Günther Vogt: Landscape Architect

“If you look at what we call landscape from a distance, you will recognize that it concerns an artefact, a living space, created by people as part of a built city.” This is how Günther Vogt explains his view of the term “landscape”. With a small selection of his projects, he demonstrates how he interrelates all the dimensions of the shaped environment, from large-scale landscapes to smaller urban spaces, and what sources of inspiration he draws upon in his work.

Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2014)
The museum building stands between Fifth Avenue and Central Park. For a temporary exhibition, Vogt Landscape Artists designed a suburban garden on the roof. Hedges, lawns, paving stones and chairs surround an S-shaped mirror wall by Dan Graham that reflects, doubles and dissolves them. This motif is well-known from baroque gardens: here it is combined with the hedge device of the yards belonging to single-family homes.

Badaevskiy Brewery, Moscow (since 2017)
This former brewery, located on the banks of the Moskva, is being renovated and transformed into a public mixed-use space according to plans by Herzog & de Meuron. An apartment complex that rests on piles 35 metres tall is being built as well. Beneath this structure will extend a six-hectare neighbourhood park which includes an artificial stretch of elevated riverbank measuring 400 m in length. The plants will represent an interpretation of a mixed Eastern European forest in a sequence based on the natural creation and regeneration processes of a forest edge. The fruit trees at the end recall Moscow’s historical parks and will provide a link to the city’s collective memory.

Gardens of the Eiffel Tower, Paris (2018)
After the terrorist attracts in Paris, it was inevitable that a security fence be erected around the Eiffel Tower, which attracts nearly seven million people every year. This presented the opportunity to rediscover the forgotten gardens that were planted before the tower was built. Thanks to this project, park and pathways now recall their historical predecessors more than they did ten years ago, although the site meets modern requirements.

Inspirations
Günther Vogt finds inspiration in many different areas. For instance, his office in Zurich resembles a cabinet of curios featuring collector’s pieces from around the world. Apart from the stuffed and mounted animals, dried plants, herbaria, pictures, globes and fabrics, there are also books, prints and paintings that serve as sources of ideas. Old works are just as important as contemporary ones.