The Badenfahrt: Temporary reconfiguration of a city

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Badenfahrt, this work focuses on the folk festival that has been celebrated in Baden, in the canton of Aargau, since 1923. The Badenfahrt is deeply rooted in the region and generally takes place every ten years, continually evolving and adapting to the spirit of the times. Since March 2017, the festival has been included on the list of Switzerland's living traditions and is thus part of the intangible UNESCO cultural heritage, which "raises awareness of cultural practices and their transmission, and highlights the importance of their preservation." For ten days, the urban fabric of Baden is transformed by the Badenfahrt and placed into a state of exception. Volunteers and local clubs build and operate massive festival structures during this period in the form of pavilions, stages, and food stalls. This temporary transformation of the city creates new relationships in parts of the old town and reactivates them. Existing infrastructures of the city are integrated into the festival grounds and expanded. On the one hand, the structures of the built city remain visible beneath the temporary festival architecture; on the other hand, past editions of the Badenfahrt leave behind elements of the festival in the form of traces, remnants, or collective memories in the built environment. Each edition of the Badenfahrt addresses a new, contemporary theme and transforms the city in its own way.

The work attempts to understand the Badenfahrt as a kind of laboratory for the city of Baden and examines how the festival overlays and alters the spatial perception of the city. Through a combination of text and drawings, the characteristics and features of various moments were analyzed and documented, using the example of the Badenfahrt 2023.