BASEL-STADT: 4 PRoPoSALS - ETH Basel

“Platzkette“
The public spaces market square, Fischmarkt and Schifflände
read like a chain aligning themselves along the underground
Birsig. For practical reasons, such as sanitation and waste the
Birsig was the main “vessel“ of Basel and the development
of it’s market spaces: Basel was structured along the Birsig
between the hills “Münsterberg”, where the first roman
fortification was built and the “Spalenberg“. The position in
the “Rheinknie“ was always of high strategic value and the
Mittlere Rheinbrücke for a long time the only connection over
the Rhine. Nowadays there still is a “Coop Fischmarkt“ as a
reminder of what once was an important market site. Big food
shops, such as Globus, situated at the north-east corner of the
market square, are trying to vitalise the market feeling through
open air vendors and classic market stalls. Gastronomy is not
as strongly articulated as in Claragraben or Barfüsserplatz, food
shopping however seems to be concentrated in the area, but
also spreads to Claragraben and into Freie Strasse. However
there are no spatial qualities to stay and enjoy the public
spaces: in the evening the site is deserted, apart from traffic,
since Schifflände is a key situation of public transport leading
over the bridge. Apart from traffic Fischmarkt and Schifflände
have no topics and no real infrastructure or possibilities for
activities to develop. The market square, spatially unsuccessful
has been functionally reduced to a minimalistic food market
with little product variety and specific, mostly high standard
clientel: the market square is “empty“. The main drawback is
again traffic, mainly dominated by trams, it fully surrounds the
area, making it more of an undefined space than a square. The
Rathaus and it’s political and symbolic significance leaves only
a history to the market square: historicly occupied by different
usages and different meanings, it has always been a centre,
which nowadays has been decentralised. The overall unprecise
proportions of the public spaces and therefore disfunctional
spatial relations, the site doesn’t feel appealing and doesn’t
get used and lived as the public space it could be. In 1900 the
tram connection between the market square and Schifflände
was built. It was not until 1903 that all inner city tram lines
crossed Fischmark. In 1937 the west wing of the “Börse“
(3) has been demolished together with all the historic city
structure between Blumenrain and Petersberg to build a strait
railway through the inner city, which luckily has never been
realised. Blumenrain coming down along the Trois Rois got it’s
name from the flower market happening north of Fischmarkt,
which has been destroyed due to the forementioned project
“Talentlastungsstrasse“.
– Food in Basel II – – City Core: Central Market –
“Markthof”, 1895 (“Der Basler Arbeitsrappen”, p. 161) (1)
Market Square, 1900 (http://www.g-st.ch/trambasel/)
“Schifflände”, 1905 (http://www.g-st.ch/trambasel/) (2)
“Börse”, 1906 (Bischoff/Weideli) (http://www.g-st.ch/trambasel/) (3)
© Grundbuch und Vermessungsamt | www.gva.bs.ch www.stadtplan.bs.ch
Dieser Planausdruck hat nur informativen Charakter Ausdruck vom 28. März 2012
© ETH Studio Basel
Fischmarkt, 1929 (BASEL, Geschichte einer städtischen Gesellschaft, S.237)
– 528 – – 529 –
1857-59 (http://www.stadtplan.bs.ch/) 1872-82
DRAFT
1900 1940