The St. Johann district in Basel is the site chosen for the campus of the pharmaceutical company Novartis: a miniature city designed by the urbanist Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani that includes works by renown architects like David Chipperfield, Diener & Diener, Frank Gehry among others. What was just an industrial site, became over the years a Mecca of modern architecture designed to foster collaboration and innovation. It is called “the forbidden city” by the locals since it has been closed to the public for more than a decade, the campus since opened in October 2022.

Six month before the official opening, on April 7th 2022, Daniele, a fellow alumnus working on site took his peers through a guided tour, supported by the expertise of another alumnus, Eytan, who freshly graduated in architecture. Among the participants, Jean-François who used to work on site about 30 years ago, explained how each area of the campus used to look in his time. This triggered the curiosity of all participants and added a special touch to the tour. Finally, the tour ended with a fun fact: the last building that we visited has been designed by the same architects (Sanaa) who designed… the Rolex Learning Center.