on the level of cantons basel-stadt is a special case. it is a half-canton. in total there are 42 cantons and 4 half-cantons. this refers to the amount of representatives the canton have in the national government.
basel-stadt and basel-land are both half cantons. they separated somewhere in 1833. basel-stadt is a special case of the special cases of a half-canton because the canton is only the city itself, where as a canton otherwise in switzerland includes urban and rural areas.
the following map shows the river rhine and the modes to cross it. as mentioned before the river is a major separation line within the city, with the two parts of the settlement developing a slightly different identity.
different crossings allow to cross the water without getting wet. of course one can swim too, but this happens mainly in summer time. but its nice. (J we could try this in august... : ) )
the key to the map:
-A- the "mittlere brücke" [en - "center bridge"] is the oldest crossing on this location already several bridges existed beforehand. the first one was built in 1225 as a wooden construction, today it is a stone bridge. this one was built in 1905.
-B- bridges for general traffic. cars, pedestrians, buses and some even include the tram. called: "johanniter brücke" [name] and "wettstein brücke" [name of the district]
-C- these bridges include in addition the highway. one on a separate lane and the one in the north there runs the highway on a second level underneath the bridge level. called: "dreirosen brücke" [en - "three roses"] and "schwarzwald brücke" [name of the region towards france]
-D- pedestrian bridge but also for bicycles. this one is the latest crossing. opened just two month ago. it connects germany and france.
-E- hydroelectric power plant, that is also for pedestrian and bicycle crossing. (this example is a boundary itself. it divides the rhine in a lower and upper part. the boat traffic needs a lock and for fishes and others it is a final barrier.)
-F- railway bridge called: "schwarzwald brücke" [name of the region towards france]
-G- ferry service, but only for pedestrians and one needs to purchase a ticket. this limits the group of users and excludes others. this turns this into an exquisite mode of crossing while "normal" bridges can be accessed by anyone.
the following is a map created trough an overlay of the different layers of water, transport, political boundaries and restricted areas within the city.
there are impacts on different levels. one is the quality of the district. the transport and the enclosed areas have on several districts a very strong, often negative impact.
for example just south of the main railway station is the district "gundeldingen" situated. it is a strict rectangular developed district. it is one of the latest districts in basel-stadt. created somewhere in early 20th century just after the railway-station was relocated to the present location. it grew with the new element of the railway-station, but is also trough this element and of course the railway tracks strongly separated from the rest of the town. it is referred to "gundeldingen" usually as "behind the train station".
an other example is "kleinhueningen" in the north, just at the border to germany. this one is enclosed by several restricted areas. trough them it is separated from the city but also from the river rhine or from the large green space to its west side.
guess there are a lot more analyses to do. let me know ur comments.
1 comment:
I think I have discussed with you on the impact of political boundary in London, like Liverpool Street and Camden. We both agree that their characters are very strong. I think we all agree that the political boundary is not always very significant on the impact of spaces especially when it is not in line with cultural boundary. Take London as example, the boundaries between boroughs changed with time but the settlement came before the change of the boundaries. Hence the political boundaries in old development areas cannot give up any clue on the identity difference. I think it happens anywhere. On the other hand, the differences in criteria, decision making, source of development and administrative process between boroughs made the boroughs special to each other.
For the railways and highways, their patterns come up a question on hierarchy. When we are investigating the organization or structure of the city, the roles of railways or highways in different levels of hierarchy will be different and perform differently. So, if we go further, I think we can distinguish the differences in terms of scale, flows, programs between developments around different stations.
Last but least, I really like this observation – Fare payment affect the usages and flows. Very few architects and urban designers ( I think more urban planners think of it as it’s more in strategic level) explore the economic impact on the flow and the space, but it cannot be better illustrated by this example. I think it can be another topic we may explore later.
Post a Comment