Probstei-Hügel is located on the outskirts of Zurich in Schwamendingen, at the interface with the countryside at the foot of the Zürichberg. The Grün Stadt Zürich’s invited competition and study for landscape design and use concepts for the Probstei-Hügel decided in favour of Ganz Landscape Architects. As the guiding theme of the concept, our team, with sociologist Laura Iseli, gardening expert Wanda Keller, TEN Studio Architects and the Büro für Freiraumplanung, puts the emphasis on enjoyment. With enjoyment comes serene pleasure in the beauty of everyday life?and the result is happiness. We look forward to subtle implementation of the plan, with involvement of the different user groups in the area and participation of the local residents. This wonderful task will occupy us for many years to come.  

Cemeteries are places of commemoration and contemplation. In many religions, cemeteries are holy places and play a prominent part in the culture of a society. Their cultural historical, architectural, landscape architectural or often artistic value is due to the overall design of the cemetery or individual grave sites.  

An impressive example of this is the city cemetery Cementiri de Montjuïc, located on a southern rocky slope of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona. It was built in 1883 based on a plan by architect Leandro Albareda. Among many other outstanding cemeteries in Europe, Highgate Cemetery in London, Père Lachaise in Paris or Sihlfeld Friedhof in Zurich are worth a visit.
 

Serena Neuenschwander completed her six-month external internship with us at Ganz Landscape Architects last Friday. To wish her farewell, we had a delicious apéro riche and also a virtual walk through the Zurich quarter Green-City Manegg, where Ganz Landscape Architects are currently completing the grounds of the new Allmend school complex. Fabian Göbel from the Afca company led us through the virtual spaces by means of holographic glasses. The spatial visualisation tool HoloPLANNING was developed by the urban planning office of the City of Zurich and is used for urban design studies, architecture competitions, engineering projects, and archaeology. 

We would like to thank Serena Neuenschwander for the great work together and the successful event at her good-bye party.  

After two and a half years of construction, the opening of the new Allmend school complex, developed by Studio Burkhardt architects in Zurich, will take place after the winter sports holidays. The grounds are currently also near completion. The school yard has been planted with a variety of trees and furnished with a water basin constructed of wood, benches and playground equipment. On the roof of the school, a Forest Room has been constructed that is reminiscent of the vegetation of the Sihl Valley. The two lift towers of the nearby pedestrian bridge `Haspelsteig` are fitted with superstructures with crushed sandstone as a habitat for wild bees, which we developed in collaboration with landscape architect and wildlife ecologist André Rey.

With “Perceptions of the Ordinary”, Jasper Morrison taught us in his book The Good Life in 2014 to look carefully at seemingly ordinary things and situations. Our architect friend Nemanja Zimonjic of studio TEN, too, has a passionate eye and often sends us pictures of his discoveries. A bench designed by Serbian architect Nikola Dobrovic in front of Grand Hotel in Dubrovnik encourages us to introduce more lightness and fun when designing new landscapes.

In the city, plants sprout from the tiniest cracks and gaps and find their way through the built-up landscape. With this association in mind, we are planning, for the city of Zurich, to transform remaining areas of tarmac on Förrlibuckstrasse into a temporary green space. The minor interventions are intended to unseal the area and to rhythmically accompany the adjacent track curves. The existing tarmac will be broken up and reapplied in the form of asphalt clods. A patchwork of clods and planting areas will create space for the development of ruderal vegetation with pioneer plants, wildflowers, and robust wild herbaceous growth. In the future, weeping birches, poplars, tamarisks and sea buckthorn will grow between the asphalt.