<Masterplan klybeckplus, Basel, 2023–2025

klybeckplus – a kaleidoscope in space and time

‘klybeckplus’ is the project name for the gradual social and urban transformation of what remains, to this day, a largely closed industrial and commercial site into an open and integrated part of the Klybeck district. Through this urban transformation, the spatial structure of the site will merge with Klybeck to form a larger whole. A connection will be created between the industrial site, hidden for decades, and the surrounding areas.

This process of transformation is not limited to extending the residential and working areas of the existing Klybeck district into the site. The identity-forming effect of the transformation will also extend from within the site beyond its boundaries and enrich the district as a whole. The urban development concept of 2022 and the subsequent masterplan of 2025 set out the programme for the diverse use of the different parts of the site under its various ownerships – an essential prerequisite for the present-day Klybeck site to develop into a lively district.

The conversion of existing industrial buildings, together with new buildings yet to be designed, the open spaces and the concept for future mobility, will create a spectrum of highly diverse neighbourhoods and, with them, a new urban whole. Through the interaction of the site with the Klybeck district and the further developments at the harbour, Klybeckquai and Westquai, the north of Basel will acquire an expanded and distinctive character that looks to the future while building on the past and respecting the existing fabric.

The new Klybeckplatz will be located where, today, little more than an enlarged road junction in an outlying district can be discerned. With the extension of Kleinhüningerstrasse to the Rhine, the westward extension of Mauerstrasse and the new Klybeckpromenade, views will open up towards the Rhine and the Wiese. In transport terms, Klybeckplatz will become an important interchange between walking, cycling and the tram network. In the longer term, a station on the planned underground S-Bahn could further strengthen its role as a transport hub.

The dynamic convergence of traffic flows from different directions will be marked by particularly distinctive buildings. Nowhere else in Basel will striking witnesses to the city’s industrial history stand in such direct contrast to attractive new residential towers. The ring of revitalised industrial buildings and the new towers around the square will create a new symbolic centre for the north of Basel.

In an analogy with the metropolitan Place de l’Étoile, the streets converge in a radial pattern. Unlike the Parisian precedent, however, the views do not open onto a series of similar perspectives, but onto highly varied aspects of a shifting urban landscape. Klybeckplatz brings together, within a single space, the contrasts of views and objects shaped by landscape, industrial production and transformation. Whether seen from a distance or experienced while crossing the square, the spatial composition between the façades of buildings of heritage value, the slightly set-back high-rises and strong groups of trees of differing forms will continually generate new impressions.

In different ways, the square and the new neighbourhoods interpret the underlying structure of the former industrial site.

Immediately to the south of Klybeckplatz, the new development interspersed with existing buildings takes up the heterogeneous spatial configuration of the former industrial site. The Esplanade, the new neighbourhood between the Rhine promenade and Klybeckstrasse, consists of converted buildings from the pharmaceutical industry and new residential high-rises. The existing buildings are highly significant, identity-forming objets trouvés through which the history of the site will remain legible in the future.

The listed former CIBA and later Novartis high-rise building WKL-125 beside the Dreirosenbrücke will remain the tallest building on the Esplanade. All of the residential towers are slender and sufficiently loosely arranged for a single large and permeable open space to extend across the entire Esplanade, together with the buildings’ public ground floors and trees. A vast, continuous canopy of trees will emerge, from which both existing and new buildings rise. The forms of housing in the new residential towers will be diverse, as will their architectural expression. A sense of coherence might, for example, be achieved through a shared colour palette derived from Fritz Stehlin’s former CIBA administration building K-141, dating from 1906 onwards.

Non-motorised transport takes priority – the streets become public living rooms. The quality of life created is perhaps best compared with that of a ‘superilla’ or a green urban block in Barcelona. Such traffic-calmed urban districts with a high proportion of housing are highly valued both by residents and by local businesses.

Two major new open spaces will be created in the form of the Rheinterrasse and the Klybeckmatte. The Rheinterrasse will be Kleinbasel’s first public park directly on the waterfront. At the Klybeckmatte, open courtyard structures establish an analogy with the existing Klybeck district by continuing and varying the enclosed perimeter block that is typical of Kleinbasel. Like Claramatte and Horburgpark, the Klybeckmatte will initially form an inner open space within the fabric of perimeter blocks and will, in a second phase, be extended as far as the banks of the Wiese. On its western side, the Klybeckmatte adjoins the Aktienmühle, whose public orientation will be reinforced by its position between Gärtnerstrasse and the Klybeckmatte. A school site is located at the southernmost end of the Klybeckmatte. It lies directly behind the former staff canteen WKL-610 and is ideally accessible via the public transport stops at Klybeckplatz.

The Klybeckhöfe neighbourhood, with its internal private gardens and communal spaces, includes K-90, one of the most prominent listed historic buildings at Klybeckplatz. The existing building will be transformed into a mobility hub and extended upwards to provide housing. It will thereby become an urban anchor for Klybeck as a whole. As in the adjacent southern tip of Klybeckquai and on the Esplanade, the development of Klybeckhöfe will make the proximity of the river perceptible. Towards the Rhine, taller buildings will accentuate the new Rheinterrasse.

In the Mauerstrasse area, the industrial character of the site will be continued through large-scale brick buildings and an internal works street. A new cantonal sports facility will add an important public use to the neighbourhood and benefit from the excellent public transport connections. Alongside the staggered new buildings, the Klybeckpromenade will form a route widened on one side by small urban gardens and defining the boundary of the neighbourhood towards the Klybeckmatte to the north. It will lead to the banks of the Wiese and the biotope of the railway sidings.

The five neighbourhoods – Esplanade, Klybeckhöfe, Klybeckmatte, Klybeckplatz Süd and Mauerstrasse Nord – are based on strong contrasts while at the same time being woven together and connected through the redesigned Klybeckplatz.