Discover Germany | Special Theme | Swiss Architecture 2019
Leutschenpark, Zurich. Photo: © Daniela Valentini, 2018
More than just planting trees… The Swiss landscape architects from Westpol go beyond your average landscape design and create clever visual highlights using elements from the world of plants. Founder Andy Schönholzer has a deep passion for his craft and welcomes any challenge, regardless of whether it is big or small. TEXT: MARILENA STRACKE
It all started way back, when Andy Schönholzer graduated from high school and did a successful placement at a horticulture company. He quickly realised that this was where he needed to be. Schönholzer studied landscape architecture at the University for Applied Sciences Rapperswil and later at the Rutgers State University in New Jersey. He founded his first landscape architecture bureau together with a partner in 2001, which ran very successfully until Schönholzer changed the focus in 114 | Issue 72 | March 2019
2008. That was the beginning of today’s Westpol landscape architects. “The new direction also led us to new areas of work and their challenges,” recalls Andy Schönholzer. “We are interested in the phenomenon of urban, public spaces. But we are also interested in superordinate projects such as defining the edges of residential areas or integrating infrastructures into our landscape.” The office of Westpol is located on one of Basel’s trendiest streets, Feldbergstrasse.
Near a record shop and fashion boutiques, and with the perfect view onto the street’s daily hustle and bustle. Here, the team’s creativity can flow freely. Working with evolving natural materials and various layers of vegetation, it often takes many decades until a project has reached its final look. A fascinating process, which is very different to, for example, designing a building. Leutschenpark, Zurich. Photo: © Joel Tettamanti, 2008