Sonvida

The project is located on the outskirts of Basel and consists of luxurious villas, single family houses and small apartment buildings, all built on a 17’000 m² area.

With its design and layout the project integrates itself smoothly into the surrounding garden city, which has origins in the early 20^th century. The three different types of houses reflect the qualities of their different location on the site. The villas on the hillside are oriented towards their own gardens, whereas the apartment houses are treated as urban villas in a central park. The single family houses open themselves to the prospect of the open field. The development works as a green belt connecting two nearby recreation areas. The apartment houses are embedded between small hills, which at the same time serve as skylights to the common underground parking.

The underground parking is designed as an underground street (approximately 150m long) which allows direct access to the houses above. As a result of the wave-like curvature of the concrete ceiling, there are three large skylights which make the space bright and friendly and which create a direct visual connection to the new above-ground street. These skylights serve at the same time as small hills in the apartment houses' open garden. In this way the houses are embedded between small hills, which create a certain privacy in the dense setting of the new buildings.