How can we create a garden for a community of nature-loving designers?
Place
We want to establish a space at our University, where designers can meet, hang out, experience and learn about nature.
Some potential purposes for such a garden could be:
- Learning: We learn how to set up and sustain biological systems (flower beds, insect colonies, food production, etc.).
- Experiment: We try out biodesign ideas (grow our own bio materials, such as silk worms, bamboo or mushrooms).
- Exchange: Since these experiments happen in public, we can exchange ideas with other students.
- A beautiful place: Such a garden could be a beautiful place to chat, calm down, relax and have a nice cup of coffee.
- …what else?
Online platform
In parallel to the direct experience we want to set up an online platform.
Its aims could be:
- Connection: Keep in touch with former nature-loving students and similar communities in other universities.
- Collection of knowledge: We could store useful tips and tutorials around gardening, biomaterials, biolab experiments, etc. and share them with others.
- … what else?
What we are going to learn
In this course we want to learn the following things:
- How to grow your own food – the basics of gardening. (soil, fertiliser, seeds, etc.)
- How to build your own plant pot. (Yes, we are going to build stuff.)
- How to communicate your project in a public space. (Exhibition design, infographics, etc.)
- How to use WordPress and social media to excite others about your work. (Develop a contemporary online strategy)
What we are going to make
By the end of the semester we want to achieve the following things:
- Restore the existing beds of our garden
- Build new plots
- Create a community space
- set up a number of biodesign experiments
- set up an inviting and flourishing virtual counterpart to our garden
- Have a nice meal together of our own grown food.