The sketch by Thorbjoern Andersson shows the southern part of the park that was opened in 2012 as the Physic Garden.
This article was originally published in April 2014.
Published on 22/06/2020
Simply the name of the park – Physic Garden – hints at its special meaning. “Physic” stands for the science of healing, and “Garden” refers to the historical origins of pharmaceutical research. On the Novartis Campus in Basel around 80 different medicinal plants used in traditional medicine from the Middle and Far East, Europe, and North and Latin America illustrate the path medical knowledge has taken over the years.
The Physic Garden is also not simply yet another garden for landscape architect Thorbjoern Andersson, who created and implemented the design. “This medicinal garden is the heart and soul of Novartis,” says the 60-year-old Swede who is internationally known for the design of public squares and parks.
During implementation, Andersson worked very closely with Frank Petersen, Head of the Natural Products Unit at Novartis. Petersen is absolutely convinced, adding that “Thorbjoern Andersson has created a garden with a design language that highlights medicinal plants as living beings, as medicine and as part of our past, present and future.” The garden has been open to associates and visitors to the Campus since the summer of 2012.
Mr. Andersson, you have designed a great many parks and public spaces in recent years, for example in Stockholm. These projects all feature very different styles. Where do you get the inspiration for your projects?
Thorbjoern Andersson: I always try to “listen” to the location as much as possible, because each one has its own, very specific character.
Then of course the context in which the installation is located plays a major role as well. For further inspiration I draw on the function the park or square is later intended to assume. And last but not least, there is always the client, whose visions and desires must be taken into consideration.
Which influences played the greatest part in the design of the Physic Garden on the Novartis Campus in terms of your overall conception?
This medicinal garden is the heart and soul of Novartis. Because all historic medications came from nature, we drew on this history for the overall design – the monastery gardens of the monks in the Middle Ages and the groves of the Celtic druids which 2000 years ago were part of a notable late Celtic settlement on the site where the Campus grounds are today. We sought a design in which one half could be implemented immediately and the other only after several years – that was a provision of the master plan. It is for this reason that we selected these two motifs – the garden and the grove – which work well not only separately but also together.
What did you find so special about this project? Did it differ greatly from your other works?
Working as a landscape architect, I generally design public squares and parks that have larger spatial dimensions. Here on the Campus we attempted to create a space that is intimate but at the same time rich in contrasts. You can feel this when you enter the garden through the tight spaces between the beech hedges, and suddenly the entire garden opens up in front of you. The basic idea was to honor and celebrate medicinal plants. To do this, we lowered the central plant bed by 60 cm. This allows the plants to appear even more valuable, almost beyond reach. It is possible to walk over the beds using two small bridges and view them from above, as if they were a carpet or a painting.
Were there also other influences and circumstances that particularly struck you about the work in Basel?
This project was also quite unusual in that I knew that Novartis had contracted only the world’s finest architects for the Campus buildings. Never before in history had there been such a concentration of design expertise in such a small area. On top of this, there was the very direct and personal involvement of the company management. Everything was reviewed in great detail, and sometimes we could even present our suggestions as models on a 1:1 scale. Having the privilege to work in this context was an inspiring experience.
We were forced to abandon many of our original ideas in the planning process because of course we had to stay within a given budget. Albert Buchmueller, Real Estate Manager at Novartis, was extremely supportive and helpful to keep this project within the time and budget limits. His experience in managing building projects and his network of local consultants contributed essentially in the timely completion of the Physic Garden.
At the edge of the large plant bed there are also some carefully arranged and labeled piles of wood. What role do they play in the garden’s overall design?
There is a special story behind these piles of wood, which we refer to as “bookcases.” Due to the limited space available to us for the Physic Garden, we were only able to plant few trees. We therefore took the trunks from various species of trees with medically active substances, for instance yew and birch trees, and laid them out systematically to form these “bookcases” – as if they were in a library for medicinal plants.
Visitors can see about 80 types of medicinal plants in the Physic Garden. How did you select the plants to put there?
We made the selection as a team: Frank Petersen and Kathrin Buntin from the Novartis Natural Products Unit, Beat Roesch from a Basel-based horticulture planning company serving as a local partner that is also responsible for maintaining the garden, and myself.
Because we were seeking plants with rapid growth, a long flowering season and colors that are ideal in the context of the garden, the selection process proved very challenging. Some medicinal plants were simply too small and visually not particularly attractive, and others were unable to thrive in the regional climate. Then there were others, such as the opium poppy, that we were prevented from planting by Swiss law.
In the end there were about 80 medicinal plants left over that you can see today. All of them have their own significance in medical his-tory, in some cases also for Novartis, and blend together very harmoniously.
The Physic Garden was opened in the summer of 2012. What do you envisage to be the “ideal” use of the garden by associates and visitors?
It goes without saying that the garden should primarily offer its visitors a place to relax, and it is for this reason that we also included benches and fountains. In addition, it is intended to spread knowledge about medicinal plants and the history of medicine and the company, and also to serve as a source of inspiration.
I personally would very much like to see it become a lively place where people meet for events such as receptions, ceremonies and meetings.
