During two weeks, from June 15–28 2015, the students of Design for a Living World met with several individuals and organizations that deal with issues surrounding water and soil – essential elements that Berlin residents live with every day but rarely ask questions about. This manual collects several practices by individuals we encountered who take an active role in shaping a resilient city. This city-in-becoming is based on local organization and management, in which small-scale, bottom-up and hybrid projects create a parallel system that challenges an overregulated city.
One of our findings is that practices by pioneers entail ethical and political responsibilities. On many levels in today’s Berlin, personal attitudes and public opinion are two separate worlds. Although public opinion supports many self-organized projects that foster ecological practices, biodiversity, sustainable city-planning and such diverse communities as the Flussbad Project, the Tempelhof Project and Prinzessinnengärten, the personal commitment to a new culture of living of the general population lags far behind. The challenge is to bridge the gap between the pioneers, who do more than just talk about these issues, and the attitudes of the public.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL
Title: Berlin – Living with Soil and Water
Community-based research project by the invitation of the Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin. Living with Soil and Water is part of Nachbarschaftsakademie 2015: Stadt–Land–Boden residency program.
Date: June 15-28, 2015
Location: Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin.
Students: Finn Brüggemann, Francisca Concha, Barbara Niklas, Anastasia Reschke, Amalia Ruiz-Larrea, Konouz Saeed, William Schwartz, Kathrin Sohlbach, Nuriye Tohermes, and guests of the class Larissa Starke (Experimental Design, HFBK Hamburg) and prof.Lia Krucken (the State University of Minas Gerais, Brazil).
The Class of the Design for the Living World in collaboration with: Nachbarschaftsakademie at the Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin.
Special thanks to: Bettina and Rebecca Bohle, Elizabeth Calderón Lüning, Grit Bürgow, Marco Clausen, Lisa Dobkowitz, Jan and Tim Edler, Sabine Finkenthei, Christine Heidemann, Valentina Karga, Gilly Karjevsky, Diana Kitzinski, Ayumi Matsuzaka, Svenja Nette, Edwin Nolde, Ania Pilipenko, Thomas Rudek, Frieder Söling, Karsten Sommer and Åsa Sonjasdotter.
Supported by: Nachbarschaftsakademie at the Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin.
Walk in Prinzessinnengarten neighborhood, June 28 2015
Soil and water are essential to life, as we know it, yet with a seemingly endless supply we’ve taken them for granted.
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Photo by Åsa Sonjasdotter
Publication Living with Soil and Water – Ein Heft über Erde und Wasser
Viewing copy (pdf)
Printing copy (pdf)
SOIL
WATER
LINKS AND REFERENCES
Design for the Living World, HFBK 
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