City Garden Zug / Planetage Landscape + Ramser Schmid

Architects: Planetage landscape, Ramser Schmid
Year: 2013
Photographs: Guido Baselgia
Light Installation: d-lite lichtdesign, Guido Grünhage, Pia Ziegler
Construction Management: Kolb Landschaftsarchitektur, Thomas Kolb
Construction: Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure AG, Stefan Bänziger, Menco Furter
Management and Landscape Architecture: Planetage landscape architects, Marceline Hauri, Christine Sima, Karolina Katsabi, Helge Wiedemeyer, Ramon Iten, Thomas Volprecht (Planwirtschaft)
Pavilion and Parking Garage: Ramser Schmid, Christoph Ramser, Raphael Schmid, David Dick, Isabel Amat, Lena Bertozzi, Elena Castellote, Patrick Schneider
Construction and Supporting Structure: Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure, Zürich, Stefan Bänziger, Menco Furter
Client and Area Owner: Building Department, Building Authority Canton Zug and Building Department, Department of Civil Engineering City of Zug
Management: Marceline Hauri, Christine Sima, Karolina Katsabi, Helge Wiedemeyer, Ramon Iten, Thomas Volprecht, Planetage landscape architects
Landscape Architecture: Planetage landscape architects, Marceline Hauri, Christine Sima, Karolina Katsabi, Helge Wiedemeyer, Ramon Iten, Thomas Volprecht
City: Zug
Country: Switzerland

City Garden Zug, designed by Planetage Landscape and Ramser Schmid, is located in the former arsenal area of Zug, Switzerland. The project connects the city and cantonal library locations and transforms densely vegetated spaces into a clear, airy urban space. Key elements include Hangband gardens, an Intarsie water pool, and Hangkante with a vertical wooden structure and pavilion. The design integrates existing parking structures, enhances orientation, and provides functional and aesthetic improvements. The garden features small-scale city gardens, multi-functional spaces, and improved pathways, creating a relaxing and elegant environment.

City garden zug / planetage landscape + ramser schmid

The former arsenal area in the city of Zug, slated for redesign, encompasses the space between Zugerbergstrasse and Kirchenstrasse, including St. Oswald’s Church and both locations of the city and cantonal library of Zug. The client and area owner envisioned a public city garden connected to the existing pedestrian network of the old town, which would also link the main library building with the reading room. A particular challenge was the large-scale public parking garage, which has partially protruded from the sloped terrain and intersected the area since the 1970s.

The competition for landscape architecture, announced in 2010, was won by the project oben I unten (up I down) from Planetage landscape architects and Planwirtschaft in collaboration with Ramser Schmid architects. The jury praised “the clever insertion of a customized fitting component between the upper and lower levels with a surprising and convincing layout of the terrain edge, concentrating new opportunities for a ‘stay’.” Rather than concealing the large volume of the underground parking garage with soil, the planners chose to acknowledge its presence, exposing parts of it to complement its construction and enhance it with paneling.

The densely vegetated areas were reimagined into a “clear, airy, and elegant urban space” that offers views over the old town from the belvedere. Central to the new facility is a three-part division: Hangband, a lower slope belt with gardens enclosed by hedges; Intarsie, an upper-level feature with an embedded water pool; and Hangkante, an intermediate slope edge with a vertical lamellar wooden structure topped by a mushroom-like pavilion.

The framed gardens in the Hangband extend north-south, running parallel to a major public footpath and the driveway to the parking garage. This tree-dotted slope belt serves as a mediator to the rear gardens of the old townhouses. A series of small, atmospheric city gardens with rest niches and a permeable pathway create a green fringe around the old town. Walkways and stairs lead visitors through lush flowering roses, irises, and some rare, old garden varieties of crops and ornamental plants, guiding them to inviting benches or the dappled shade beneath the pavilion.

The upper level in front of the new study library is designed as an open, multi-functional space featuring a lawn inlay known as Intarsie. The focal point is a submerged water basin densely planted with irises. Free seating along the sunlit rear wall, overgrown with clematis and offering a view of the large, projecting pavilion, creates a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

The edge of the slope, referred to as Hangkante, is now accented with wood slat cladding between the upper and lower levels. This serves multiple purposes. Besides acting as a safety rail for fall protection (belvedere), it highlights the built structures and enhances site orientation. The design conceals disruptive elements of the existing parking garage, such as emergency exits, and seamlessly blends the material transitions between the 40-year-old concrete surfaces and the new additions, without obscuring the substantial presence of the underlying structure.

The pavilion’s placement in the complex aligns with the internal logic of the existing structure above the parking garage. The cantilevered pavilion is positioned atop the lift crossing and ventilation center of the 10-story parking facility below. The technical section of the construction, protruding from the garage roof, is elevated to form the base for the overhanging roof on all sides. In a manner similar to the wooden cladding on the slope edge, the design team created a permeable cover with horizontal wooden slats. This elegantly finishes the existing buildings without completely concealing them. The cladding highlights the vertical subconstruction and the roof’s radially arranged laminated beams, revealing the structural design through its geometry alone.

Besides the functional illumination of the connecting paths, the accessible city park at night is subtly enhanced by the shaping elements, settlements, and paneling along the edge of the slope.