At a time when the Swiss are divided between Dichtelust and Dichtestress*, HHF offers to potentiate forgotten spaces in the heart of Basel's urban blocks.

HHF has transformed a neglected courtyard with firewalls and parking spaces into 15 apartments and surrounding lush gardens. By combining “left-over” square meters of three existing parcels the project shows densification potentials by reclaiming seemingly unusable urban spaces. This 9-year project shows that it is possible to densify the city center of Basel if we gather around the same table. Owners, residents, neighbors and architects have moved the lines of 3 plots in order to make the heart of the block habitable. From there, the challenges of the site turned into the specificities of the project: the geometry of the plot, the proximity to the surrounding walls, the relationship with neighbors, the slope ... were both the problem and the solution of this atypical project.