Lush Urban Green for Man and Animal

Fontana Landschaftsarchitektur is contributing the necessary exterior planning and creating a green win-win situation – for the homeless animals, for the hard-pressed natural world of the city, and not least for human urban strollers!

Between the riverscape of the Birs and the new animal shelter, between functionality and an aesthetic appropriate to the urban space and its use for recreation, between dense urban natural growth and friendly openness, the grounds will communicate the new animal shelter of the two Basels.

It does this using three basic elements: polygonal asphalt or in-situ concrete ground plates connect the exterior enclosures and join up in the access and assembly zones to form a continuous surface.

The intention is to equip the nearby footpath with these plates too, allowing walkers access to this piece of urban exterior space. The second design element will be the in-between: the ‘green’ joints. Towards the bank of the Birs and the outside enclosures, the ground plates will drift apart to become stepping stones and finally disappear in an open meadow with trees. ‘

Seamlessly’, the green joint becomes an equal element in its own right, and then the main theme. The tree layer as the third compositional element mediates between the spatiality and language of the architecture and the image of nature which belongs here – the water-meadow and the dry grassy area.

On the elevation, pines that prefer not to get their feet wet, then sessile oak and wild cherry, and finally towards the bank of the Birs stands of willow – the choice of species reinforces the atmosphere of the specific urban site as the expression of the natural situation.