Alte Gärtnerei – Old Nursery Garden

Project

269675

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Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS : existing completed examples

Project title

Alte Gärtnerei – Old Nursery Garden

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Description

At „Alte Gärtnerei“ we aim to blend urban horticulture with applied climate change mitigation as well as providing cultural and learning oppurtunities amidst a diverse, aesthetically pleasing land design. Key elements of our work are local food production, education on sustainable development, community engagement and food-related reskilling. A modular project setup helps synergize those goals into the creation of a vivid, diverse and accessible open space within the often hectic city surrounds.

Where was your project implemented in the EU?

When was your project implemented?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Which programme(s) or fund(s)? Provide the name of the programme(s)/fund(s), the strand/action line as relevant and the year.

Please provide a summary of your project

„Alte Gärtnerei“ is located in what is considered an economically underdeveloped neighborhood of Dresden, on the grounds of a former nursery. We now set up a multifunctional »Urban Agriculture« as a means to hands-on address major challenges of current society such as climate crisis, peak everything, social isolation and alienation from the natural world. Thus we transformed an abandoned lot into a versatile space for environmental education, biodiversity and local food production. By creating open structures and encouraging local engagement we encourage neighbourhood participation and self-organisation. Several modules make up the site. A colorful community garden, a diverse and intriguing demonstrational garden full of edibles, a well equipped open kitchen, and a professional soft-fruit production and polytunnel focusing on plant propagation. The self-organized community-garden is where neighborly friendships grow next to self-sown vegetables. Furthermore visitors stroll through a demonstrational garden that features a large diversity of perennial shrubs and fruit trees, showcasing the advantages of edible varieties selected for an urban environment and climate change suitability. The Open Kitchen „Koko“, built to fit a refurbished shipping container, is the heart and soul of the place. It serves as an on-site kitchen for harvest processing, fermentation and community cooking sessions and as an educational location for courses on food preservation and preparation. More than anything, it is where people meet and hang out under a generous canopy that shades the terrace and seamlessly adjoins the kitchen. The most recent module put in place is a polytunnel for professional gardeners and volunteers to work together on a level playing field, cultivating promising crops and propagating woody plants by grafting. All of the modules are frequently being used for a diverse programme of educational courses most of which are free of charge thanks to a EU-funding.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met

The development of the site and land-use is based on sustainable development principles. We aim for the greatest possible positive impact on environment, soil and climate. Hence we established an urban agro-ecosystem with structural diversity, thus providing numerous ecological niches. In food production, carbon positivity is achieved through regenerative cultivation. Perennial crops as well as the use of mulch and living ground cover allow for continuos building of soil. In annual crops, humus is built through a no-till policy to maximise carbon sequestration of undisturbed soil. In addition, instead of inorganic fertilisers we heavily emphasize the use of compost. These regenerative measures increase soil fertility, ensuring that climate-damaging gases are removed from the atmosphere and pollutants are broken down by natural soil buffer systems. This is aided by the employment of biological pest control through the promotion and harbouring of beneficial insects as biological control agents. Furthermore we practice climate change mitigation through local food production and processing in the open kitchen on site, thus reducing transportation carbon footprints. Our logistics is prominently based on cargo-bikes. Being well embedded in local networks enables us to save food from decay and to process it further, proving there are viable alternatives to food going to waste. When obtaining tools and equipment we rely mainly on repair, reuse, recylce whilst emphasising sharing rather ownership, in order to achieve low-garbage daily routines. All of the above aspects make their way into our educational and cultural work. Our courses in particular draw from applied best-practice approaches on site while addressing the overarching impacts of climate change. Not only do we specifially invite local policy makers, city planners and MPs, we also stress the underlying narrative to empower „regular citizens“ becoming the makers and shapers of their own urban development.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met

Purposefully „Alte Gärtnerei“ is neither a botanical garden where nothing ought to be touched nor a busy farm where anything could be potentially harmful. It is not a messy heap of bric-a-brac either, nor a mere glossy paper sustainability concept. Instead we make it a place where sustainable practice can be experienced synaesthically. Therefore we present environmentally conscious choices as a promising, lustful image of the future and we apply a high standard to the aesthetics. In spatial design we aim for the »Quality Without A Name« (Christopher Alexander), a general sense of well-being and wholeness that makes spaces feel good to people. We employ several of Alexander's design principles. The result is an inviting place, despite the immediate vicinity of a main street, abuzz with the hum of bees, fragrant plants and inviting seating. It offers a wide range of soothing stimuli, such as different height elements, light reflections and cooling shade. Alte Gärtnerei leaves an impression on guests with its pleasant hustle and bustle. The atmosphere is gentle and lively. Volunteers work in the polytunnel whilst freshly harvested raspberries are being fermented into fuzzy lemonade in the open kitchen. Meanwhile guests may enjoy a cup of coffee in the shade watching insects dance across the pond in the community garden. For kids to play the centre of the demonstrational garden provides a large grass area topped with a straw bale playground. Second-hand materials are being carefully selected, for their re- and upcycling aptitude. Time well spent goes into refurbishing and arranging what otherwise might have a been a trip to the hardware store. E.g. in summer the metal walls of the old shipping container would heat up unbearably. For an exterior cooling solution we aligned old roof battens into a shading gap pattern to both cool the container and beautify its exterior facade, providing once more: upcycling takes craftsmanship and is pretty.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion and how these have been met

We focus on making a healthy and sustainable lifestyle accessible to people on low incomes. "Alte Gärtnerei" is located in a district with low-income population. In order to make our events more easily accessible for the immediate neighborhood most courses are free of charge (thanks to EU funding). The community garden provides ample opportunity to grow one's own food, low-threshold and free of charge. With its park-like design our space offers a local recreation area, interesting and adventurous for kids and adults. The assembly of park, playground, comfortable sitting areas and a wide range of possible activities also makes it a place for different generations to meet and share experiences. People on site have various cultural backgrounds, with German, English, Czech, Polish, Italian, Spanish and French the languages mostly spoken. Flat hierarchies, clear contact persons and regular jour fixes make it easy to participate. On top, a well designed entrance area as well as legible signposting encourage curious neighbours to visit, get to know the place, become involved and ultimately get to shape it themselves. To this end we established what we call a weekly "open kitchen time" during which anyone interested gets to process and prepare food under supervision, without prior notification needed. The community garden "Wurzelwerk" features a similar strategy, opening twice a week for people to just come in and hands-on learn about horticultural practice, with the support of professional gardeners. Active communities have thus formed and are in lively exchange. We're happy to see these groups gain cohesion and a live of their own, and all it takes for us is to provide the site and structure. In face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent shutdown measures of large parts of public life we found these communities and outdoor activities strongly helped people cope with the restrictions, since they could either be continued online or be pursued by oneself in the garden.

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

We named the project "Alte Gärtnerei" alluding to the history of the land we're on. Horticulture has been practiced here since 1920. Large parts of the area though had been fallow for 20 years because the owners no longer had the means to cultivate the property.  Our legal body is an NGO UFER-Projekte Dresden e.V. a charity association that has been running community gardens and promoting sustainable city development in Dresden for 10 years. Over time, the question arose of how inner-city area so large and history-laden could be revived with a more professional approach to food production, embodying a community perspective whilst being true to the „genius loci“, the sense of place. For this purpose, we redesigned the area according to new needs. A place that can be used by many people on an equal footing, making food production accessible to the public. Agriculture here is not a job of the few for many, but is organized and conceived collectively. As an association mainly active in community organizing (iommunity gardens) and environmental education, our work has always been accompanied by a mindset of shared experiences and encounter. Therefore it was obvious to design „Alte Gärtnerei“ from that point of view. The result is an infrastructure that gives a lot of space to these basic needs. Be it in the polytunnel, where trained gardeners work together with volunteers, where knowledge and harvest are shared. Or in the adjacent outdoor classroom home to learning, courses and exchange. The community garden also exhibits these qualities; here, the common experience of nature and developing self-efficacy are in the foreground. The Open Kitchen „Koko“ has also established itself as a place for cooking, recreation, exchange of experiences and community for those who are interested. All in the same place, all interwoven.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project

The commitment of citizens living nearby shaped the way „Alte Gärtnerei“ developed in many specific ways. For instance there was a young neighbour looking for someplace to keep chickens. Now she is our chicken keeper and chicks roam among rows of raspberries. We all get some eggs every now and then while the fruit production benefits from natural pest control and renewable weed managment. Locals bring leftover food or large harvest to process in the open kitchen and set the topics they want to learn about. This is how people gain nutritional competence and a more sustainable way of life is implemented by experiencing a healthy way of eating together in a joyous way. Citizens experience self-efficacy whilst cooking, using tools or growing their own vegetables, which has a positive impact on their daily life. The demonstrational garden serves as a learning-space covering a broad of topics issues such as biodiversity and practical nature conservation measures, backed with instructions to reproduce methods at home or in the allotment close by. This is how personal contributions to wildlife conservation and climate protection become actionable. Our site is not only open to individuals, it is local initiatives increasingly starting to adopt the place for their meetings or even engage in shaping the further development of the project. So e.g. there's a waste-free non-profit café group now serving their culinary products twice a week.  Contributions like this nourish our fertile soil for building friendships and growing ideas together. People find access to a network hub which goes way beyond the borders of the property and thus multiplies itself.

Please highlight the innovative character of the project

At „Alte Gärtnerei“ professional horticulture is accompanied by social interconnectedness. This is a place where food production is seen as a community mission, where locals engage in whatever stage of the chain of production intrigues them. Sowing, monitoring, harvesting, processing, cooking it into a soup... every step is accessible and reproducible, which makes the „Alte Gärtnerei“ a valuable place of learning not only for grown-ups but also their kids.  The way agriculture is practiced on site is regenerative: we do not merely seek to reduce the negative impact on natural ressources and systems (a perspective prominent even in traditional organic farming). Instead we aim to imprint a positive net-overall balance. From increasing long-term soil fertility and such sequestering carbon to actively providing habitat for wildlife big and small. Similarly, interested neighbors don't remain observers of the process, but engage into it and become skilled in strengthening ecosystems as well. We are convinced that being part of the process encourage people to value a sustainable development of not only our agriculture but our whole society. Experiencing food processing, building and growing vegetables highlights the advantages of a sustainable lifestyle and decreases the feeling to lose comfort or give up a claim whilst living in times of unique transformation.

Please explain how the project led to results or learnings which could be transferred to other interested parties

At „Alte Gärternei“, we rethink and revive traditional horticulture by bringing food production to the public sphere, by bringing processing right onto the cultivation site. The learning and participation space created here shows the potential of an inner-city agriculture that goes beyond short transport routes and improved microclimate towards a community-driven joyful experience and an evolving skillfull and involved civil society. We want to particularly emphasize the joyful nature of making, sharing and learning together (“Do It Together”). To us these qualities are essential to get regular folks on board on the journey to a climate-neutral future, to take away fears and instead instigate hope. In a political arena that often revolves around the status-quo, denounces any change to present individual liberties as grim and denies future generations we view our take as a quite valuable addition. We are dedicated to the task of getting people involved and inspiring them as we embark on a transition to a sustainable economy. We can be a role model for this. We want to emphasize the importance of trees for urban microclimate, and the selection of edible varieties in particular. Our site goes to show how parks can be designed in a climate-adapted way. Any parks, avenues and roadsides ought to be planted with a wide variety of perennials, shrubs and trees, thus enhancing the quality of live for residents, providing food for both humans and animals and a habitat to many species, increasing the overall resilience of the surrounding city systems. Suggestions as to which trees specifically are suitable can be found in the demonstrational garden part. Basically we reach beyond plain awareness-raising. It is not a lack of knowledge, it is difficulties in adapting different daily routines. The actual transformation of behavioural patterns and structures is crucial to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conversation. “Look, it's not that difficult, let's just do it

Is an evaluation report or any relevant independent evaluation source available?

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the Awards more than once under the same category and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.