Switzerland, France and Germany plan trinational residential quarter
A tri-national district with living space and jobs for 20,000 people is to be created in the border triangle near Basel. The major "3Land" project has now taken a decisive step forward: work on the spatial concept has been completed and Saint Louis in Alsace and the German district of Lörrach have been added as project partners.
The background to the project is the structural change in the port and industrial areas along the Rhine, which opens up new urban development options. The partners want to jointly plan and coordinate various projects on an area of around 430 hectares - between the Palmrain Bridge in the north and the Dreirosen Bridge in the south - and better "anchor the Rhine as a connecting element in the collective consciousness of the region", according to a press release. The initiators hope that the urban development project will open up new potential in a similar way to Hamburg's Hafencity. The first concrete plans are to be presented at the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Basel 2020.
The idea for the joint urban development dates back to 2011, when the Dutch office MVRDV drew up the master plan "Development Vision 3Land". In September 2012, Basel, Weil am Rhein and Hüningen concluded an initial planning agreement and in 2013, with financial support from the EU, commissioned the Berlin office LIN with the "Spatial Concept 3Land". A few days ago, the partners agreed on how they want to continue the planning and three focal points were defined: Bridges/mobility, landscape and initial uses. In addition, two new partners, Saint-Louis and the district of Lörrach, were brought on board. The project group now comprises seven local authorities - the towns of Weil am Rhein, Hüningen and Saint-Louis, the canton of Basel-Stadt, the Communauté d'Agglomération des Trois Frontières, the Département du Haut-Rhin and the district of Lörrach - as well as the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel (TEB) and the IBA Basel.
Over the next two years, further basic principles will be developed and the first projects will be implemented from 2018.
The traffic concept includes a new bridge connecting Hüningen and Basel, as well as a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the harbor entrance linking Weil and Basel. A further aim is initial uses with innovative themes and processes that are forward-looking and initiate structural developments. (ah)
