Growing a circular forest in a public park of Cologne with a design school and local inhabitants
The Kreislauf Wald (circular forest in german) is a pilot project in Cologne to turn public green spaces into lush productive forests, giving way for the production of local food and materials in the city. Initiated by two design students, this system aims to shake up the consumption habits of citizens, using the design school as a laboratory to investigate forgotten uses of the local flora, and invent new ones. It embodies a new economic model based on self-sufficiency and collaboration.
Local
Germany
The city of Cologne
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Anna Luz Last name: Pueyo Gender: Female Age: 26 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: France Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rue des pirogues de Bercy, 59 Town: Paris Postal code: 75012 Country: France Direct Tel:+33 7 68 52 25 79 E-mail:anna.pueyo@hotmail.fr Website:https://annaluzworks.com/
First name: Clara Last name: Schmeinck Gender: Female Age: 25 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Germany Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Aachener Strasse 47 Town: Cologne Postal code: 50674 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 177 7544442 E-mail:claraschmeinck97@gmail.com
Agroforestry is an ancient model of food production that simulates the natural ecosystem of a forest by creating a multi-layered, resilient and incredibly productive space for city dwellers. Anna Luz Pueyo and Clara Schmeinck discovered this system on a research trip to Taiwan and observed what it could offer to the community of the city of Hsinchu.
As part of a research project at TH Köln, they designed a pilot project supported by a local plant database adapted for the city of Cologne.
"Kreislauf Wald" (circular forest in german) is a public green space where plants are grown for and by locals, to harvest food and materials and replicate the ecosystem of a forest. Supported by the Department of Green Spaces in Cologne, the project has recently been allocated a parcel in the Von Stein Park, a public park in the city. The project is supported by the Köln International School of Design, located in the neighbourhood, where a working group will be installed in Summer ‘23 and will be taking turns to care for the project. In the first year, the group will be organising activities on site with locals to plant and build infrastructures in the workshops of the school, and then the activities will be focused on harvesting and transforming the produce from the land. The proximity with the design school will enable the transformation of the edibles in the existing food lab and that of the materials in the circular lab of the school. The project also integrates the development of the circular material library, a shared database documenting lost uses and transformations of plants, in order to feed students’ design projects. In the bigger picture, we see the Kreislauf Wald as a solution to engage with the citizens of Cologne, installing new consumption habits and experimenting with a new economical model based on self-sufficiency, as an alternative to imported products of the linear economy. Locals can use this space to reconnect with each other and with local plants.
Circular economy
Social fermentation
Activation of public space
Local production systems
Agroforestry
This initiative has both local and global effects on the environment. It responds to the challenges that urbanisation poses to cities today.
The first impact of the project concerns the return of native species.
A circular forest is like a natural forest, except that all species are edible or usable as materials. Plants on all levels cooperate with each other. Trees form the canopy, smaller shrubs, bushes, herbaceous plants, ground covers, roots, lianas, aquatic plants... The plants work in symbiosis, without chemical inputs. Compared to a traditional urban park, the biodiversity per square metre is clearly increased because the vegetation occupies the space in three dimensions. For each layer, there are several dozen different varieties. The food forests of Hsinchu, our case study, came to show that biodiversity was increased by 2000% compared to the neighboring park! This favors the arrival of pollinating insects such as solitary bees and butterflies.
Secondly, growing a forest prevents soil erosion thanks to the network of roots underground. The practice of pruning branches and using compost to create a rich humus helps regenerate a nutritious soil. Earthworms, bacteria, protozoa, springtails or other microorganisms make the soil alive.
Water drainage is managed better, as it can be absorbed easily by the vegetation and the porous soil. Furthermore, the tree canopy absorbs CO2 and creates islands of coolness, a direct solution to fight climate change and to regulate unstable weather patterns.
On a global level, the project makes way for local circuits of foods and materials, fighting the loss of agricultural land while closing cycles of production and consumption. Citizens can connect differently with the products they use in daily life and understand their value.
Lastly, the Kreislauf Wald allows neighboring citizens to re-establish a relationship to nature by actively working the soil and experiencing the productivity and beauty of the forest.
Most green spaces in cities are a combination of green spreads of cut-grass and a selection of trees that we walk through without much interaction. Recreating a forest environment means that citizens have access to a lush, dense and colorful green space, which has a direct impact on their quality of life. The color palette of the combined species, the smell of soil and plants, the sounds of birds and insects, the textures of different leaves, the taste of the fresh harvest: all five senses are stimulated.
Reconnecting with local plants is a sensorial experience in itself, one of increasing value in a society where most citizens work behind screens. Spending time growing food and valuable materials gets rewarded when the harvest arrives, making a step towards self-sufficiency. Emotions of accomplishment, pride and engagement go along with this process.
Satisfaction will also come from the wonders of learning something new, reconnecting to a lost legacy of crafts and recipes, rooting back to cultural connections to plants and trees and getting to know local vegetation and soil dynamics. Understanding the journey of a product by going from planting to transforming and consuming will give a deeper sense of meaning to food and materials that we usually take for granted. Envisioning the full chain of production can be an efficient way to see the value in everyday goods.
Crafts such as basketry, paper making, natural dyes, pastry and woodwork can be investigated through this project, creating beautiful products and stimulating the creativity of the makers.
The Kreislauf Wald is also a social space, where neighbors across generations can meet up and interact on various occasions programmed by the AG. This will genuinely impact the quality of life in the neighborhood, and contribute to a feeling of safety and solidarity in the city.
Growing a forest is a long term project with a slow process, resembling the patience required for humans to grow and flourish together.
The neighborhood we chose to grow the Kreislauf Wald, the Sudstadt, is a mixed area of Cologne, populated by many generations, backgrounds and origins. During our field research, we observed that the park is already used as a social space: a playground for kids, a leisure or exercise spot for adults. Because the forest garden will be grown in this public space, the current users of the site will be invited to participate in the activities organized on the field. We envision a mode of governance where experts and neighbors can always take part in the discussion and have a voice in decision-making on events organized by the school AG.
Generating food together with a local community that can be freely shared is a direct way to address food insecurity in cities. The second goal is to provide raw materials from local plants so that they can become products. If the initiative spreads to other green spaces, it can create an alternative food system on a local scale. Retrieving food and other objects from the forest means that money typically spent in the supermarket can be saved. In the long run, we imagine that committing half a day to the food forest can replace half a day of the working week for some, enabling models such as the 4 day working week to rise. Activities of transformation of the harvest can get all publics involved with plant knowledge, giving way for integration opportunities, as a way to fight educational imbalance.
We see the Kreislauf Wald as a great opportunity to make space for all generations, through activities and plantation groups. Design principles of the forest itself will also have a role to play in inclusivity: the hügelkultur, a vernacular German principle, is a way to grow vegetables on a mound that is ergonomic for all heights of gardeners. We envision a buddy system where groups of volunteers gather a mix of old and young people around the same activity, creating proximity across cultures and generations, challenging the generation gap.
As the Von Stein park is located close to the design school, we imagine the working group to take care of the space and organise activities together with local actors. To eventually grow food and materials across the seasons.
While exploring ways to allow local neighbors to engage, contribute, and take ownership, the working group is the connecting element between the school and the Kreislauf Wald, taking care of the communication campaign across the neighborhood as a first step.
Local actors such as families of the neighborhood, shop owners, regular visitors of the park can take part in those activities and directly benefit from the initiative, through harvests but also through shared knowledge about plants and how to use them for food or material self-sufficiency.
The system of the Kreislauf Wald will work organically: people who sign up for activities on a dedicated platform and contribute with their hands to the project will also receive an invitation to the harvest days and the feasts that are organized on site. The workshops of the design school will be used to build infrastructures and transform the products of the forest, and external actors will be able to join those activities within dedicated events, under the condition that they are part of the working group.
As opposed to shared gardens that would be locked at night, the idea is to experiment with the forest as it was done in Taiwan, counting on the trust and good will of the community. Volunteers take turns to watch over the site and maintain it regularly, welcome strangers to the project and communicate how it works.
Similarly, appropriate signage is designed and placed on site to send visitors back to the platform, where they can sign up for the next events. Curious passing citizens will also be able to join if an event hasn’t been completed with its number of participants. This way, the design school can be truly connected to its neighborhood and make openings for social fermentation.
The forest garden movement involves a worldwide community of actors working in specific fields, including a panel of experts who have studied agroforestry practices in other latitudes, in countries where they are practiced commercially for food production.
Since our visit to Taiwan, we have met various European actors of this movement, both in Germany and France, our countries of origin. A farmer converting to agroforestry (Jean-Paul Ouillières), ethnobotanists specialized in the subject (Maxime Leloup and Geneviève Michon), an ethnographer (Serge Bahuchet), self-taught people who are starting to transform a territory from scratch (Claire Mauquié), a botanist that have already started 20 years ago (Fabrice Desjours), and various actors in local gardens of Cologne (VHS-Biogarten Turner Hof, Neuland ev., Initiative Stadtoase, Gemeinschaftsgarten Köln and Biolandhof Apfelbacher). All of those actors informed our knowledge on agroforestry and gardens as designers, helping us to push the development of the Kreislauf Wald.
Ever since we have started our initiative in Cologne, we have received support from local associations such as Ernährungsrat (the dietarian committee of Cologne), Ausschuss Essbare Stadt and Urbane Landwirtschaft. Conversations with the dietarian committee grounded the project in a local context and connected us to local actors through its network of contributors. The ecosystem of local actors surrounding the project are involved along the conception and plantation phases, reassuring us into designing a space that is well informed and supported locally.
For the Kreislauf Wald, we tangled disciplines from the field of agroecology (soil dynamics, botanics, water management, permaculture) with our own design skills.
First and foremost, we adapted the concept studied in Taiwan to our European context, reaching out to German gardeners to select plants adapted to the climate of Cologne for all layers of the forest. This research was translated into a plant database, that we completed with hand drawn illustrations to represent each individual.
Then, we studied the topography of the space to envision water management and sun exposure strategies. We borrowed principles from permaculture, such as hügels (raised beds), hedges and keyhole plantations to bring a 3D dimension to the space, as a way to manage shadows, winds and rainwater flows. These parameters were discussed between us designers and Claire Mauquié, who could talk from her experience of designing the food forests in Hsinchu. Further, we took inspiration from light infrastructures that we had seen in shared gardens (growing towers, vine tunnels, compost bins), redesigning them into versions that could be easily built in the school workshops.
Our contact Maxime Leloup, from Ver de Terre production (a french startup specialized in agroecology), will help us consider which solutions are best to recreate a rich and living soil. We already know that a compost bank will have to be set up, and we see this as a way to collaborate with local restaurants, florists and coffee shops, collecting their organic waste to create our living soil.
Our design skills were used all along the project to communicate with citizens, starting with illustrations of the space and its future plants. To ensure collaborative decision-making, we also designed a tool called the “value wheels”, a participative way to evaluate the key moments where volunteers would like to participate, the most important objectives for the community and the types of plants they would like to grow.
Recreating a forest environment in a city is innovative in itself, as public green spaces are often very structured and limited in terms of interactions. Compared to shared gardens or urban greening initiatives that are often off-soil cultures, the core of this project is to deeply regenerate the soil of a patch of land. In contrast to city woods and forests that are often used as spaces of leisure and contemplation, the idea is to bring the interactions with trees in the centre of the process.
A forest can be resilient after five to ten years of maintenance, and it can pretty much take care of itself after those first years, meaning that the first push from the citizens is the most important. In the years after, the forest can integrate fully in the cityscape and provide more and more food and materials for the community. This longevity can engage municipalities in the long run, which is a good way to make sure that sustainable public policies are maintained. The resilience and generosity of this model are what make it so unique.
The specificity of our project is also the link we want to create between such a space and an international school of design (KISD). The governance model based on a working group that is maintained over the years means that the responsibility for this space is shared among different actors, with a teacher figure (Philipp Heidkamp) and ourselves (Anna Luz Pueyo and Clara Schmeinck) as initiators and coordinators.
We strongly believe that working on the graphical communication of the project (printed and digital), designing rituals, furniture and infrastructures for this space, as well as documenting the different types of harvests and their applications can be great exercises for design students, giving space for agroforestry in the design culture. Sharing this practice with the neighborhood will also root the school in its local environment, creating an unmatched sense of belonging for both.
As it has been proven in the past, agroforestry can exist in most regions of the world, as long as trees can grow. Before the industrial revolution, systems of culture based around the tree were common, as it is still the case in Portugal with the patanegra pigs being fed from acorns or in Indonesia where spices are still grown under a big canopy.
Our own iteration of this model, the “circular forest”, or "Kreislauf Wald” is designed for cities, but it can equally be replicated elsewhere. As our research has shown, urban forests can be grown in Taiwan, in the south of France but also in England where the first food forests came to life, in the hands of Robert Hart for example. Local experts will have to be consulted for the plant and soil management, because the vegetation will always have to be adapted to its context. Also, every soil is different, requiring their own treatment whether it is clay or silt. But the main principle of using pruned wood and compost to regenerate the soil can be used across contexts.
On the other hand, the growing principles can remain the same, with the different layers of plants interacting with each other in a supportive system. Raised beds and keyhole gardens, as well as spaces kept wild can be replicated on most fields, but their design in the space will have to be decided according to the topography and weather conditions.
The tools we adapted for the project such as growing towers, compost bins, vine tunnels and herb spirals are low-tech designs that can be reproduced elsewhere with simple materials.
Similarly, the participation tools we developed such as the value wheels can be used across all contexts for decision-making.
Growing a productive forest addresses ten of the seventeen Sustainable Development goals set by the United Nations. Those are: zero hunger (2), good health and well-being (3), quality education (4), reduced inequality (10), sustainable cities and communities (11), responsible consumption and production (12), climate action (13), life on land (15), peace, justice and strong institutions (16) and partnerships to achieve the goal (17)—doing it together.
Before recapping the global benefits that we have been explaining previously, we need to emphasize that this initiative has been clearly inspired by our case study in Taiwan. Seeing our project come to life can similarly motivate other people to follow our example. If the movement spreads, all of the benefits that we are listing will be multiplied, which brings out the importance of communicating well and funding our own initiative in the first place.
Globally, our concept wants to change the perception of products amongst consumers, to make them actors of their own consumption. Self-sufficiency is the long-term objective, to reduce imports and fight the wasteful production chains of the linear economy. On a global level, the project turns public space into a productive space, fighting the loss of agricultural land and food insecurity.
Envisioning full production chains will get mentalities to evolve and value everyday goods taken for granted. The shared database documenting lost uses and transformations of plants will be shared internationally, feeding into the global culture on plant knowledge.
Physical activities such as planting and eating fresh produce will improve physical and mental health conditions and collaboration across cultures and generations will help sustain a friendly and inclusive society.
In terms of ecology, patches that are transformed into forest grounds will provide porous land to absorb excess waters, fresh environments to fight climate change and sane soils to prevent excess pollution.
