Re-Building Europe

On this day, Canton Basel-City (Lukas Ott, Head of Urban Development Basel at Canton Basel-City) opened his gates and welcomed our group to start the evening at the kHaus from where we started our site tour. Dr. Haris Piplas (Co-director Integrated Urban Solutions at Drees & Sommer) and Lukas Ott gave us an exciting tour with many insights into the Klybeckareal, the City and the cityscape, as well as the conversion of existing industrial buildings into living space. At the end of the tour near the border triangle we finished the evening to enjoy aperitifs with exciting conversations

We started with an impulse from Elias Schäfer. He introduced the building and the old barracks to us providing insights on how cultural aspects are included and the innovative approach to development. The kHaus promotes exchange, synergies, interaction and encounters - within the building with our users, organisers and visitors, but also on the premises, in the lively neighbourhood, with neighbours and interested parties in the city and beyond. The area has become a well-known cultural and important living centre in Basel. By means of a new use, a contemporary, open and lively cultural and neighbourhood meeting centre is to be created, which will have a long-term positive impact on the barracks area, the surrounding neighbourhoods and the city through the projects realised in it. The former barracks are the epicenter of peace now, including swisspeace as the main tenant. The other areas our open for the public and programs to attract citizens will be developed with the city as well as people coming to the area. The touchpoint of the future: At kHaus “global meets local and local meets global”.

The second impulse by Haris Piplas dealt with the international context of Basel a city between three countries and focus on the IBA. The IBA is an International Building Exhibition that took place in the trinational agglomeration of Basel from 2010 to 2021. The aim is to find solutions for the sustainable and integrated development of a freely accessible space divided by territorial, political and cultural borders. At the participating project sites, new neighbourhoods were to be created that would open up new and further possibilities of doing business and living together for the inhabitants of the trinational agglomeration. Another core issue was the post-IBA territorial vision.

Laurent Goetschel, Director of swisspeace and professor of political science at the University of Basel, Saule Ospanova, Senior Environmental Advisor at the OSCE, Lidiia Chyzhevska, National Union of Architects at the Ukraine, Jaime Font Furest, Director International Architecture Programs School of Architecture at the La Salle University participated in the panel discussion. The discussion was about about the lesson of Barcelona and the cooperation with Busan, Korea and Fortaleza. Whereas Barcelona, as a major player that does not own the land but the law, needs a critical and contextualised urban knowledge transfer. Which raised the question of whether Barcelona should be considered as a model of good practice.

The need for a pan-European urban knowledge toolbox based on the Re-building Europe ecosystem, containing critical knowledge that can be used for contextualised impact, with a value and narrative based approach was also discussed. It was further noted about the need for financial support to the already existing re-building efforts of 7000 Ukrainian architects who have become unemployed (including re-building plans and programmes). Whereby the National Union of Architects at the Ukraine have the knowledge and skills to rebuild Ukraine (Union of Ukrainian Architects). There was also discussion about the importance of urban regeneration case studies that symbolise the involvement of the community, creative industries, academia and new economies, such as kHaus. In particular, it emerged that trust and community engagement is a prerequisite.

Laurent Goetschel (Director of swisspeace and professor of political science at the University of Basel at swisspeace) and Dr. Christiane Gebhardt (Director Integrated Urban Solutions at Drees & Sommer) moderated the first workshop and focusing on the following questions:

1. Which values and needs are important for Basel as a "peace and secure city" and a meeting place for the three nations to shape international and cross-border urban policy paradigm?
2. What are the challenges in enhancing social inclusivity in a common perspective with the economic and ecologic sustainability and avoiding conflicts of uses in the industrial and harbour area?
3. How can urbanism at the metropolitan scale become a cross-border act and connect the three countries through a public space network?

Lukas Ott (Head of Urban Development Basel at Canton Basel-City) and Dr. Haris Piplas ( Co-director Integrated Urban Solutions at Drees & Sommer) moderated the second workshop and focusing on the following questions:

1. How can the post-IBA planning vision be further engrained in the future territorial and ecological development of Basel? Can ecological structures and new economic models support social interactions and preserve the existing ecological corridors?
2. What are the challenges to integrate inclusivity, security and migration aspects as part of the spatial development of the trinational area of Basel?
3. How are urban spaces influenced by "Smart City" aspects like 'health, social cohesion, environmental protection, biodiversity, as well as climate change' and can they be catalyzed by using digitalization as a tool?