Beyond the Linden Tree: Gathering Zimmerberg Around FoodMingxin Chen, Gregoire Jadoul, and Jo Schmiz

Located 40 kilometres south-west of Zurich, Zimmerberg is a pre-alpine dairy farming territory extending from Lake Zurich to the Sihl Valley. Its characteristic hilly moraine landscape formed after the glacier retreat offers scenic views and rolling meadows, and is widely perceived as an unspoilt Swiss pastoral idyll.

Behind this archetypal image, there lies a set of systems that organise the material conditions, economic structure, and cultural representation of Zimmerberg: heritage and landscape protection, the dairy industry and the integration into Zurich’s commuter fabric. These systems can be described as urban regimes of preservation, operationalisation and suburbanisation. Currently, this constellation aims at freezing the landscape, which limits Zimmerberg’s capacity to adapt and develop along with changing circumstances.

Yet, these regimes contain a latent alternative. They are inhabited and maintained by actors who hold the potential to regain agency and shape a new territorial future. How can these actors become stewards of a new food geography by reconfiguring the relations between landscape, cultivation and consumption?

This project proposes a transition from preservation to adaptation, from specialised production to agro-biodiversity, and from spatial separation to collective gathering, developing a model for Zurich’s future food region. Governance and planning policies need to be adapted in order to strengthen the region’s ability to tackle pressing climate, economic, and social challenges. The suggested redesign of policy frameworks promotes sustainable practices, in order to create a foothold for bottom-up initiatives. This policy shift is sensitive to landscape values, while enabling local actors to regain autonomy –aiming for a resilient and adaptive territorial development.