TROTHAER GARTEN
A cooperative garden for everyone
This project wants to bring people together around an unusual place, an abandoned gas station. For now, a city gas station is a cold place, covered in concrete and polluted by gasoline. But it is also a large unused area. Some myceliums have the ability to break down these wastes and bring back life in the underground, and with some help, they can transform these places.
Already present everywhere, unused gas station will be more and more common with the withdrawal of internal combustion engines vehicles in favor of electric mobility. People will have the opportunity to meet together and actually build their very own city garden, as a neighborhood.
| student: | Jules Mignard |
| project: | mutual affairs |
| year: | 2021/22 |
full concept text
Every year, people who want to participate will come to remove one concrete brick from the ground. The goal is not to instantly transform the place but years after years, the grass will take the concrete’s place. In the beginning, Spots will be chosen to put the start points for the grass. They will then expend to the will of people.
The project does not provide a final form for the garden, but only show a way to make it. It will be the neighbors choice where to put grass, bushes, or keep a walking path.
In order to make choices between ideas, the place would be run by an association composed with neighbors who can and want to spend time. They would be tasked to choose and program interventions.
This gas station being an historical building, we wanted to keep the image of a gas station. As a replacement of the metal roof that used to be over the pumps area, two plane trees would form canopy, protecting from the sun and bringing freshness. Also, the amount of concrete bricks removed from the ground would be used to produce furnitures for the place. It is a great opportunity for people to use their skills for everyone and would also be everyone ideas. They can decide to build a bench, a table or anything else they decide can be useful.
Some mushrooms like Pleurotus ostreatus are able to break down hydrcarbons but depolluting the soil takes time. In order to speed things up, companies using micoremediation proceed by layers, putting contaminated soil over straws insulated with the needed fungi.
For this project, the straws and fungi would be produced and prepared on site by the association, which would be allowed to use the building of the gas station. Also on site, everything needed useful for the process would be stored, for the maintenance but also for the meetings. That way, it will be easier to bring everyone around every year.