Umwiesen, Verb

cultivating meadow landscapes

Meadows as cultivated landscapes are among the most species-rich of all existing biotopes and offer an ecological alternative to intensively maintained lawns. Nevertheless, when planning urban meadow areas, the advantages of lawns as recreational areas must be taken into account. In the project Umwiesen, exact circles are mown into a tall meadow using a leash and anchor rod as tools. In this way, meadows can be created in which new types of spaces are created for a variety of uses. People become visible co-actors in the landscape. As the meadow has to be mowed occasionally to maintain it, the species-rich, local seeds are raffled off and further lawns are converted into meadows. 

student:

Luci Schwingen
& Malin Melzer
project:

The Plant Project
– Resilience Part II
year:2024

Open spaces in parks as areas for local recreation are becoming more relevant with increasing population density and heat stress. Lawns offer these open spaces for a variety of uses. However, with increasing demand for cool, water-retaining, flowering and species-rich green spaces, they are no longer sustainable. The ecologically valuable counterpart to the lawn, the meadow, is one of the most species-rich of all existing biotopes and helps to mitigate climatic extremes in urban areas by absorbing rainwater and cooling the surrounding air through evaporation. However, they are usually only planted at the edge of parks and are not accessible due to high plant growth. The challenge is therefore to combine the requirements for green spaces from an ecological and social perspective. Tall meadows should not ‘only’ be good for insects. ‘Umwiesen’ suggests creating meadows on former lawns in urban areas and mowing spaces within them. The possible use of space in the middle of the meadow makes urban nature an immersive experience and creates places with a high quality of stay. In order to develop into species-rich plant communities and remain as such, meadows must be mown regularly so that all plants are given light and space again. The necessary maintenance ideally results in so-called staggered mowing. Circular areas are mown in stages throughout the year, some only twice a year, others more often, so that they can be used for longer. The following year, the areas are situated differently so that the meadow can recover in the relevant places. The concept is to manage with as few additional tools as possible. The combination of a rod with a ground anchor and a line on the mower, which is adjustable in length and attached to the rod, enables repeatable circles to be mowed in the meadow. 

There is a ring at the top of the rod so that it can be turned into the ground with both hands. When the mowing process is complete, the anchor rod is complemented by a round plate with a circular cut-out. The stainless steel installation reflects the colours of the surroundings and frames the landscape through the circular cut-out in the metal sheet. The landscape should be visible both in its naturalness and in its artificiality. This is achieved by allowing and even emphasising the natural changes in the landscape, as alternating areas are always grown to different heights. The landscape moves from the background to centre stage and everything that enters it becomes part of it. The installation and the precisely mown circles communicate an invitation to enter. In this way, the landscape is consciously and visibly shaped by humans, without them being a ruler over nature, but rather a co-actor in nature. The process of mowing should be integrated into this performance and be visible through the peculiar tools. The designed tools stand for a practice that can be imitated with the simplest of means. In addition, the anchor rod refers to a service website through which the mown material from the city meadows is redistributed to proposed areas in order to establish new meadows. For the seeding of new meadows, it makes sense from an ecological perspective to use mown material from existing regional meadows. The mown material is transferred to new areas in order to create an identical copy of the complex plant and organism network.