedly erasing the Swiss landscape. Openly alluding to the book of 1955, the project Achtung: die Landschaft, now at its fourth and last semester, attempts at offering a different yet radical alternative to the problems of land, landscape and resources consumption that contemporary forms of urbanization imply. Instead of new dense settlements built outside of the existing cities as advanced in 1955, we propose to place Landschaft – land, landscape and the entire un-built territory – at the center of the architect’s attention. Rather than expanding the city outwardly, towards the Un-built, Achtung: die Landschaft puts forwards an alternative and counter hypothesis: further growth should take place inwardly, building on what is already Built.
Studio brief
In Entfaltung einer Planungsidee (1963) Ludwig Hilberseimer tackles the possibility of transforming the structure of the existing city. To do that, he points out two main possible directions: the first starts from the outside, expanding the city towards the un-built urban territory; the second tackles the city from within, through the gradual transformation of its constitutive elements such as the houses, the streets, the parks etc. The latter represents Hilberseimer’s pragmatic and realist approach and has been at the origin of several of his proposals for the American suburbia.
Similarly to this approach, this semester Achtung: die Landschaft aims at the possible transformation of the Swiss agglomeration from within, limiting building activity only on what is already built. Such hypothesis requires a twofold clarification: on the one hand the definition of what is Un-built and what Built; on the other the assumption that within the realm of the Built, one can still discover the potential to accommodate further growth. In order to tackle such questions, the studio will start by carefully exploring a selected section of Basel’s agglomeration searching for ‘sites of potential’. These – either infrastructure, low-density areas, interstitial spaces but also left-over spaces or vacancies that because of their conditions could be considered as Built – will be chosen not only for their capacity to accommodate new inhabitants or functions, but also for their possible participation to the transformation of the agglomeration at large. Students will be asked to develop design proposals that will not be dictated by given or abstract quantities, but rather by the possibility of developing on these sites specific urban interventions able to redeem what is at present a neglected condition into a fully urban space. Projects are expected to advance ideas for new forms of density, of coexistence between currently separated functions, of new living and working typologies.
Site
The selected site for the semester will be the agglomeration of Basel and more specifically the area comprised between Basel to Birsfelden (BL) and Rheinfelden (BL). This region corresponds to the last section of the Hochrhein-valley and marks to a large extent the border between Switzerland and Germany. The area has a long history that dates back to the early first millennium B.C, when small Celtic settlements were here located, and to the first century B.C when Romans founded the settlement of Augusta Raurica. The establishment of the dye and silk industry along the river in early industrialization times represented the starting point for the area’s industrial development. Still today the region is characterized by the presence of large industrial and infrastructural facilities such as two large chemical industries, two river ports, a large railway facility, various logistic centers and the highways A2 and A3. Despite this dominating industrial character, historical settlements grew along with the economic success of the region from small farming villages to a large agglomeration that have mostly filled the valley wherever there was availability of space and now even expanding on the slopes of the area’s southern edge. Because of its proximity to Basel and its quick connection to the city, the area is certainly one of the most interesting locations for a project where Basel’s future expected growth could be accommodated and at the same time becoming the trigger for a process of rethinking of the ‘agglo’ at large.
Studio organization and schedule
The studio is open to 12 students that will initially work in teams of two. Following to the first weeks of studio work and after the development of a common initial site strategy, each student will develop his/her own design proposal for the chosen site. The studio meets every Tuesday and Wednesday at ETH Studio Basel, where students are offered generous studio space, IT and printing facilities. The studio is organized through various activities:
• Weekly tutorials and pin-up
• Field work
• Internal seminars
• Lectures with invited guests
• Integrated seminar week to Tokyo
The studio will be closely collaborating with the ETH chairs of Günther Vogt and of Philip Ursprung. Participating students can write a "Wahlfacharbeit" in history of art and architecture with Philip Ursprung.
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Lernziele |
Each student will produce an architectural design proposal for one of the selected ‘sites of potential’ that will be discovered, mapped and analyzed during the first phase of the studio work. As in the tradition of ETH Studio Basel, by the end of the semester students are expected to build a solid and rational project thesis, to be communicated through 1) a computer presentation and 2) a set of drawings, volumetric models and collages. |
