Mobile Planting Station Round 2
MPS is a satellite caravan that reaches out to different neighborhoods around the park, trying to activate the local residents in contributing (plant by plant) to our community garden in Open House. The Community Garden was our response to the informal farming witnessed throughout Anyang. Our “mobile” planting is a co-opt of gardening strategies already in place in households throughout the city, from traditional hanoks to the contemporary beast the ‘apatu’ and every type of structure in between.
Rather than shock-and-awe local communities, MPS is designed for a slower, more organic, one-on-one engagement with individuals in our surrounding areas. We go to the people first and ask them a single question: Would you like to plant?
From there, we begin our conversations about gardening, advice on planting, soil types, community participation, Open House …
Urban gardening
July 15: The Mobile Planting Station!
Our first run of the Mobile Planting Station, a moving caravan that travels to different neighborhoods in Anyang to exchange pots for plants or offer citizens the chance to plant their own pot to take care of. MPS is an initiative by raumlabor and Open Vegetable Gardens, a project by Marjetica Potrc
At 1pm we strategically planted ourselves (no pun intended) at the intersection of the green corridor. Within the hour, we were swamped by children and their mothers, ready to plant something. We found that people love the hands-on experience of gardening and were fascinated by the strange caravan bikes specially designed by Giacomo Castagnola. By the late afternoon, the planting slowed to a manageable trickle. A few kids returned a few times, one boy making three separate trips bringing different friends and family. Mothers would call other mothers and those who were hurrying to other places asked how long we would stay, when we would be back. We tried to encourage all of them to come back to the Community Garden in Open House to take care of their plants. At the moment, the pots and plants are being watered by a nice summer shower.
The vegetable and herb plants will be collected and replanted in the Community Garden at Open House around Harvest Day on Sept 5.
mayors tree collection
roof usage
Another phenoma is the intensive use of outer roof space. Even our 18 floor high charmant tower, within the inner city district of Anyang has a roof planted roof terasse with space for relaxation (jeongjas - those traditional pavillions)
From the top of teh building you have a view on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. what you can see there is really amazing - you find roof gardens, jeongjas, people sleeping outside, people drying their clothes..Interesting is, that those building´s function is not primarily housing but entertainment, eating, freetime activity..
At first glance it seems to be contradictive - but it really seems to be the owners or employees who use the roof space.
urban gardening
The basis of Open Masterplan is the potential map - it is a spacial, functional, social and urabn research - discovering urabn phenomena, movemnets, curiosities, gaps, ernergies, territories..
One phenomena are the urban gardens which you can find a lot in Anyang. Especially the area north of Open Commnity Center, the district called Kwan Yang 1 Dong, has plenty of those informal gardens. The scale and style can differ. Most people use what they hace or what they can find - plastic boxes, styropor boxes, plastic bags, tiny strips of land..
The photos just show a small choice of those gardens. Next week we will start with the garden activation - meaning: we will use a mobile planting station - a moving caravan that will visit the neighbooring districts to exchange pots for plants, or invite citizens to plant their own special pot to be added to our garden.
We arrived last Sunday to our new apartment (thanks Sungho) just a few blocks from City Hall and Acro Tower (aka Palace of the People by Mauricio). In some aspects it’s a typical Korean apartment that you enter through a long corridor whose only lighting is the green glow of the exit sign.
The walk to our door is a very David Lynch-esque few minutes as you pass through the bleak hallways, all the doors sealed like vaults in a maximum security prison/mental facility. Our security system is a code-lock! In Europe/America we’re still using early century key lock system.
Inside the apartment is a little cozier - with our Korean style beds purchased from Emart.
This is the King’s room (Matthias’). Marius and my room don’t have the luxury of windows (except frosted glass panes which open to the eerie corridor). Mine doesn’t even have built-in shelving - just a suitcase for now.
Our kitchen is much fancier - I anticipate many future cooking sessions.
Our American-size fridge - currently holding 4 bottles of water and a jar of jam. We also have a mini fridge specially installed to preserve kimchi. Most excellent.
Our emergency system:
The home office we’ve set up:
And the beginnings of Dynamic Masterplan. We tried to tape it up but the wallpaper is either too glossy or the tape too cheap, because it ended up peeling off the wall. We can’t use nails or needles because the wall behind the paper is pure concrete (according to Janghee).
We also have some very nice neighbors who (like many other Korean households) have started a small informal garden. I love how the single bonsai tree has colonized the hallway.
