Studio Céline Baumann
towards natural processes
Basel, CH

Studio Céline Baumann is a landscape architecture firm based in Basel, Switzerland. The studio was founded by the French architect Céline Baumann in 2019, operating in the fields of urbanism, landscape architecture and exhibition. Through an intersectional lens she is informed by the interactive ecology between people and nature, complemented by a commitment to research that explores the collective value of nature and its impact on individuals.

A network of curators and institutes

When moving to Basel I realised that the city was a good starting ground with a solid economy and that was why I decided to open my practice there in 2019. I started with very small commissions: a garden installation in Paris, a study for the outdoors of an exhibition space in Basel. I also had the chance to be selected by the Future Architecture platform, which brought me in touch with a European network of curators and institutions. Those first experiences allowed me subsequently to reach bigger commissions.

Taking advantage of a temporary freedom

As a young entrepreneur, my workspace is mostly where my laptop sits, being on a desk, on my lap, in a plane or a train. I have experienced several office spaces, none of them conceived originally to host a studio: I first started to work at home on the dinner table, then in a historical courtyard house, a rococo castle, and now a former bakery. I like to move around and value the flexibility that the size of my operation allows me at the moment, especially since I am aware that this freedom is temporary.

Understanding open spaces

I believe landscape architects should be given a bigger and earlier role in the planning processes and gain more weight in regard to architects. I wish more tenders would request them to lead teams from the beginning, especially in urbanism projects, as is often the case in Nordic countries. Landscape architecture’s understanding of open spaces as well as of natural processes is crucial to allow the creation of more liveable and truly sustainable cities.

Combining different facets

The challenges of the coming year will be to associate the different aspects of my practice and research activities, such as: how feminism translates in spatial practices, can I give a voice to the plant world and be credible in front of investors? I enjoy working at the different levels of the profession: design, building, teaching, and writing. How to combine all those aspects while projects are scaling up will be certainly one of the main tasks of the upcoming years.

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Photography Courtesy of Studio Céline Baumann

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