architecture walks and talks

17/08/2026

Urban Climate Day / Stadtklimatag Basel
A day full of ideas for a greener Basel, for a better place to live. On August 22, discover exciting projects, dedicated people, and practical solutions for a climate-resilient urban environment. Taking place at various locations.
At the Theaterplatz and at Kult.Kino Atelier: short film screenings, panel discussions, expert lectures, and interactive info booths. Walking tours led by city planners and landscape architects showcasing heat-adaptation projects, such as newly unsealed courtyards, facade greening projects (e.g., at Aeschenplatz), and urban tree canopy expansions. Hands-on activities for adults and children - from planting workshops and green-roof DIY advice to demonstrations on rainwater collection and biochar composting. In addition, local initiatives, community gardens, and district organizations across Basel will open their doors to showcase localized urban greening efforts.
For more info, seehttps://stadtklima.umweltbasel.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/260715_Stadtklimatag_Programm_www_1.pdf

11/08/2026

Tag der Stadttore / Day of the City Gates
Usually closed to the public, Basel's three historical city gates and a powder tower will be open to all this Saturday, 15 Aug 2026, 10 am to 5 pm.
Various local clubs and societies are co-hosting the event at each location.
St. Alban-Tor (Spezi Clique 1905 Basel and Letzi Club)
Spalentor (E. Vorstadtgesellschaft zur Krähe)
St. Johanns-Tor (Muggedätscher Carnival Society, Basel City Police Marksmen, and the Basel City Artillery Association)
Pulverturm / Powder Tower in the Orphanage (Club zur alten Klappe. Access from Oberer Rheinweg and from Theodorskirchplatz 7)

10/08/2026

Kickoff for the Dreispitz "Track Pool" / Gleispool"
Christoph Merian Stiftung has begun site preparation for a unique 170-meter natural swimming pool on a former railway ramp at Dreispitz. The project involves removing about 800 meters of steel rails, 380 wooden ties, and 105 steel ties. Rather than being discarded, the removed steel rails will be repurposed on-site as support structures for a new wooden walkway. The pool is scheduled to open in the summer of 2027.

09/08/2026

From clay pit to landfill to solar power
A good example of landscape transformed to suit contemporary needs can be observed not far from Basel. Once a clay pit and later a garbage landfill, a steep and previously unstable site in Liesberg, BL, has been turned by the IWB into a large photovoltaic solar park. It comprises more than seven thousand solar modules and produces about 4 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power around 1'000 households.
Designed in collaboration with environmental groups, the project features raised and closely spaced panels that accommodate new biotopes, reptile and insect habitats, and a butterfly corridor.
For more info, see www.iwb.ch/ueber-uns/newsroom/medienmitteilungen/artikel~_iwb-nimmt-photovoltaikanlage-auf-ehemaliger-deponie-in-betrieb~

28/07/2026

Simmering
Marktplatz inside a pot - part of the exhibition on Basel's culinary stories, now at the Museum Kleines Klingental.
Were the exhibition makers prescient about the reconstruction?
"Basel auf dem Teller – Kulinarische Stadtgeschichte(n)" at Museum Kleines Klingental, until 21 March 2027

28/07/2026

At the Marktplatz
One of Basel's busiest squares is currently dominated by a major construction project. Public transit authority BVB, utility provider IWB, and the canton are completely replacing the tram tracks, rebuilding the Marktplatz stop to be barrier-free, upgrading underground water/heating pipes, and reinforcing the vault cover over the subterranean Birsig River.
While the traditional open-air market in front of the Rathaus is still running, albeit in a reduced space, some other establishments - including Confiserie Sc*****er - had to close their doors.
Work will go on until 6 Sept 2026; the tram stop will be out of service until 16 Oct 2026.

27/07/2026

On Münsterplatz 460 years ago
A dazzling array of celestial phenomena occurred over the skies of Basel in July and August 1566. Landesmuseum Zürich has now published a blog entry about the unusual spectacle that sparked widespread discussion and prompted a leaflet reflecting a Switzerland grappling with deep social unease.
https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/07/the-celestial-event-over-basel-in-1566/

27/07/2026

Bunkerland
A newly published book by Silvia Berger Ziauddin tells the history of Switzerland through the story of the nuclear fallout shelter. It spans from the Cold War to the present day, from state coercion to collective resistance, from the engineers' drawing boards to the (night)mares of children who grew up with a civil defense shelter in their homes. And it shows how this supposedly mundane concrete enclosure continues to have an impact today: as a global export good and a deeply ingrained pattern of thought that helps shape decisions when dealing with future uncertainties. This leads to the question: Is the bunker experiencing a renaissance in light of the multiple crises of our time?
From www.hist.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/aktuell/index_ger.html
Silvia Berger Ziauddin, "Bunkerland – Die Schweiz im nuklearen Zeitalter. Eine Raumgeschichte" Konstanz University Press

01/07/2026

100th anniversary of a celebrated, unbuilt design
An entry into the 1926 architectural competition for a girls’ primary school at Peterskirchplatz in Basel is still considered one of the most radical, influential, and visionary projects of modernist architecture. The Library of the University of Basel is now staging a special exhibition on the Petersschule design by Hannes Meyer (1889–1954) and Hans Wittwer (1894–1952). At its center is the architectural model of the revised school design (1927) - it displays a clearly structured, dynamic building with an external staircase running diagonally across its entire length, and roofs on the main and secondary wings conceived as open play spaces for kids.
The exhibition also provides insight into the life and work of Hannes Meyer: from his young years in Basel, to the construction of the pioneering cooperative housing estate Freidorf in Muttenz, his time in Dessau, the Soviet Union, Mexico, and his final years in Ticino.
See comments for more info.

01/07/2026