Croatian landscape practice Werft has transformed a former asphalt-covered industrial parking area into a climate-responsive landscape that demonstrates how landscape architecture can mitigate urban heat, restore ecological processes, and improve microclimate conditions.
Located in Zagreb, The Garden Brewery Landscape reimagines a previously sealed site as a permeable, vegetated environment that functions simultaneously as public space, ecological habitat, and climate infrastructure.
Rather than beginning with a predetermined form, the project started with the restoration of fundamental ecological processes. Decades of asphalt had eliminated biological activity, prevented rainwater infiltration, and intensified heat accumulation. The intervention therefore focused on removing impermeable surfaces, regenerating living soil, and creating the conditions for long-term ecological recovery.
“The ambition was to create a garden that did not feel conventionally designed,” said landscape architect Lucas Werft. “We wanted to establish the conditions for the landscape to evolve over time. The design emerged from ecological function rather than formal composition.”
Asphalt was replaced with permeable surfaces made of stabilized crushed stone, allowing rainwater to infiltrate naturally into the ground. Soil regeneration became a central design strategy, using microbiological enrichment and mycorrhizal inoculation to rebuild underground ecological networks that support plant health, water retention, and nutrient exchange.
More than forty trees, including European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Caucasian zelkova (Zelkova carpinifolia), establish a layered canopy that provides shade and contributes to passive cooling through evapotranspiration. Together with living soil and permeable surfaces, the planting strategy creates a low-tech environmental system that improves thermal comfort throughout the site.
Thermal measurements conducted just two years after completion documented a 29.1°C reduction in surface temperature compared to adjacent asphalt. While surrounding paved areas reached 51.5°C, the landscape measured 22.4°C, with air temperatures inside the garden approximately 7°C lower than in the surrounding urban environment.
Although conceived as a beer garden and gathering space, the project prioritises environmental performance over formal expression. Flexible seating is arranged beneath the tree canopy, creating a comfortable setting for everyday use, community events, and larger social gatherings. The experience of the space is defined by shade, vegetation, and seasonal change rather than architectural form.
The project also marks the ecological recovery of a previously sealed urban site. Trees, understory planting, and restored soil conditions have enabled the gradual return of pollinators, microorganisms, and other ecological processes that had long disappeared beneath the asphalt.
“Landscape is often treated as an aesthetic addition,” said Werft. “We are interested in its capacity to perform—to cool cities, restore ecological function, and improve everyday life. Design creates the conditions; nature shapes the space.”
As cities continue to face rising temperatures and increasing climate pressures, The Garden Brewery project demonstrates how restoring soil, vegetation, permeability, and natural processes can transform degraded urban land into resilient, living infrastructure.
Data
Landscape architecture: Werft Gardens & Landscapes
Architecture office involved (if any): Milan Štrbac from US Architects
Photo credits: Jure Živković
