Designed by city architect Albert Heinrich Steiner in 1948, the master plan for the district Schwamendingen was inspired by Ebenezer Howard’s concept of the garden city. Many of Steiner’s interpretations of the garden city idea – such as cooperative housing, row houses with direct garden access, productive gardens, continuous green, and recreational areas, etc. – are still defining elements of Schwamendingen today.

While the revised guiding principles of 2005 provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing housing stock, surrounding landscapes, as well as directions for heritage and preservation, they do not incorporate strategies how to address contemporary transformations related to densification or changing use patterns. The new master plan, therefore, provides a densification and transformation strategy without losing the fundamental urban design principles and housing typologies from the original Schwamendingen plan.

​