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Abstract
The Glattal region, between metropolitan Zurich and its rural surroundings, is typical of Swiss agglomerations and has rapidly developed since the 1950s through the growing significance of the airport and improved transportation access. This area is comprised of a myriad of different heterogeneous parts, which makes deciphering any relationship between them difficult. This article discusses using open space as a possible connective medium and proposes the concept of “landscape” because of its ability to join together different kinds of elements in such a space. The objective is to contribute an analysis for large-scale designing in an urban agglomeration. Today's formal and functional idiosyncrasies as well as the developments and measures that have produced the current situation are investigated. The results show that not only built areas, but also open space is articulated through a number of individual heterogeneous parts which, depending on the perspective, produce strongly diverging images of the landscape. It becomes obvious that current landscape structures have been created through a number of individual projects and steered by large-scale use plans in the sense of a spatial division of labor of sorts. These findings are basic for the upcoming discussion on the previous and future design strategies of this landscape.