The corona pandemic shows: The content of IBA Basel is now more relevant than ever. Good reason to start a new IBA Basel series.
The IBA Basel 2020 has been successfully promoting cross-border projects in the border triangle for over ten years. This year, 2020, it was due to celebrate its phenomenal conclusion. But then came corona and the IBA Basel had to postpone its final presentation from summer 2020 to spring 2021. The IBA EXPO will therefore take place from April 30 to June 6, 2021 on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. A bitter blow for what is effectively the first international IBA. At the same time, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic make it clear that the content of IBA Basel is more relevant today than ever. For this reason, we are launching an IBA Basel series on garten-landschaft.de.
“Too long supply chains, too much consumption, too much marketing, too little substance, too little vertical integration, too little solidarity, too little Europe, too much populism” – according to architect Christoph Ingenhoven, the coronavirus crisis has mercilessly exposed our failings and shortcomings in recent years. Within a few days, the pandemic plunged Europe into crisis and with it its relationships. COVID-19 made it mercilessly clear that our European “community” still relies on isolationism in crises. Within a few days, national borders were closed. Borders that many would have thought would never close again.
The Basel region was hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past ten years, it has grown together to form a cross-border metropolitan area. Until mid-March 2020, around 35,000 cross-border commuters crossed the border into Basel-Stadt every day. But then, until mid-June – a full three months – you could only get from one side to the other with a passenger ticket. Entire families were separated as a result. A quick shopping trip to Weil am Rhein or a glass of wine on the banks of the Rhine in Basel? – The inhabitants of the region could only dream of this.
Since June 15, the borders have been open again. However, the IBA Basel Expo, the final presentation on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, could not be opened by the IBA team on June 27 as planned. It has been postponed until next spring from April 30 to June 6, 2021. The political steering committee of IBA Basel thus followed the recommendation due to the current developments surrounding the coronavirus and the associated official regulations.
However, the importance of the IBA Basel themes remains unbroken. What’s more, they have even gained in value during the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 makes us appreciate things that we would never have thought about in years gone by: spending time in public spaces, using public transport, meeting friends and relatives. IBA Basel 2020 has brought the region closer together. And we, the G+L editorial team, would like to pay tribute to this commitment, virus or not. For this reason, we have decided to present twelve selected IBA Basel 2020 projects to you here over the coming weeks.
IBA Basel as the first effectively international IBA
IBA Basel 2020 has been successfully promoting cross-border projects in the Basel tri-border region for more than ten years. This is where three planning systems, two languages and 230 municipal borders meet. For a long time, planning across borders – whether administrative or structural – was hardly possible. Then came the IBA and, over the course of more than a decade, new cross-border project management skills were developed, cross-border landscape spaces such as the 24stops path between the Vitra Design Museum and the Fondation Beyeler were created and streetcar line 3 was extended from the canton of Basel-Stadt to St. Louis in France.
Together with the IBA Basel, the municipalities in the region from Germany, France and Switzerland jointly addressed the questions of how public spaces in the region are used, what significance the individual railroad stations and their rail connections have and how a tri-national port district can be built. The administrations no longer just looked at their own projects, at their own municipal area, but began to develop projects together across borders for the benefit of all. They grew together, true to the IBA Basel motto “Growing together across borders”.
“Our heart beats trinationally” – IBA Basel’s public relations campaign
“The developments and decisions of recent weeks have clearly shown us what it means to work together across borders in spatial and regional planning and how naturally open borders are practiced in the Basel metropolitan region,” explained Basel Cantonal Councillor Hans-Peter Wessels in an official press release. Now it is important to continue the projects and results that have been developed together and to show our colors for the region and for a future together. Together with the political decision-makers, the IBA project sponsors and the public, IBA Basel wants to make a statement for cross-border cooperation. At the heart of the new publicity campaign is a three-part heart, which will be set up at various IBA project locations in the region over the coming weeks and will be the focus of various interventions. “Planning, acting and ultimately implementing projects together across borders is neither a matter of course nor a foregone conclusion,” says IBA Managing Director Monica Linder-Guarnaccia.
All articles on IBA Basel 2020 and the articles in the IBA Basel series can be found here.
