Studio Vulkan Landscape Architecture

Open spaces are under increasing pressure from many sides. Studio Vulkan seeks to gain a deeper understanding of these diverse demands as well as the contradictions that arise from countervailing expectations. Designing landscapes for us means to accept and moderate these contradictions, using the productive tension they bring about as a driver for developing new solutions. We devise strategic and experimental design languages that interpret the conditions of the site and its users in innovative and lucid terms. Our goal is to sound out designs that are at once conceptually convincing and eminently pragmatic; this approach allows us to explore the potential of a given landscape in a direct, dynamic, and playful manner. We question the landscape, at large and small scales, in its physical as well as social context, and as atmospheric and experiential space.

Apart from the confrontation with the everyday professional tasks, through our wide palette of projects, we simultaneously explore possible questions and responses that we believe are central to further developing the contemporary discourse and creating a landscape architecture capable of increasing human sensitivity, meaning, and responsibility towards our natural and built environment.

Our approach reflects the international and interdisciplinary expertise of our four partners, whose backgrounds trace a line from landscape architecture to urban design, city planning and art, merging traditions from Switzerland, Germany and the USA.
Founded in 2014, Studio Vulkan was created at Vulkanstrasse in Zurich following the merger between Schweingruber Zulauf Landscape Architects and Robin Winogrond Landscape Architects. With the opening of the Munich office in 2016, the practice expanded beyond the country’s borders. Today, Studio Vulkan Landscape Architecture team in Zurich and Munich comprises about 45 people from 10 nationalities. Lukas Schweingruber, Dominik Bueckers, Florian Strauss, Ursa Habic, and Christoph Abt are responsible for the operational and strategic management of the office.