Henric Petri-Strasse 22
4010 Basel
Design
Our designs form a grown sequence whose effect can be described as controversial. Even if its peculiarity can be determined by the form, it is based on an examination of the object of the design beyond the form: For us, designing means measuring a building task into the social context of the city. It is only from this process that the urban planning and architectural consequences for a design arise. The building task, or more precisely the relationship between program and location, must be determined anew each time. In the best case, it is possible to sharpen the understanding of the place at the construction task, to expand the idea of the program thanks to the special characteristics of the place. In doing so, we develop ambivalent relationships: we want to deepen the understanding of the place, while at the same time changing the perception of the place, sometimes overcoming it. In such a structure, there are no constants and variables. The intention to awaken an understanding of the history of a place with a design requires a dynamic process of design. Nor is there a "right" or "wrong". What sustains us is the experience of the city as a testimony to immeasurably diverse action, confusing and rich. We cannot imagine designing with an admonishing finger, but we also do not want to reshape the memory of the city that is inscribed in its shape as an artifact. A city that deprives itself of its history begins to dissolve itself. We are not only concerned with a sense of responsibility in the sense of monument preservation, but also with the compositional dimension of the design. We are convinced that urban planning and architectural design can only unfold if it is laid out in the depths of time, of a city's memory. This is the recurring attempt: the tension of a design with the place and time. In this way, we gain space for design action.
Roger Diener
