The Garden Brewery

Landscape as a Living System

The Garden Brewery project explores how landscape architecture can operate as a tool for climate adaptation through the restoration of fundamental ecological processes. Located on the site of a former asphalt parking lot in Zagreb, the project began with a simple premise: remove impermeable surfaces, restore living soil, and create the conditions for nature to shape the landscape over time. Rather than designing a fixed composition, the project establishes a living system in which soil, vegetation, water, and time become the primary design tools. The transformation started beneath the surface. Decades of asphalt had eliminated biological activity, prevented water infiltration, and intensified heat accumulation. By removing the sealed ground and regenerating the soil through microbiological enrichment and mycorrhizal inoculation, the project reactivated ecological processes that had long been interrupted.

More than forty trees, including European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Caucasian zelkova (Zelkova carpinifolia), now form the primary spatial structure of the landscape. Their layered canopy provides shade, improves thermal comfort, and contributes to passive cooling through evapotranspiration. Together with permeable surfaces made of stabilised crushed stone, the landscape allows rainwater to infiltrate naturally, reducing surface runoff while supporting long-term soil moisture retention. The project demonstrates how simple landscape strategies can produce measurable environmental benefits. Only two years after its completion, thermal measurements recorded a 29.1°C reduction in surface temperature compared to the surrounding asphalt, while air temperatures within the landscape were observed to be approximately 7°C lower than in the adjacent urban environment. Rather than relying on mechanical systems, the site performs through natural processes: shade, infiltration, vegetation, and living soil. Although conceived as a beer garden for The Garden Brewery, the landscape is intentionally open and adaptable. It accommodates everyday visitors, informal gatherings, community events, and larger celebrations without prescribing how the space should be used. The design remains deliberately understated, allowing the experience of shade, comfort, and nature to take precedence over formal expression.

At its core, the project reflects our design philosophy: landscape is not a finished object, but an evolving system. Design creates the conditions; nature shapes the outcome. As vegetation matures and ecological relationships develop, the landscape continues to adapt, demonstrating how urban spaces can simultaneously support social life, restore ecological function, and strengthen climate resilience.

The Garden Brewery project is a practical example of how degraded urban land can be transformed into a living system, where ecological performance, human experience, and long-term adaptability are inseparable.