History

• 1974–1976: New construction of the Botanical Gardens. Gardens designed by Fred Eicher (1927 - 2010).
• 1976/77: Construction of the show houses as geodesic domes.
• 2011–2013: Renovation of the show houses.
• 2018/19: Renovation of the useful plant garden and medicinal plant garden and new construction of the adventure garden.

Old Botanical Garden:

When the University of Zurich was founded in 1833 and the bulwark ‘zur Katz’ was dissolved, work began on the construction of the Old Botanical Garden Zurich on Schanzengraben, which still exists today.

The opening of the listed Palm House followed in 1851. Initially built of glass and wood, the octagonal glass pavilion was given a cast iron frame in 1877.

Today, the grounds with their valuable tree population belong to the Ethnological Museum, which is housed in the former institute buildings. Part of the old botanical garden is the so-called ‘Gessner Garden’, a medieval herb garden on the top of the hill in memory of the naturalist and city doctor Conrad Gessner.

The ‘zur Katz’ site housed the university's botanical garden until it moved to its new location and has served as a recreational area in the city centre since 1976.

New Botanical Garden:

In 1971, voters decided to build a new botanical garden in the ‘old park’ of the Bodmer-Abegg family in the Weinegg neighbourhood on Zollikerstrasse.

It was planned by Zurich garden architect Fred Eicher and finally built between 1972 and 1977 as a replacement for the botanical garden ‘zur Katz’ and the site of the Institute of Systematic Botany. The three greenhouses, dome-shaped domes made of pigmented, curved acrylic plexiglass panes, planned by the architectural offices of Hans and Annemarie Hubacher, which were the first of their kind in Switzerland, attracted particular attention.

Planting species with similar growing conditions together was an important concern when planning and designing the new facility. Today, around 7000 plant species can be seen, grouped together in themed biotopes - from the flora of the Mediterranean to the spring garden - in the extensive outdoor area of the park with an arboretum, a central pond and in the domed greenhouses with different climate zones and representative plant species.

The grounds include the institute buildings and the canteen, which is also open to the public.