Wetlands and Construction: An opportunity for Berlin-Brandenburg

This report was developed collaboratively by Material Cultures and Bauhaus Earth as part of the Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Programme, following an analysis of the Brandenburg region’s paludiculture and biobased material supply chains and production cycles. Our research project aims to contribute to the development of a new architectural vernacular: one whose aesthetics are rooted in circular and bio-based principles. We seek to demonstrate the potency of cross-industry and interdisciplinary collaborations, and the critical urgency of addressing the conditions and health of our landscapes. This research project responds to excerpt 8 of the state of Brandenburg’s ten point programme which states that “broad communication and public relations are required to accompany any peatland protection activities.”

At Material Cultures, our research along the supply chains of the materials we specify has taken us to the different landscapes in which biobased materials can be cultivated. It’s in the woods, fields and wetlands that we have begun to explore the consequences of cultivation, for the environment, for the people who work the land, and for the non-human species that depend on it.