The old nursery in Hohenleuben (Thuringia) is one of many vacant building structures in the rural areas of Eastern Germany – a result of the postsocialist transformation. Since 2023, the place has been getting reactivated by the cultivation of speciality tea based on an organic-permacultural cultivation method adapted to climate change.
Questions of soil quality and fertility potential, as well as gaining in-depth knowledge about the plants, are central to the reactivation process, aiming for suitable conditions for the tea as a product which serves as a starting point for new value chains and forms of being together. In addition to the production and distribution of quality tea, the long-term goal for the site includes restoring a wooden barn, one intact earth-sheltered greenhouse as well as the remains of a second one suited to local tea production. Moreover, the restoration is supposed to help with the social revitalization of the site.
Since the site has been lying fallow for many years, it is now populated by numerous non-human actors and has become a habitat for diverse flora and fauna.
Recognizing the non-human actors on site requires adapting the planning, designing and building processes. Therefore, informed by more-than-human concepts, this course will explore co-creative development perspectives while taking a look at forms of co-existence between human and non-human actors at the nursery in Hohenleuben:
What kind of non-human actors can we find on site? Which methods and "forms of communication" allow us to engage with them? Which perspectives open up when thinking of the site as a (future) home for more than just the human species? What would this mean for the design process regarding the unused built structures? And how can we communicate the newly acquired perspectives, creating visibility and making them accessible for design and planning processes (in general)?
Insights into the site and necessary theoretical knowledge will be shared through online and on-site lectures. The lectures will provide information about the more-than-human concept, its relevance for architecture and urban planning, and the methods used to apply it in research and practice. At the same time, the nursery in Hohenleuben, its history and spatial context will be introduced in preparation for the on-site analysis.
The theoretical input and on-site analysis create the basis for independent work, in which the critical engagement with human-non-human relations at the nursery is translated into a creative, conceptual or design-related work.
