1st Prize Merian Gardens Basel

At more than 18 hectares the Merian Gardens represent the largest public garden of its kind in the Basel conurbation. They are a blend of very different but nevertheless connected outdoor spaces: in the east, around Brüglinger Hof, there are agricultural spaces, while there is an ‘English-style’ landscape park in the west; the north, in Vorder Brüglingen, features generous gardens with scientific plant collections of international character. The gardens, owned by the Merian Foundation, took their first steps from landscape space to public garden as a location for the Grün 80 exhibition. Now the foundation is looking for a guiding principle for the gardens in Vorder Brüglingen that will carry the spirit of the place into the future.

The design put forward by the Fontana Landschaftsarchitektur team weaves the history and stories of Vorder Brüglingen into a design narrative that shows off the gardens’ visual and substantive wealth to those with an interest in botany and those searching for relaxation. The opening of the gardens to the outside is expressed in an inversion: from scientific garden with an aesthetic value to an inviting park with a scientific foundation. For the neighbouring districts the gardens will become meeting places and breathing spaces, while remaining undiminished in their scientific role. This co-existence works thanks to a reduction and simple optimization of the organization and the sub-areas. The implementation of the first part of the concept – the redesign of the centre of Vorder Brüglingen – is to start as early as the beginning of 2018.

Team Fontana:
Fontana Landschaftsarchitektur
Stefan Rotzler, Consulting Landscape Gardener, Gockhausen
Claudia Moll, Garden Historian, Zurich
urbanID GmbH, Outside Space Acoustics, Zurich