Green spaces for all! | ZHAW Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR

You can experience first hand the changes that were implemented based on our research project in the Grüental Campus gardens!

A full sensory experience in the Grüental gardens.

Both the gardens and their cultivation can be experienced with the assistance of an audio guide. Three garden tours take visitors on a trip involving all of their senses, and additional tips help visitors with visual handicaps to find their way around. For individuals with visual handicaps, it is recommended that you bring a white cane with you on your garden visit.

Grass or wood chip paths can be found within the gardens, while on the garden tours you will be walking on paved surfaces suitable for wheelchairs. The garden tours describe the individual garden spaces and their special features. Five sensory beds invite you to discover with your hands and nose as well.

Audio guide

The audio guide is a DAISY audio book suitable for people with visual handicaps. We recommend downloading it in advance or borrowing it from the Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and People with Reading Difficulties. The audio book can be played on a smartphone, MP3 player or or on the milestone, a compact audio and DAISY player. Alternatively, some players and SD memory cards can be borrowed free of charge from the reception desk in the GA building. Please follow the instructions in the download area.

Download the DAISY-Format audio guide

If you have any questions, please contact the secretariat at reception in the main building GA.

Phone: (+41) 58 934 50 00

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 8:00 – 12:00 and 13.30 – 17:00 o'clock

How to find the gardens

The gardens are accessible via a guided tour system. Three buses take you to the "Wädenswil, Campus Grüental" bus stop.

If you arrive on bus 123, continue along the footpath in the same direction after getting off. Cross the pedestrian crossing and turn right into Grüentalstrasse.

If you arrive on Postbus 150 or bus 126, after getting off, briefly follow the footpath from the busstop in the direction you came from, cross the pedestrian crossing on your right and then turn left. When you reach the next pedestrian crossing, take the next right into Grüentalstrasse. Follow the road until you have reached the starting point of the guidance system. This will take you across a car park and past a public disabled toilet to the gardens.

The guidance system ends with a tactile map at the gardens entrance. A report on the implementation of these measures during the pilot applications can be found below.

Lageplan ZHAW Campus Grüental (PDF 813,6 KB)

Background information on the research project

The project "Green open spaces for all" was initiated by the Research Group for Open Space Management and aims to promote the attractiveness of public open spaces for people with mobility, visual or hearing impairments. On the basis of a scientific study, a guideline for the planning and design of inclusive open spaces has been formulated. Findings from this will be implemented in pilot applications in the teaching and research gardens on the Grüental Campus. The project is funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Equality of People with Disabilities (EBGB). The pilot applications in the gardens were co-financed by the Béatrice-Ederer-Weber Foundation. In addition to researchers from the ZHAW and the Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil (HSR), experts from the following institutions and associations are involved:

AGILE.CH, Organisationen von Menschen mit Behinderungen
Schweizerischer Blindenbund (SBb)
Schweizerische Fachstelle für behindertengerechtes Bauen (SFBB)
Schweizer Paraplegiker-Forschung (SPF)
Bund Schweizer Landschaftsarchitekten und Landschaftsarchitektinnen (BSLA)
Vereinigung Schweizerischer Stadtgärtnereien und Gartenbauämter (VSSG)