- Site-specific cases
Intervening in the urban realm is an always new attempt to engage and interact with what is given, with the landscape itself, and is therefore guided by what we are capable or willing to observe. Each site has complexity and singularity, which is to be exposed in the body of observation. The observation is to be conducted inclusively, to allow for the finding of specificity. And it is only then, by addressing the specificity, that we sought to understand and aspire to intervene in the respective transformation of the site.
The former above-ground car park, built for the employees of the adjacent CIBA site (Chemical Industries Basel), is no longer used for its intended purpose due to the closure of the plant on the eastern side of the Rhine.
The relationship between the car park and the park (named Horburgpark) in front is reinterpreted. Analogous to the urban park, the generous, connected and unobstructed areas of the car park (topologically similar to a park) are considered as an extension of the Horburgpark.
Through subtractive interventions on the building mass, the once rigid bidirectionally experienced car park, is interspersed with a network of pathways, incorporating more adequately the human range of movements and spatial experiences. The tilted topography of the car park is at times filled with soil and contained by inserted retaining walls to create green spaces and elevated platforms to transition between the levels of the transformed car park.
Different programs occupy then, suiting to the specific spatial conditions, the different areas of the park. As part of this effort, the excessive program set on the Horburgpark itself is shifted to the Parkhaus.
