Insights
Pirmin Holdener’s home in the Gockhausen studio district is a symbiosis of nature and architecture, where work and family life flow seamlessly together. Guided by inspiring intuition, he designs his own garden—and those of his clients.
Pirmin Holdener’s home looks like a movie set—when the frogs finish their nighttime concert and give the pond stage to the blue-shimmering dragonflies. When the sun reaches through the treetops and into the house, exploring it room by room. When fresh summer air streams through the patio door and mingles with the aroma of coffee.
After assigning the morning’s tasks in the workshop, Pirmin Holdener’s employees head out to current job sites and to maintain clients’ gardens. Holdener Naturgartenbau is rooted in Gockhausen. In 1964, Pirmin’s father built the first nature garden in Gockhausen for architect André Studer, before settling in the well-known artists’ colony with his family. The “Atelier Zone,” established in the 1960s on inexpensive north-facing land, gave a collective of renowned architects and artists the opportunity to explore new ways for architecture and its surroundings to work together. As a pioneer of the nature garden movement, Karl Holdener shaped not only the entire Atelier District but also numerous other landscape designs in and around Gockhausen. Particularly noteworthy are his projects around buildings designed by Eduard Neuenschwander, which took on a distinctive character thanks to Holdener’s nature-friendly gardens.
In this inspiring setting, green thumbs may run in the family. Pirmin’s brothers Kuno and Severin, who are twenty years older than him, had already chosen careers in landscaping. Severin specialized in dry-stone walls and is still Pirmin’s first choice for projects of this kind. Kuno, meanwhile, took over the family business and turned it into his own company. The youngest sibling, Pirmin, joined him after several years of traveling—first in administration, then in every other area after completing a second vocational training program in landscape gardening. In 2018, they went their separate ways: Kuno started taking on smaller landscaping projects focused on garden maintenance, while Pirmin founded today’s Holdener Gartenbau GmbH. But Pirmin’s detour through business training and a language stay in Australia proved more than worthwhile. He returned to Switzerland with Kumiko, his future wife.
Minimalist furnishings, clean-lined design objects, meticulous attention to detail—the Japanese influence is palpable everywhere. The former family home now serves as a hub for both family life and the business. The transition is seamless, but the division of responsibilities is clear. While Pirmin works in his office and coordinates his employees, Kumiko looks after their two teenagers, handles Japanese correspondence for a publishing house, and prepares meals. The culinary talents of the Japan-born Kumiko are appreciated beyond the home. She regularly makes batches of the specialty tako-yaki for Zurich restaurant Ichizen. At the Holdeners’ daily lunch table, however, the food is simpler. After all, it’s not just the family who sits down to eat, but also any employees who happen to be nearby.
The shared lunch table symbolizes the close relationship and open exchange Pirmin fosters with his team. His longest-serving employee, Zenel Rukovci, has been with the company for three generations and is practically part of the family. Pirmin’s nephew Jeremias regularly comes to Switzerland from Argentina to help during the summer season. The lunch table becomes a mix of language café, team meeting, and family council in the shade of the apple tree. The team seems to enjoy the conversation, while Nana the dog takes advantage of the bustle to sniff out any unattended treats.
« Garden design must adapt to nature, not the other way around—form follows flora.
Pirmin Holdener
Managing Director
Then it’s back to work. For Pirmin, that means preparing job sites as well as taking care of office work. In a sense, he is the art director of his gardens. When seedlings and trees are delivered or boulders are unearthed, he visits his clients to place them in just the right spot. He does this intuitively, with a keen eye for aesthetics. “Sometimes I spontaneously decide against the original planting plan. I’m willing to accept the extra work that might be involved in undoing it. But most of the time, my clients trust me, and the solution stands the test of time.”
Creating gardens that bring lasting enjoyment also means addressing the changing climate. Pirmin and his team observe conditions closely and are already planning gardens that can withstand tomorrow’s challenges. This applies to the layout of seating areas as well as planting plans. “Garden design must adapt to nature, not the other way around—form follows flora,” says Pirmin, enthusiastically extolling the benefits of a north-facing garden. “The soil warms up more slowly, and there’s no need for artificial irrigation. Plus, the light is a hundred times more beautiful!”
In the past, winter meant a break from landscaping work. “When the ground is frozen, for example, you can’t build up the soil, because it would all sink back down.” These days, the workload barely fluctuates with the seasons. But taking it easy isn’t really Pirmin’s style anyway. “I can’t imagine a life without work. I don’t plan to retire someday, either. I’ll just keep working until I can’t anymore,” he says, walking through his garden and enthusiastically explaining the concept of letting things grow wild.