Schifflände

I found Schifflände deeply fascinating, even as a child. There was always so much happening at this bustling port. Everywhere you went there were trams coming from all sides and people rushing towards the Market Square or Mittlere Brücke. And if you know where to look, there’s even a barometer showing the air pressure, temperature and humidity. That was always the first thing I looked at when I went to Schifflände as a little boy.

Schifflände is the oldest port in Basel and Switzerland’s only direct access to the sea. Ships berthed here as far back as the Middle Ages. Basel developed into an important hub and city of commerce. The river Rhine has always been extremely important to Basel, especially for its tradesmen and merchants who made their living off the waters of the Rhine even centuries ago: for instance the dippers who washed surplus dye from their fabrics in the lime-scarce tributaries to the river Rhine. The chemicals industry emerged from the dye-house operations that specialised in the production of synthetic colouring agents.

 
This here is Mittlere Brücke. Built in 1225, it connects Grossbasel and Kleinbasel and for a long time was the only fixed route across the Rhine from Lake Constance up to the North Sea. Incredible. So it’s hardly surprising that Basel became hugely important for international trade – valuable products travelled north from Italy, and back down again, carried across the Gotthard Pass and via Basel.

Even today, the Port of Basel is an important hub in international trade. Roughly 12 per cent of all the goods imported into Switzerland come here on ships that dock in the port along the river Rhine.

Switzerland’s Rhine port consists of three harbour sections in the cantons of Basel-Land and Basel-Stadt. Now there are plans to construct two large new ports and efficient transhipment points as part of the Rheinhafen 2020 project. The project involves the relocation of both the Klybeckquai and the Westquai ports. So what will they build on the old harbour grounds right down by the river Rhine? The initial plans prompted a heated and controversial debate: do they really want to build Rheinhatten, a bit like Manhattan, with energy-guzzling and expensive luxury buildings?

 
The residents in the neighbouring districts, above all in Klybeck, are fighting back. Basel is looking to create the 2000-Watt society, they said! Why not here? They are calling for a model estate as part of the 2000-watt society instead of a luxury development. ‘Greenhatten, not Manhatten’ is their motto.

So what are the ideas put forward by the Greenhatten lobby? They want to see the creation of a new district with space for everyone. A district with a good quality of life. With bathing facilities and playgrounds, gardens, trees and meadows. Rent for housing and offices should be affordable, and the area should be developed in a relatively simple way, and not just to provide space for fat cats to live. The plan is also to restrict the living space per person, which will help meet the targets of the 2000-watt society. Many of us live in large houses with rooms that we seldom use, although they are heated. Increasingly, new and modern estates have communal rooms that are used when they are needed: a gym, a sewing and ironing room or offices. Sometimes even shared kitchens. People can contribute to protecting the climate by having slightly smaller homes.

By the way, this old harbour site will not be the only green city to emerge: there’s also a big 2000-watt district under construction in the Erlenmatt neighbourhood of Basel.

 
We’ll now go up Rheinsprung, through the pedestrian zone and past beautiful old buildings, toward the Minster, where we’ll stop in front of the church.

Do you fancy coming up to the Pfalz?