Experimental Practice Haus Bräutigam – Garden Amateures

“The world of gardens includes gardeners. Without them nothing would exist. But it also attracts broadcasters, propagandists, entrepreneurs, contractors, journalists, and a crowd of scholarly people polished in the art of speaking about it who are called (in French) 'amateurs', from amare, to love. The garden 'amateur' is not someone who dabbles. He is thorough, travels, compares, makes enquiries, attends exhibitions, discussions and symposia, forms an opinion, constantly refining his knowledge. He is a scholar.” Gilles Clément: The Wisdom of the Gardener, Berlin, 2017

The project takes the neglected garden of the former guesthouse Haus Bräutigam in Schwarzburg, Thuringia, as a starting point to examine the idea of a garden from different disciplines. The central question is how a future idea of the garden can be modeled against the background of complex realities such as climate change, scarcity of resources, threats to biodiversity, but also social, idealistic and aesthetic contexts.

The project is funded as a NEB.Regional Lab by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and takes place as part of the Experimental Practice Haus Bräutigam seminar series, which is alternately organized at different professorships of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. It is supported by the MITMACH-Ding (mobile participation laboratory at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar).

In the winter semester 2023/24, we gained insights into the soil conditions and the existing plant life in the garden. In addition, the view of the gardens in the neighborhood and the spatial-social structure of the village of Schwarzburg has sharpened our idea of the future role of the garden at Haus Bräutigam. The results were presented on 11.01.2023 as part of a small symposium at the Ernst-Neufert Haus in Gelmeroda and at the semester exhibition of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism.

In the summer semester 2024, the focus will be on practice and thus the beginning transformation of the garden. As part of the seminar, we will work together to theoretically understand and design material cycles using the example of water as a resource and implement them in the model project Haus Bräutigam as part of a workshop with zwikr studio in June 2024. As a Bauhaus.Modul, the course is aimed at students from all degree programs and faculties.

Participating persons:
The course is organized by Till Hoffmann, research assistant at the Chair of Design and Housing. Other lecturers involved are Christine Dörner, research assistant at the Chair of Conservation and History of Architecture, Dr. Maria Frölich-Kulik, research assistant at the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Planning, Jessica Christoph, research assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and Hannah Kordes, Ph.D., project coordinator of the mobile participation laboratory MITMACH-Ding. The project is carried out in cooperation with Haus Bräutigam e.V..

Guests:
Verena von Beckerath, Architect, Prof. Chair of Design and Housing, Berlin/Weimar
Ferenc Benke, Elise Marwitz, Gemüsebande, Community-supported agriculture, Weimar
Karsten Holzapfel, Holzapfel und Konsorten, Alternative sanitary systems, Weimar
zwikr studio, Martin Zwahlen & Kateřina Krupičková, Basel
Fabian Schneider, PhD student, Chair of Special Botany, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Lukas Pappert, Researcher, Habitat Unit, TU-Berlin
Gemüsebande, Community-supported agriculture, Weimar
…

Contact:
Till Hoffmann
Research assistant, Chair of Design and Housing
till.hoffmann@uni-weimar.de