5 Incredible Displays of Landscape Architecture in Switzerland

By Land8: Landscape Architects Network on December 30, 2014 1 Comment / 11490 views

A showcase of some of Switzerland’s best landscape architecture projects. Dipped in the center of Europe, surrounded by the Alps, Switzerland has always projected the image of mountain life and communion with nature. But Switzerland is also a country with a deep respect for order. Over the last 10 years, Switzerland has seen an increased interest in landscape architecture, with many of its cities introducing creative and contemporary urban projects. Here you can find a Top 5 list of the best landscape architecture projects in Switzerland. Take a look!

Landscape Architecture in Switzerland

5. Tree Museum / Designer: Enea – Location: Rapperswil-Jona b

Tree Museum. Credit: Enea GmbH

This museum is a collection of trees designed as a piece of art. On a surface of 75,000 square meters, the Swiss landscape firm Enea designed the tree museum around more than 120 trees, some of which are 130 years old. Enea used a series of giant local sandstone walls and water basins to divide the park and generate calm places to contemplate the entire tree collection. 4. Cardada Viewpoint / Designer: Paolo L. Bürgi – Location: Cardada

Cardada. Photo credit: Landecy

In 2000, after an aerial cableway to Cardada was renovated, a new landscape project was designed by Paolo Burgi right on the top of the mountain above Locarno. The Cardada viewpoint is part of a set of different structures, a fantastic example to how integrate a functional project into a very particular landscape such as the Alps, simply using stones, steel, and concrete in nature with elegance, creating breathtaking views. 3. The Physic Garden / Designer: Thorbjörn Andersson with Sweco Architects – Location: Basel

The Physic Garden. Photo credit: Thorbjörn Andersson

Situated inside the Novartis campus in Basel, The Physic Garden represents a new concept of the “hortus conclusus”. Taking the idea of monastery gardens, the team composed by Thorbjörn Andersson with Sweco Architects designed a garden to represent the pharmaceutical industry. Completed in 2012, this space includes a rectangular garden featuring 32 of the most important pharmaceutical plants organized in a pattern of stripes. 2. City Lounge / Designer: Carlos Martinez, Pipilotti Rist – Location: St. Gallen

Stadlounge St. Gallen-CH. Credit: CARLOS MARTINEZ

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A very creative project, designed as a fusion between urban design and art, is the City Lounge in the Bleicheli Quarter in St. Gallen. An open space redesigned by the artist Pipilotti Rist and Carlos Martínez Architekten, it covers the quarter’s outdoor areas with a red floor coating made of rubber granulate. All urban design elements disappear under this red layer, creating a unique public space — a red landscape in the center of the city. 1. MFO Park / Designer: Raderschall – Location: Zürich

MFO park; credit: deco2912 @ flickr

One of the best examples of contemporary landscape architecture in Switzerland is the MFO Park in Zurich. This project, completed in 2002 and designed by Burckhardt + Partner and Raderschall Landschaftsarchitekten AG as a part of a redevelopment of one of Zurich’s most industrial zones, re-interprets the concept of the urban park. Using a big, three-dimensional steel structure to create a suspended park, architecture meets landscape. A group of more than 100 plant species climbs up this structure, covering the entire area and creating a multi-functional place where open-air movies and concerts take place.

Landscape Architecture in Switzerland

These are only few examples of outstanding landscape projects built in Switzerland which deserve to be known. Attention for the Swiss creativity and for its wonderful landscape architects is starting to be known also thanks to the Lausanne Jardins, the international festival of urban garden and landscape design. This extreme richness and variety of Swiss landscape architecture demonstrate as Switzerland played an essential role in the evolution of landscape architecture and urban design in these last twenty years. Recommended Reading: