MFO Park - Featured Project

Stay on top of the #Greenroofs & #Greenwalls World by subscribing here: http://bit.ly/1HAbujW Located in northern Zürich, the multi award winning MFO-Park is a dramatic public park which was once home to the highly polluted extensive works of Maschinenfabrik Urlikon. Designed by the architects Burckhardt + Partner, landscape architects Rahderschallpartner, and structural engineers Basler & Hofmann, the site was opened in July 2002. Substantial cleanup of industrial contamination and soil remediation was necessary, resulting in four new parks including MFO Park. The iconic Park House resulted, a large, 6-story trellis-covered structure with plants climbing its green façade steel frame. Reminiscent of a conservatory without glass, MFO Park is a building without structural walls. Bearing witness to the site’s industrial past, its scaffolding maintains the dimensions of the original building. With a size of 0.9 ha, the multi-story, multi-functional MFO Park measures 100 meters long, 35 meters wide, and 17 meters high. A custom solution from Jakob Rope Systems was used for the light, delicate steel and wire rope construction which employed 22,800 steel parts. Perennials, shrubs, and trees are strategically arranged in ground-level beds and elevated planters. The Park House is sumptuously enveloped by climbing vines covering the innovative 3-sided latticework pergola of steel construction. With only deciduous vines used, its structure is revealed in winter and blooms in warmer months. A total of 1200 climbing plants of 104 varieties of perennial woody vines and creepers were planted at MFO Park’s corridors, loggias, cantilevered balconies, and the four rear wire chalices in the plaza hall. Each of these vertical plantings is designated to a separate cable. Sporting green spaces for a myriad of activities, seating amenities, and sunbathing on the roof deck, MFO Park was designed as a zero-water discharge site. Filled with recycled glass chips, its minimalist sunken lily pond-shaped water basin provides seclusion for reflection. The vibrant parkscape shimmers throughout the seasons with shades of green, orange, red and yellow and is saturated with scents and blossoms of pinks, blues, creamy whites, lilacs, and orange-reds. At night the structures of the square and atrium are lit up from within. A symbiosis of industry and nature, MFO Park offers a highly successful synthesis between landscape design, architecture, and engineering skill. Offering biodiversity and habitat restoration along with public greenspace and recreation, the contemporary 3-dimensional MFO Park green pavilion functions as a great outdoor room. Setting a precedent for urban parks around the world, the public architectural oasis and vast biodiverse pergola is nestled at the heart of the dense Zentrum Zürich-Nord neighborhood. Click here: https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/m... to see more information about this project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database http://www.greenroofs.com/projects/. Did we miss your contribution? Please let us know to add you to the profile. Would you like one of your projects to be featured? We have to have a profile first! Submit Your Project Profile https://www.greenroofs.com/submit-pro.... Greenroofs.com Featured Project 2/27/26 Image Credits: MFO Park Plant Palette Schematic. Image: Planergemeinschaft MFO-Park burckhardtpartner/raderschall, Raderschallpartner AG, Burckhardt + Partner, Jakob Rope Systems, Linda S. Velazquez, Aramis Velazquez, DeCo2912 via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/deco291..., and via Wikimedia Commons: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... JoachimKohlerBremen, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/....