Claudia Caviezel's work is a true visual discovery. Her sense of color and pattern is evident in her designs, which range from household products to international haute couture and installations in public spaces. Caviezel follows her creative intuition, working spontaneously, directly and experimentally. The exhibition inspires, amazes and motivates us to cultivate our own creativity again and again. Such free spaces are a gift!

The exhibition features textile objects, large-format prints, sketches, and recent works in order to give viewers a comprehensive look at the unique working methods of the award-wiinning Swiss designer.

till 7th January 2024

Museum für Gestaltung
Toni-Areal
Pfingst­weid­strasse 96
8005 Zürich

Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm
Thursday 10am-8pm
Monday closed

Stone after stone, large and small, and spolia (stones, clinker, and ceramics from old structures, repurposed) form the masonry of the city walls of Athens. Urgency and shortage of materials resulted in this building method for quick protection against the Persian invaders. The construction of the walls, over 2500 years old, tell a story that is both topical and contemporary of how valuable materials can be used sustainably and outlast several lifetimes.
 

The home and studio of celebrated sculptor Louis Wethli (1842-1914) on Zeltweg in Zurich were built by Zurich architect Albert Meyer-Hofer (1845-1903) in 1877. As an advertisement for his sculpture business, the sculptor adorned the stately facade of the house with decorative sculptural insets. The house has now been carefully repaired by Zurich architect Matthias Kamm.

For the project, Ganz Landscape Architects took on the exterior space. A few days ago, we planted the front garden and the sparse green spaces around the house. The planting is structured by a few trees (ornamental cherry, crab apple, and persimmon) and shrubs, including lilacs, flowering quinces, mahonias, and figs. Lush perennials such as Japanese anemones, honeysuckle, and black cohosh set additional accents. They are complemented by groupings of simple blossoming but robust perennials, grasses, and ferns. A layer of spring blooming plants like tulips and narcissus provides rich interest during the growing season.

Reclaimed stones or roughly hewn stones in part reshaped, bricks and clay tiles, and concrete gestural shapes cast in-situ – all freely arranged but generating an artistic design – make up Pikionis‘ wide pathway that meanders from the base of the Acropolis in Athens to a point near the top and extends up to the apex of Philapoppou Hill. It was designed and overseen by Dimitris Pikionis from approximately 1954 to 1957. The stone reflects the light of the day, hour, and moment. Light and shadow overlay the stone, changing with the angle of the sun; heat and cold change with the seasons; and in summer as well as in winter the stones emit calm and serenity. All of nature’s beauty lies stored in the stone material, which lies gently and quietly in the hilly landscape and with dignity at the foot of the Acropolis.

Ganz Landscape Architects visited the studio of Inside Outside in Amsterdam and agreed on our coming collaboration for the greenery-covered high-rise building and the new park at Sulzerallee in Winterthur. Inside Outside, with Zurich architecture firms Dürig AG and TEN, won the architectural competition. We are very pleased along with them!

Ganz Landscape Architects, with animal ecologist André Rey on the team of Adrian Streich Architekten, have won the architectural competition for the new Wache West and City Archives in Zurich. In our contribution we embrace the City of Zurich’s call for a comfortable urban climate, good air quality, and increased biodiversity. On the former Centravo site near the Schlachthof, we establish new green areas on different levels in several roof landscapes and create a bridge for nature from the ground to the roof.

Already today, nature has spread out in the Schlachthof area. Wild growth, cracks and crevasses vegetation, herbaceous plants that grow on waste ground or among refuse have spread across the gravelly areas, and lizards, rare species of snails, and valuable wild bees are colonizing the transformative habitat. Whatever is there will be recorded, gathered, and recycled/used and further developed in the structure-rich grounds of the new Wache and City Archives office. Broken-up asphalt and on-site concrete will be reassembled in mosaic-like surfaced areas. Different species of poplar trees will be planted around the ground floor of the buildings and grow in varied pairings in the roof landscapes. Poplar trees, with their strong character, will accentuate the noticeable industrial context of the area and at the same time give it an identity and stand in a constant dialogue between above and below.

The City Archives and the Wache will be accessible from Hohlstrasse and Hardgutstrasse. A spacious outdoor courtyard area with a water basin will function as an arrival and cross-through area, providing transit between the two building entrances but also encouraging visitors to linger. The old locomotive shed will house a bistro that will be surrounded by a macadamised gravel surface. In the light shade of the poplar trees, it will have the atmosphere of a garden tavern, radiating into the surrounding neighbourhood. Where use allows, a belt of former industrial ground now loosely vegetated and scattered with poplars will encircle the grounds of the new Wache and City Archives office.

Gardens reflect identities, dreams, and visions. Deeply rooted in their culture, they can unfold immense symbolic potential. The recent revival of horticulture has focused less on the garden as a romantic refuge than as a place where concepts of social justice, biodiversity, and sustainability can be tried and tested. Gardens have become places of the avantgarde. The exhibition »Garden Futures« at the Vitra Design Museum is to explore the history and future of modern gardens.

till 3. Oktober 2023
Täglich 10 – 18 Uhr

Vitra Design Museum
Charles-Eames-Str. 2
D-79576 Weil am Rhein

Ganz Landscape Architects will have summer holidays from 31th July to 18th August 2023. During this time we will be working with a reduced staff. The entire team will be back at work for you on 21th August 2023.

Ganz Landscape Architects went on an excursion to Garden Works Eriswil. In their in-house show garden we are greeted warmly by planting planner Stephan Aeschlimann and landscape architect Ursula Yelin and given an in-depth look at their world of gardening. In the idyllic hillside setting with views of fields and rural farms they create impressive vegetation groupings that are inspired by their travels to faraway landscapes. We enter the theme gardens accompanied by Joris Egger?from the South African-style fynbos stairs up to Drakensberg with Kniphofia torch lilies, or red hot pokers, and Agapanthus African lilies, and then down past the sun garden to the in-house garden nursery. For in addition to planning open spaces, Garden Works Eriswil cultivates plants in their nearby greenhouse and uses them for their projects.

Inspired and impressed by their passion and love for their craft, we extend our thanks to Stefan, Ursula, and Joris.

We are also followers and are now on Instagram!

In the Oxara materials laboratory Gnanli Landrou and his team are developing cement-free clay-based building blocks and a technology that turns excavation materials into poured earth concrete building material. The idea that clay-based and waste-based materials can be reused in construction as building material is fascinating. Ganz Landscape Architects see great potential for this in the circular economy and can envision using the clay-based building blocks as walls and steps in outdoor spaces.

‘Castles and gardens’ is the theme for our annual excursion this year from 15 to 18 June.

On the first day we visit Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Prof. Christian Inderbitzin’s Chair of City and Housing worked together with Daniel Ganz and the architecture students to develop a Forest Garden in the spring semester of 2022. The Forest Garden was realised in April of this year.

Landscape architects Stefan Helleckes and Kirsten Schomackers guide us through the Karlsruhe Palace Garden with the show greenhouses. Also on the program for the day is a visit to the Dammerstock housing estate by Walter Gropius and Otto Haesler, where art historian Nina Rind is our guide. Thanks to the good contacts of our own Sophie von Schwerin, we have the opportunity to take a tour also of the palace gardens of Heidelberg, Schwetzingen, and Rastatt, guided by expert garden historians Karin Seeber, Meike Kirscht, and Hartmut Troll.

On Sunday, 7 May 2023, the Cultural Commission of the municipality of Küsnacht presented its 2023 Cultural Award to Andreas Jung, initiator and facilitator of the C. G. Jung House Museum. C. G. Jung’s house was renovated by Arthur Rüegg and the garden/grounds restored and renovated by Ganz Landscape Architects. Today, the garden monument presents itself as a well-aged garden structure with species-rich vegetation, which arranges this architectural garden from the time of its creation at the beginning of the twentieth century thematically in different garden rooms. Ganz Landscape Architects congratulate Andreas Jung and his wife Vreni Jung-Gerber for their tireless efforts in bringing this great legacy so responsibly into this promising form.
 

In the summer semester of 2022, for the Master’s studio Imagination and Mimesis at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Daniel Ganz was invited by Christian Inderbitzin’s Professorship City and Housing to work with the students on developing a garden project. Designs were developed for two courtyards of the Faculty Building of Architecture.

And now last week in the spring semester, one of the two designs?the Forest Garden?was realized together with the students. About 30 trees and shrubs as well as about 2,500 perennials, grasses, and ferns were planted.   

Working in 1:1 scale with the chosen material helps find the desired shape. We recently practised laying sandstone slabs at the Bärlocher Rorschacher sandstone quarry. Together with architect Christian Inderbitzin and stone mason Christian Bärlocher, we developed on site an irregular pattern for two small atriums on Weststrasse in Zurich. We worked the rough broken stone following the stonemason tradition using hammer and setter and formed a pavement design of archaic simplicity. The interplay of head, hand and heart showed us once again what craftmanship means.

In these days, the landscaping work for the Schlossgarten multi-family buildings in Rüschlikon is being completed. The two buildings by Joos & Mathys Architects are surrounded by two striking trees (Araucaria and chestnut) that shape the atmosphere of the grounds. With our plantings, we have tried to create surroundings with a Mediterranean feeling, using heat-loving plants like artichokes, figs, persimmons, rosemary, sage, and many more.  

The long-term project ‘The Garden’ of  Tom Emerson’s studio/chair at ETH Zurich is taking on new forms. Last semester, before the winter, the first plant material for the new location was dug up. In a first phase, this was now planted in the last few days and forms the basis for the next intervention by the students this semester.

Here we would like to extend thanks to Christoph Gasser und his team for their strong and active support of this long-term project.

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.