Students: Arthur de Buren and Chloe Constantini 

The French area north west of Basel is characterized by two different landscape entities. The hilly Sundgau is overlooking the relatively vast and flat lower- and higher terraces of the upper Rhine plain. While the strong topography of the Sundgau dictated the very moderate growth of a network of little villages, the terraces have over time been filled up with big infrastructure elements and are today characterized by an uncontrolled growth and uncoordinated development. The project “sprawl of the forest” proposes to use the existing very geometrical Forêt de la Hardt, which is extended towards Basel, as a structuring element to any future development of this area. The forest’s structure and an axis with public infrastructure become the origin of a flexible grid that is foreseeing a programmed landscape park with forested transition zones between built and un-built patches. The regained order could attract life-science companies which could profit from the ideal international connections and the fertile lands of the area.