Urbane Agrikultur in Köln-Ehrenfeld

If we wish to be able to change and further develop our cities with the requisite imagination and creativity, new forms of observation must arise from time to time. In this sense, Katrin Bohn, partner in the London architects' office of Bohn & Viljoen and professor at TU Berlin, has been working with the notion of the 'productive urban landscape' for years. She attempts to elevate urban gardening and the practice of agriculture to an urban-structural dimension, and to establish these as an overall design approach with sweeping positive effects for urban life. A practical manifestation of theoretical reflections such as these is also the Obsthain Grüner Weg, a communal fruit orchard in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. The garden is a co-operation project of the Design Quartier Ehrenfeld DQE with the housing company GAG Immobilien AG (see Project 13). The idea for this was the result of the workshop entitled Ehrenfeld, was isst du? [Ehrenfeld, what are you eating?], which Bohn organised together with landscape architect Dirk Melzer during plan10. In another workshop, in 2011, a concept was developed with committed residents of the neighbourhood, a concept that provides for a green layout of Ehrenfeld, accompanied by smaller and larger areas for agricultural use. An initial building block in the direction of planning and implementation is the Karte der guten Gelegenheiten [Map of good opportunities] in which, along with fallow areas, 'green paths' are also featured linking Ehrenfeld with the adjoining districts of the city. The discontinued rail freight routes of the former industrial location offer the potential for creating a Low Line Linear Park for pedestrians and cyclists. This could be supplemented with environmental-education offerings such as a Community Food Center. All that has been designed and implemented to date can be seen on display during plan12 in the form of a documentation in the pavilion on the fruit orchard grounds. Most importantly, though, there another workshop will be held with Katrin Bohn and Dirk Melzer in which the next steps are planned and launched: realisation of three orchard 'offshoots' in Ehrenfeld, and hence the decentralised extension of areas of self-sufficiency. Part of the work will consist of an analysis of the specific features of each individual area, and in the preparation of a 'mini-transferability study'. The method used - 'spatial, geographical and organisational mapping' - will be developed further as the conceptual and planning work for the Low Line Linear Park continues. The results of the workshop will be shown as a 'work in progress' throughout the entire plan week in the Pavilion, and presented during an event with critics held on 26 September.
Text by Kay von Katz and Sabine Voggenreiter, curators
Text by Kay von Katz and Sabine Voggenreiter, curators: