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Grünau district park
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About this process
School playground becomes a neighbourhood park
In a multi-stage participation process (Big Picture Grünau), a vision for a liveable Grünau district was developed in 2021-2022 under the direction of the Building Construction Department (HBD) in cooperation between the city, neighbourhood residents, school and GZ. This resulted in the "Grünau 2030+ target image" as an orientation framework against which the future development of the district is to be aligned.
One of the working groups dealt with the further development of the school playground into a neighbourhood park. This project will be made possible after the land swap for the alternative location of the secondary school building. The Fontana Landscape Architecture office and its team won the planner selection process for the planning and realisation of the park announced by Grün Stadt Zürich.
The office is supported in its development by Ampio Partizipation and the Office for Social Space & City Life of the Social Services of the City of Zurich, as well as the GZ Grünau, the Altstetten/Grünau hub and the neighbourhood association.
Participatory process
The development of the Grünau district park was based on the statements of the multi-stage participation process «Big Picture Grünau», which took place in 2021-2022. There, a working group on the neighbourhood park was formed. This group collected initial ideas and drafted sketches for the design of the new park. Young people from the neighbourhood were also involved in this process and were able to contribute their wishes and opinions on places to stay in Grünau. The feedback collected from the Big Picture process was incorporated into the further planning of the Grünau Neighbourhood Park.
The so-called "Advisory Group" played a central role in the further development of the Grünau Neighbourhood Park. This group developed from the original "Neighbourhood Park Working Group" and consists of around 15 representatives of various institutions from the neighbourhood. They discuss content-related focal points, contribute their local knowledge as multipliers and reflect the participation process. In addition to the support group, there is a regular exchange with a smaller so-called "track group", consisting of a representative each of the neighbourhood association, the hub and the Grünau school. This group supports the project team with questions about the procedure regarding participation and the further development of the project.
In addition to working with institutions from the neighbourhood, Grün Stadt Zürich was keen to collect the ideas and demands of the neighbourhood population for the development of the neighbourhood park and to incorporate them into further processing. As part of this process, a public participation event with around 40 participants took place in September 2025. There, the status of the planning was presented and discussed in groups. The discussions and results have shown that the neighbourhood population supports the status of the planning for the future Grünau district park and is very much looking forward to this change. In addition, there was a children's and youth participation with 10 school classes and two expert groups as well as a public "tarpaulin run" in the GZ. Here, too, it became clear that a future park is a great opportunity and enrichment for the neighbourhood.
The results were evaluated in an intermediate step and summarised in an evaluation report (document "Participation Evaluation Report" below). The results of the participation formats will be incorporated into further planning. At the same time, the city is clarifying the open zoning law issues. Once these points have been clarified, the city will approach the neighbourhood again to show what feedback has been incorporated into the planning and how.
Further procedure
After clarification of the still open zoning issues, the construction project will be developed. This already contains more detailed information on the design and implementation. A cost estimate is prepared on this basis. If this is known, the city applies for a loan approval from the city council and municipal council.
Further information will be posted on this page on an ongoing basis.
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