Landscape experience in the forest laboratory in Cologne
Students design the architecture of a new type of forest in the forest laboratory workshop
Cutting and braiding, thinning and compacting, peeling and carving - such interventions will be the subject of a workshop from 21 to 25 May 2019 in the Forest Laboratory in Cologne. The workshop is organised by the Chair of Landscape Architecture and the Chair of Artistic Design at the RWTH Aachen University. Students from various universities will take part.
With the question "how to make the urban forest a public space", this year's workshop thematically ties in with the European Forum on Urban Forestry. How can conditions for a public space such as the Waldlabor Köln be reconciled with the individual and specific needs of visitors and users?
New - visible and mental - perspectives, axes and references are sought.
Visible aesthetic interventions in the stock of cherries and birches, Paulownian groves, elm plantations and other local conditions are possible in a radical or minimally invasive way. In the interaction of ecological, economic and cultural aspects, the forest can be seen and processed as a living space and living room, as an abstract area or as a sculpture. Interventions in the existing landscape create new landscape architectural spaces and perspectives that make the complexity of the subject visible.
After 2018, the RWTH Aachen is organizing the Forest Laboratory Workshop for the third time. In addition to their students, academics from the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University of Munich, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris La Villette and the Alanus Hochschule Alfter will also take part. The students set up the local forest workshop, where they live, work and discuss for five days under the simplest conditions. The action is supported by Toyota and the City of Cologne.
During the press tour on 24 May at 2:30 p.m., Professor Dr. Frank Lohrberg and the students will present the results of the workshop.
All those interested have the opportunity during the day to follow the work in the forest laboratory during the four days.