Panton-Passage

Personal contribution to the documentation of the Parking Passage
at the Universitätsspital Basel, before it will be demolished. Sign the petition to save this passage: here.

Completed in 1978, the color scheme for the below-ground passage aimed to bring life to the windowless corridor. Verner Panton was asked to submit an economical proposal to brighten up the scene. Panton, living at that time in his ‘home city of choice’, Basel, created an attractive composition featuring simple geometric shapes – stripes, circles, triangles and rectangles – in eight strong colors (shades of red and blue) and three shades of grey. The bleak passageway got transformed into a cheerful thoroughfare. This solution remains impressive to this day for its simplicity and freshness.