> architecture days

2012

Transnational annual program of cross-border events featuring architecture in the trinational (CH, DE & FR) Upper Rhine region.

Architecture Without Borders

LUNCHTIME TOURS

"Architecture Without Borders" can be interpreted in very diverse ways. In today’s society the significance of barrier-free buildings is increasing in importance. An ‘Architecture Without Borders’, however, can also manifest in fantasies of children. Another idea that immediately comes to mind are daring constructions or an architecture that can be situated everywhere and anywhere in the world, which to a certain extent by transgressing borders becomes international.

Language: G | Translation: F | Free Admission
PDF | Invitation Card 2012
PDF | Pictures © Adriano Biondo, Basel

Mo | 15 October 2012 | 12:30 P.M:–1:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Tour 1: PROF. Dr. RALPH UBL

Art Historian, Full Professor of Modern Art History, University of Basel with Andreas Bründler, Buchner Bründler Architekten

Residential Building | Bläsiring 124 | Basel (Buchner Bründler Architekten, 2012)

Replacing an 1870 single family home on a narrow six-meter wide lot, this new 5 ½ -storey building features two separate units respectively with 3 and 2 ½ floors each. The unique spatial distribution on each floor determines the architectonic articulation of the façade, where the interlocking spaces register horizontally and vertically. In the resulting composition the circulation areas constitute the closed part of the façade while the living spaces are readable as openings. The room-height glazing towards the street as well as on the courtyard side of the visible concrete façade allow the twelve-metre deep interior to be flooded with daylight. Foto © Ruedi Walti, Basel

Ralph Ubl (b. 1969 in Vienna) is Professor of Modern Art History at the University of Basel, Director of NFS eikones and Guest Professor at the University of Chicago. The key fields of his work include the history of fine arts of the late 18th century to the present, as well as art and image theory.

Tu | 16 October 2012 | 12:30 P.M.–1:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Tour 2: Urs Buess

Co-Chief Editor, Tageswoche with Darko Stula, TrinklerStulaPartner Architekten and Christian Lenzin, Berchtold.Lenzin Landschaftsarchitekten

Robinson-Spielplatz Volta | Voltaplatz | Basel (TrinklerStulaPartner Architekten, 2012)

A Robi-playground is especially defined as a zone for children without adults. The aim is that children should be able to easily access and live in their own ‘parallel world’. A variety of opportunities for encouraging handiwork and playing are to be offered and such a playground is to be flexible to accommodate changes of use and design to create an environment where participatory and integrative projects can be developed and promoted. The new Robison-Spielplatz Volta is fenced in and entails seven buildings. Through the placement of the buildings at the periphery the areal is spatially defined at the edges. This also results in interesting perspectives through and across the complex. Together with the fencing the differently sloped roofs create a gently moving silhouette. Foto: zVg

Urs Buess (b. 1953 in Bern). Primary school teacher in Graubünden. After attending the university, studied at the Ringier School of Journalism. 1982–88, Editor, Basler Zeitung; 1995–2000, Parliament Correspondent, National News Editor and National News Department Director, Tages-Anzeiger; 2000–02, Member of the Chief Editing Board, Tages-Anzeiger; 2002–04, French Correspondent, Tages-Anzeiger; 2004–11, Member of the Chief Editing Board, Basler Zeitung; and since 2011, Co-Chief Editor, Tages-Anzeiger. Married and father of one grown son.

We | 17 October 2012 | 12:30 P.M.–1:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Tour 3: Jürg Stäuble

Artist with Anniina Koivu, Director of Research and Head of PR & Partnerships, Vitra

VitraHaus | Charles-Eames-Strasse 2 | Weil am Rhein (Herzog & de Meuron, 2009)

In recent years Vitra has continually expanded its range of design classics, re-editions and products by contemporary designers for home use. Since 2010 these objects have been presented to the public in the VitraHaus. The showroom is comprised of twelve abstracted, extruded archetypal single family houses that are stacked five stories on top of each other and whose bases overlap with the gables of the underlying unit. From the outside through the assemblage’s daring cantilevers and glazed front façades of the ‘stacks of houses’ an iconic form emerges; on the inside surprising spatial effects are created by the intersections. Photo © Iwan Baan, © Vitra

Jürg Stäuble (b. in Wohlen) has lived in Basel since 1970 and is an independent artist. His focus encompasses working in three dimensions and art in public space. During many years he was Director of the Major Sculpture Class, School of Design, Basel, and until recently Professor at the Academy of Art and Design (HGK), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwest Switzerland (FHNW) in Basel.

Th | 18 October 2012 | 12:30 P.M.–1:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Tour 4: DR. IUR. PETER SCHAI

Former Member of the Great Council, Canton Basel-Stadt

Lonza High-Rise Office Building | Münchensteinerstrasse 33 | Basel (Suter + Suter, 1962)

The number of participants is limited. | No pre-registration

Built 1960–62 by the architecture firm Suter + Suter the Lonza high-rise impressively exemplifies the aesthetics of Functionalism and the International Style. The nineteen-storey office building with tapered narrow sides was inspired by the Pirelli Tower in Milan, which was designed by Gio Ponti and Pier Luigi Nervi and erected in 1958. In terms of colour the concrete structure with curtain glass façade and ribbed aluminium cladding blends into the overall cityscape, the means of construction representing a decidedly rational approach in the line of Classical Modernism. The marked geometry of the volume reads as a neutral shell. Here functionality has been foregrounded and the orientation towards international architecture is more important than any regional influence. Photo © MB Grafik

Peter Schai (b. 1938 in Basel), 1962, Dr. iur.; 1966, lawyer qualification exam. As of 1967, Director of the Salaries Revision Project, Canton Basel-Stadt, then active in government and administrative reform. As of 1975, Planning Coordination Delegate of the Executive Council. As of 1982, freelance consultant with commissions from private enterprise, community authorities and non-profit organizations. 1992, termination of position on the Basel-Stadt Executive Council, elected as Member of the Great Council (CVP), Canton Basel-Stadt and Chairmanship of the Petitions Commission. 1998, President of the Great Council; afterwards President of the Great Council’s Regional Commission followed by parallel positions as President of the tri-national Nachbarschaftskonferenz [Neighborhood Conference] and President of the Upper Rhine Council.

Fr | 19 October 2012 | 12:30 P.M.–1:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Tour 5: DR. THEOL. FRANZ CHRIST

Former Parish Pastor, Basel Cathedral

City Hall | Marktplatz 9 | Basel (constructed 1504–1904)

In many ways the Basel City Hall is a building that touches upon and breaks through limits. It was initially built and expanded over the course of four centuries from 1504 to 1904, after its predecessors – dating as far back as the 13th century – had been destroyed or demolished. Located at Marktplatz [Market Square] and also at the foot of Münsterhügel [Cathedral Hill], the City Hall’s prominence is not only a result of its serving as the most public of buildings in Basel, but is rather due to its important place in the urban fabric in relation to the religious centre of the city, the Basel Cathedral. Several of the interior mural paintings address political and biblical themes. Today the Basel City Hall is the seat of various public authorities, as well as the venue for the Great Council and Executive Council of the Canton and City of Basel-Stadt. Photo © Yuri Weiss

Franz Christ (b. 1944 in Basel), after completing the Humanistic Gymnasium in Basel, university studies in theology in Basel and Berlin. 1968, ordained as pastor and Masters Degree, Sacred Theology, New York. 1969, Pastor, Beggingen-Schaffhausen. 1978, Pastor, Muttenz. 1983–2009, Basel Cathedral Parish Pastor, as well as involvement in church politics, diaspora work and the ecumenical movement and engaged for church music and city church work. Publications related to: the German Protestant theologian and philosopher Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher; sermons and preaching; and city church issues. 2009, Visiting Scholar, Princeton University. 2011, Basler Katechismus. Married to Salome Birkhäuser and father of three children.

Since 2000 Architecture Days, an annual program with numerous events celebrating architecture, has taken place in the Upper Rhine region in Alsace / FR and Baden-Württemberg / DE. Thanks to the engagement of Architektur Dialoge Basel the program has been conducted tri-nationally since 2008. Every year approximately 160 events bring contemporary architecture closer to over 40’000 visitors.

Les Journées de l'architecture - Die Architekturtage
PDF | Programm Architectur Days 2012