Basel's silhouette on the Rhine is shaped by the buildings of two pharmaceutical giants that are among the most influential Swiss companies - Roche and Novartis.

With distinctive high-rise buildings, the corporations very self-confidently emphasize their formative role for Basel.

They were built by the local architects Herzog & de Meuron, who have meanwhile made their design mark on large parts of the city.

The two 178 and 205 meter high, very similar Roche towers in the immediate vicinity of the city center have become a dominant feature of the cityscape, the younger of which has just been completed - the prerequisites for the construction of a third, even higher skyscraper are currently being created.

Compared to this Swiss record, the almost 63 meter high Novartis office tower, which the internationally sought-after office completed in 2015, seems downright modest.

The significantly lower height is due to Novartis' urban planning and architectural concept, which, in contrast to Roche's dominant approach, is geared towards integration into the urban context.

The planning for the Novartis site, which began a good 20 years ago and has now come to a preliminary conclusion with the completion of the entrance pavilion by Michele de Lucchi, follows a master plan that obliged the architects of the individual buildings to comply with a set of rules.

The stipulations included an eaves height for most of the quarter.

For the ranks of international architecture stars hired by Novartis, which include a number of Pritzker Prize laureates, this was not an everyday experience.

Small side streets and Mediterranean arcades

The specifications go back to Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani, now professor emeritus for the history of urban development at ETH Zurich.

He managed to keep the Novartis campus free of architectural extravagance, while still giving the commissioned architects enough space within the given limits to develop their own signature.

With this approach, the architectural historian wanted to once again celebrate the advantages of the European city at the beginning of the 21st century, the origins of which lie in the Italian Renaissance.

For a few weeks now, every visitor has finally been able to roam the Novartis campus.

Lampugnani's urban planning preferences are quickly noticeable: the urban space clearly structured by an orthogonal street grid, the spatial division according to the main axis and small side streets, the Mediterranean-style arcades along the factory street, which follow the model of the pedestrian-friendly city.

Last but not least, he is concerned with the loosening up of urban space through large and small, tree-planted and open squares.

The small, shady park that nestles on the banks of the Rhine also corresponds to Lampugnani's city ideal.

Like the sunbathing lawn on the Rhine, it is one of the most popular retreats for Novartis employees on warmer days.

Using Barcelona as an example, Lampugnani may have studied the importance of well-designed urban furniture and careful street paving.

And also the art of designing and placing sculptures in such a way that they not only serve to prettify buildings or make them look more representative.

Rather, Lampugnani aimed to enhance the urban space as a whole through the works of art.

Richard Serra's environment “Dirk's Pod”, for example, was set up as a monumental conclusion at the northern tip of the area.