We recognize the neighborhoods of the 1950s and 1960s as distinct, identity-defining urban quarters by their typical, three-story aligned (parallel) blocks, saddle roofs, and mezzanines, which–other than in Schwamendingen–here in Allschwil stem from a rather vague, but absolutely charming notion of the Garden City movement.
Re-considered within the context of future densification, these blocks appear bulky and inflexible to us and quite difficult to adapt. This leads to the necessity to think about replacement.
With replacement of such buildings, the qualities of the exterior surroundings must be updated, which manifest as open spaces, and unspecific, but occasionally inviting relationships between the street and the built substance. As a response to this typology, the proposal for this location entails the insertion of rows within one building volumes. This results in two respectively compact compositions of rows with different heights and lengths, suspenseful, typologically complex, and with multiple-access circulation. Along with fulfilling state-of-the-art requirements for future-oriented construction, here we achieved considerably more density through greater depth and differentiation in the arrangement of spatial layers. Despite the stronger spatial suspense and more typological diversity, the concept of the row is still perceptible.