Experimental Design
Christian Pecher
Christian Pecher is a transdisciplinary designer from Germany, dedicated to spatial experimentation working on the intersection of ecology, new technologies, interactivity and public engagement.
Originally trained as a creative technologist and interaction designer, he was working in the Advanced Experience Design Studio of Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart for several years, co-creating futuristic interaction and mobility concepts like the smart Vision EQ fortwo or the Mercedes-Benz Concept EQ.
Despite his rather digital background, Christian’s interests and projects always draw him into the world of the analogue, to hands-on work with materials, the exploration of nature and space.
His work aims to revive this original connection to the physical, to focus on the experience associated with and yet integrates new technologies and media. Moreover, his projects are very much characterised by a narrative and participatory element, encourage experimentation and principles of Speculative Design.
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The duet of theMEADOW and theGIANTS truly embodies this approach and constitutes two vivid spatial compositions, that speculate new concepts of urban design, public engagement, and cultivation of materials to educate and create awareness about more sustainable, flexible, and mindful approaches to building and living.
These spaces focus on the communal interaction with the growing plant, its yield, workmanship, and the related experience. The audience is able to witness its evolution, and is involved in the development and design through various points of contact.
To achieve this, the usual design and construction process is restructured and only framework conditions are set, in which the interaction between humans, plants and the environment can take place. At the outset only the available space is defined, prepared and the seeds of the respective plants are placed in previously calculated patterns. The site is then left to the public, whereby the visitor wittingly and unwittingly influences its development in form and function over the seasons and years.
Through the individual perception of mainly visual changes, one’s actions, or those of others, are reflected and encourage proactive participation in design and usage.
Following this approach, an accesible urban reed bed in the centre of London (theMEADOW), and a cluster of growing bamboo structures in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (theGIANTS), are speculated to communicate the potentials of grass based materials, and the use of crop plants in an urban context.
theMEADOW • October 2022
To increase awareness of reed as a sustainable and locally occurring material, the Apex Junction of Old Street is redesigned and a 2565m2 public and accessible reed-bed, a framework and space for recreation, meeting, and knowledge created.
The plants, which are placed only once initially, create a botanically dynamic spatial sculpture that visualises and documents pedestrian traffic and interactions of its visitors over the seasons. An annually recurring process, that is comprehensible and enables the local audience to interfere and shape the space due to imagination, needs and time.
The communal harvested yield of each year is also used to produce modular seat and construction elements, sourcing and expanding its own infrastructure.
Medium:
Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Reclaimed BricksSize:
2565 m2
theOBJECTS — Modular seating and construction elements made out of the annually harvested yield, and built in workshops.
theFLOOR-PLAN — Grid based floor-plan that allows orientation and location despite the dynamic and annually changing appearance of the space. Furthermore seasonal events respond to current conditions and invite the audience to interact.
thePLANT — Simulation of annual development, based on growth behaviour data of Phragmites australis in the United Kingdom
theIMPACT — Simulation of occurring motion patterns over the years (Grid-Element: 2B • Years: 2022 – 2025)
theTILES — Calculated floor-tiling that allows plants to grow and visitors to access. Despite using custom made tiles, reclaimed London Bricks are used, which also reflect the interplay between city and nature.
theHARVEST — Every October the annual communal harvest takes place. A big event, with celebrations and different workshops.
thePEOPLE — The area brings together a diverse audience, a mixture of cultures, professions, residents and commuters.
theLOCATION — Modified road layout at Apex Junction, Old Street.
Medium:
Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Reclaimed BricksSize:
2565 m2Medium:
Grasshopper 3D & ShapediverSize:
https://app.shapediver.com/u/chrehcep
theSTORIES – 01 – The watch-post and the golden culm
theSTORIES – 02 – Oasis in the hissing stalks
Material research and selection
First sketches of layout and shape
Digital sketch of final layout
Set-up of parametric model in Rhinoceros 3D
Iterations and development in Rhinoceros 3D
Wire weaving of a reed-mat
Reed-bed along New River canal in North London
Visual programming of parametric model in Grasshopper 3D
theGIANTS – July 2027
To promote and research this sustainable, rapidly growing, and in western latitudes still very underestimated construction material, an area in the outskirts of the Garden is utilised to host three Guadua Bamboo colonies.
By means of a dynamic rope system, attached to emerging shoots, the growing culms are shaped into spatial self supporting structures, organically formed by the interactions of its visitors, or according to calculations of professionals.
Left in place or harvested as a whole, every other year sculpture-like pavilions are created that embody the information of its surrounding and time.
