Post-industrial Urban Living Space
vetschpartner: The assignment: a courtyard in the urban periphery. The result: an open space system for an entire neighbourhood, where public waterfront and communal park merge, a street becomes a driveable tree canopy hall, and a landscape of grasses grows amid the asphalt. This was made possible by a small yet inspiring step backward – from a specific project competition to a neighbourhood-wide masterplan.
To the left, traffic rushes along the main road; to the right, the Glatt river flows; behind, chimneys of production halls emit steam. Life unfolds in between. The former industrial site has been half-transformed into a residential and commercial district. As a flowing continuum, the open space connects old and new buildings into a unified neighbourhood.
The Giessenhof exudes a quiet forest garden atmosphere as a residential courtyard, with a split landscape of meadow and asphalt hills undulating beneath tall pine canopies. In contrast, Giessenplatz, a public space, brings urban vibrancy together with wild perennials and a sophisticated sponge city system. The Florastrasse reads like a green boulevard with its wide rows of trees. And the Giessenpark offers expansiveness and calm, plant diversity, and shaded areas beneath trees. Together with the planned adjacent “Fil Bleu” of the Glatt, it will form a comprehensive re-creational area.
It all began with a competition for the residential courtyard of the first construction phase. The “step back” to a broader perspective – the open space masterplan – enabled the activation of the site’s full potential and the consideration of themes such as climate, drainage, and biodiversity on a large scale, all without neglecting monument preservation and the identity of the historic industrial site.
Landscape Architecture: vetschpartner
Client: Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund Siat
Architecture: ADP Architektur Design Planung AG, Zurich; aww Architekten AG, Zurich; Theo Hotz Partner AG, Zurich
Masterplan: 2016
Project planning: 2015-2022
Implementation: in stages, 2017-2023
Area: 24’200 m²
Project location: 47.400609, 8.612539
Photo credits: Michael Haug, LOSYS GmbH
