Participatory garden

The garden “Home” is an inviting place, which has been developed together with the residents of Wilhelmsburg.  Home is mother earth and fatherland. Earth and plants from different countries, regions and climate zones can be rediscovered in the “Home” garden. The act of “putting down roots” is understood here as a term for starting to feel at home.

The garden “Home” will display plants from the residents’ home countries, planted in the typical containers used in those countries (e.g. olive oil canisters). The plants, earth and containers can be brought by the people who have found a new home in Wilhelmsburg from their countries of origin and shown during the garden show as a testimony to the diversity of the cultures.

A garden très chic – garden of the vanities

The garden thematises clothing, fashion and trends. Is clothing like a business card, reflecting cultural particularities? The development ranges from kilts to miniskirts, from grass skirts to skirts made of recycled materials. Is this a garden of zest for life, full of colours and variations?

Clothing and fashion have many facets; prescribed by society, marked by traditions, adapted to the local climate, or simply a matter of taste.

It is human nature to present ourselves as best we can, to call attention to the best in us. The goal is usually to attract other people's gazes, to scramble for compliments – in short: to be respected by other people. Perhaps because people’s outward appearances are also a kind of business card that reveals a lot about them. Many people believe that the need to always draw attention to 'the best' is the driving force behind the developments in the world of fashion and clothing.

Plant-based materials dyed with dye plants play a major role in producing clothing, in addition to furs and skins.

Culinary herbs and vegetable dishes

How does home taste? In the garden “kitchen cultures”, visitors can sample traditional country-specific meals and marvel at their ingredients in the  corresponding flower beds containing herbs and plants.

The igs 2013 outdoor kitchen provides a space for people to cook together, hold barbeques, sample food and philosophize about the best kitchens of the world and their ingredients – the kitchen as a place for intercultural exchange and good taste.

Garden of the symbols of cultures

Symbols are the attempt to depict a sensation pictorially. They are authentic signs used by people since time immemorial to make us aware of something without using words.

The world of signs and symbols ranges from Stone-Age cave paintings to the Celts' symbolism based on numbers and nature to Zen art in Asia. Some of these ancient design fundamentals are, however, as current as ever. New signs and symbols, icons of web culture connect the cultures of the world when communicating with one another.

Sometimes, the same symbols have different meanings in different cultures. Similar to music, symbols say more than words and are often signs of communication and shared identity. Depending on the culture in question, plants or cultures may carry different symbolic functions. Symbols also migrate from one culture to another which then internalises them as its own original symbolism.

Cultures of building

Imagine taking all the building styles in the world and putting them together to make a playhouse. Multicoloured, with many angles. A real Hundertwasser. The poly-architectural global playhut. The house as a symbol of protection and a feeling of security.

Plants as renewable building material, from the canopy of leaves above Miscanthus concrete to the structural support made of bamboo.

The building principles of the plant world (bionics) but also the stability of the field horsetail, the lotus effect or the static construction role model of the fir cone are components of this “house of cultures”.