Basel, Switzerland, 2009

The leading art fair ART BASEL planned to combine its activities showcasing younger artists and smaller galleries, guest speakers, and exchanges with visiting artists into a new venue. A flexible, affordable, yet recognizable fair design had to be proposed that could also be adapted to other places and occasions.

This project aims to propose a consolidated yet permeable grid structure with large and small, individual and collective spaces. Opening the grid cells in their corners allows the creation of diagonal routes while avoiding the usual corridor-based design of such fairs. In the hall’s large space, the grid appears as a large object with a series of passages and collective spaces expressed as higher volumes. The installation is based on the existing Art Basel panel system, allowing for a totally new typology of space with the addition of only a few elements.