In this panel discussion I will present a self-initiated project called "Hanging Gardens of Berlin.” This session offers an alternative perspective on creating green public spaces: by reusing an existing body of water, purifying it and turning the whole area into a living food system.
The participants get an insight into the world of biologically grown fungi-based materials and their potential for creating future public spaces. We will also explore bio-remediation strategies of reusing existing water in our ever thirstier cities.
The presented project is a proposal for a community garden suspended from the ‘Landwehrkanal’, a waterway that runs 10km through Berlin. Anyone interested can grow their own food here, using only water from the canal for irrigation. In the same process the canal’s water is purified through bio-remediation, letting the entire area become a thriving eco system. The pots that make up the garden are biologically grown from a fungi-based material.
By presenting this community-based food infrastructure, I invite participants to re-examine our social expectations around both food and water, while proposing ways for creating new spaces of coexistence.
