Botanical Warfare
the guerrilla solution for urban greening
Complex architecture, authoritarian design by underfunded authorities or overburdened environment and parks departments are not the answer to greening our city centres. Through Botanical Warfare, we as residents therefore take urban greening into our own hands. Away from directives and regulations, we have the opportunity to put an end to the dreary facades and endless grey of city centres. With Botanical Warfare, we embark on a visible tightrope walk between destruction and creation, aiming at our play instinct with gamification and at the same time at plantless city centres.
| student: | Jonathan Stein |
| project: | The Plant Project – Resilience Part II |
| year: | 2024 |
To ensure inner-city greening beyond the confines of building regulations and authorities, an intervention with a guerrilla character is required. We should take the design with plants into our own hands. To this end, I have identified architectural situations where planting cannot simply be removed in passing. These include small protrusions and landings, as well as joints that are above head height and, of course, vertical surfaces at greater heights. I found it particularly exciting to combine a certain militant aesthetic with that of horticultural professions and fields of activity. The resulting contrast between destruction and creation is intended to irritate and amaze, illustrating the urgency with which action may need to be taken to put an end to the endless greyness and sparse biodiversity of cities. As in the landscaping and gardening sector, many different tools are needed to be prepared for a wide variety of situations, just as several tools are needed for the various structural conditions in the city center to be able to plant them. The Begrüngewehr is a tool with which seed bombs and gelled capsules with seeds can be transported to great heights and applied to facades. For reasons of time and knowledge, I opted for a purely mechanical design with a compression spring. It was also important to me not to have to reload after every shot.
To be able to design facades appropriately, a certain continuity in the application of the substrate is needed. Similar to graffiti, it would be unthinkable to reapply after every point and then hit the target again. The Draufpflanzer enables planting on projections and ledges above head height. The height and angle of the mechanism can be adjusted, and it can be triggered by pulling a cable. When closed on the ground, the Draufpflanzer can be filled with substrate and suitable seed. If the situation is likely to be dry, it is also worth adding water. Move the device over the respective ledge or projection and pull on the rope attached to the handle. The two halves of the pot separate and release the greenery downwards. Of course, already grown plants can also be placed with or without a pot. The other tools in the toolkit are dedicated to other urban architectural situations such as masts, columns, traffic lights, joints, and cracks. With a little skill, two seed bombs connected with cotton twine can be flung around any conceivable pipe and attached to it. Simply wait until the next rain shower or help with a pump sprayer. The gel contained in the Fugenfüller, made from methylic cellulose and seeds of annual plants, can be applied to all joints to be greened using standard cartridge syringes, thus sealing them with plants.
