Twenty metres below ground a subway is planned, connecting the two train stations “Basel SBB” and “Basel Badischer Bahnhof”. One of the new underground stations which sits between them, will be located directly below the former industrial quarter “Klybeck”. Since the whole area has changed ownership, it is now open to a manifold densification, a shift in use from medical research towards living & business and inevitably, a transformation of spatial identification and architecturally inherent history.

Among the several buildings with historic value, one is situated above the subway station and next to the projected “Klybeck-Platz”. As a former canteen for employees, it stands out with its architectural qualities. It resembles the iconographic architecture of Mies van der Rohe, has an orthogonal column grid and generous & flexible floor spaces.

The project proposes to re-use this building as the entrance to the new subway station. By giving it a new purpose, the rectangular and calm solitaire will be re-rooted to the place and will be given a future inside the transformed surroundings.

To ascend from the 20m deep station, the 14’000 expected daily visitors experience a rich system of stairs and escalators. To defy enveloping masses of soil, the floor spaces expand on every level, resembling typical mining landscapes. While the travellers rise to the surface, more pathways open up, allowing them to leave the structure on whichever side they wish.

In order to experience a feeling of time in space, the roof reflects parts of the daylight down into the center of the structure. As the day passes, individually oriented mirrors redirect the sunrays hourly into the atrium, resembling an ever-changing kaleidoscope. As the visitor travels alongside the massiveness of the earth, the playful dance of shadow and light slowly enfolds on its surfaces.