Today, the pink pipes that network construction sites are the most visible reminders of Berlin's swampy origins, and our reliance on hydraulic engineering to build dams and drain fens, destroying peatland ecologies in our drive to colonize nature. »SWAMP THINGS!« invites those peatland ecologies to the BHROX pavilion–as haunting echoes of Berlin’s watery past, as fenland formed from glacial meltwaters.
Peatlands (fens, bogs, swamps, and marshes) cover just three percent of the Earth's surface, but when wet, they sequester twice as much carbon as all the biomass in the world’s forests combined. Rewetting peatlands is an urgent climate protection strategy that seeks to reverse centuries of peatland destruction around the world. Rewetting supports the nurturing of species of trees, grasses, flowers, mosses, berries, and animals that once flourished in these liquid landscapes, and the sustainable harvesting of crops that thrive in wet peatlands to support human livelihoods (known as ›paludiculture‹). How can we nurture these peaty ecologies once more, and use their plants with care?
Working with local grasses harvested from fenland in the Oberes Rhinluch in Brandenburg, the exhibition explores the lively potential of peatland plants as sensuous materials through basketry techniques, open-source coiling machines, and multimodal workshops. Design research and materials science are useful tools for experimenting with the potential of these new and restored biomaterials. This novel material-driven design approach explores the active material properties of these grasses as whole plants rather than shredded biomass, and develops ways of using their fibers to their full potential for as long as possible.
Through techniques such as coiled basketry, the fibrous properties of grasses can be manipulated into new architectural textile assemblages, creating abstract objects that spark the imagination, and, we hope, encourage lively conversations with our visitors!
Swamp Logic – Transforming Material Through Plant-Based Techniques
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This project explores how plant structures can inform material transformation, drawing on the conceptual ground of »SWAMP THINGS!«. Through a biomimetic and interdisciplinary lens – bridging design, material studies, and botanical morphology – we investigate how the structural logic of plants can shape new, sustainable materials.
Rather than using plants as mere aesthetic inspiration, we study their anatomical features – gill formations, vascular structures, surface textures, and growth patterns – and translate these into material techniques like folding, layering, coiling, wrapping, and tensioning. These methods are guided by how plants function in their environments, not applied arbitrarily.
