HARDLEAF is a timber pavilion at Quartiergarten Hard, a community garden in Zürich. The brief called for a reciprocal timber frame providing shade and a gathering space, without a solid roof — shading is achieved instead through kiwi plants trained to grow across the structure.

The design was developed by three ETH Zürich master’s students (Timo Feddern, Žan Kočunik, Alessia Martino) within the course Coding Architecture II (Gramazio Kohler Research), and built by a team of 18 students in June 2026. The geometry was generated from a hexagonal mesh, producing a leaf-shaped plan that maximizes shaded area within the site’s 40 m² / 3.0 m height limit while preserving existing trees.

Material constraints shaped the structural system: with roughly 300 linear metres of timber available, the design uses dry construction and mechanical joints instead of glued or welded connections, keeping the 182-beam, 8-module structure demountable. Steel screw-pile foundations follow the same logic — reversible, with minimal disturbance to the garden soil.

LISDEM acted as technical consultant to the Quartiergarten Hard association and initiated the collaboration with ETH Zürich

Info: https://hardleaf.arch.ethz.ch/