Pioneer Park

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pioneer parknature-powered city life

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- Many lots stand empty, either as pol-luted or in other ways problematic voids, where foliage is scarce or maybe non-existing.

- If we can deploy gardens in these unused spaces, we may forcefully, and rather quickly grow green networks that will span the cityscape.

- By utilizing the biological powers of pioneer plant species (specifically resil-ient and fast-growing trees) we might be able to invent a new type of park where plant life is orchestrated without being tamed.

urban gardens

Urban gardens have recently become widely accepted as a beneficial method for green our urban spaces in schemes where social ties emerge alongside beautiful flowers and tasty local veggies. These gardens often

show up in areas where the urban space is already functioning, on rooftops or in fields opened up exactly for the purpose. But what about the gritty backside of the city? Even a short walk may lead you passed several voids where

the land might be valuable but the soil is considered worthless. It is precisely these areas that hold the potential to be opened up for recreational purposes, whether the are small gravel-paved infills or larger polluted brownfields.

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planting methods

If one is to found a pioneer park it does not require much investment and energy. Actually, this is the main idea of the concept. A pioneer park consists of three main ingredients: The first is a layered growth carpet which is laid out on

- estimated price for establishing a pio-neer park on a 6500 sq. feet lot:

hay (50 bales): $450 cardboard (6500 sq.ft) $180 compost (5500 cu.ft) $1450 clay (4 packs) $90 seeds (va. species) $90 total $2260 price per sq. foot $0.35

seed balls

vækstlag

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Budget her!!!

the site. No digging in the existing soil is required - you simply add a new layer on top of the existing one. The next item is the trees, but they come in the form of seeds. A specially developed, low-budget technology can make seed balls by

encapsulating a handful of seeds in a shell of soil-mixture that contains everything they need in the plant’s infancy stage. They are simply left to sprout on the ground. Last element is time - From here doing the spark of life in the seeds rest.

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- The idea is not to leave the pioneer park to its own devices - on the contrary, a focused effort in the beginning, might curate growth in a way that will become favorable to the citizens in the long run.

- The strength of the pioneer park concept shows itself in the larger scale, since establishment of the gardens is an easy task to execute: The city is granted a massive amount of green space with hardly any economic or bureaucratic effort.

The demand for more green space is a tireless voice in the debate about our cities. We propose a method to obtain large areas which can go green on natures and the city’s own terms. No heavy maintenance flower beds or gardener dependent lawns,

if the vacant lot is closed off it will not contribute to the city life

but if opened up, it might become an ac-tive player in the development of the area

more greenfor less

- The idea is not to leave the pioneer park to its own devices -- on the con-trary, a focused effort in the beginning, might curate growth in a way that will become favorable to the citizens in the long run.

(especially on polluted lots that are ex-pensive to clean - let them turn green if the are left undeveloped anyway!)

but just a green mass of natural fluctuations in which the city life cuts its own spaces. It is not the economy that is used as the driving force, but rather the specific usage over time which forms the green room. In this way, green nodes may pop up in all

the city’s unused lots waiting to be used. If these lots get developed, the loss of money is not big, and the community’s will to green spaces might promote a new pioneer park, or even special measures within the new development.

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mainte-nance

- It is a basic principle that the pioneer park should to be able to stand on its own, without being maintained.

The pioneer park require some work during the initial establishing phase but afterwards there is very little maintenance associated with the operation of the green area. Paths will start being tread from the beginning, by the traffic and

- Also, the establishment of the park needs to require as minimal workload as possible: Besides being offering afford-able greenery with a small workload, the community is urged to promote high creativity through the external constraints of the concept.

- for example, the seed ball method gives the people the power to control the composition of trees, and leaves the com-munity free to make decisions without landscaping consultants.

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activity that may occur on site, and otherwise the park simply requires a pruned a branch every now and then. This maintenance may be carried out by new local organizations which may also provides basic amenities in the

form of bins and benches. This creates thus a breeding ground for community restructuring around a common asset. No initial organization is required, but one such initiative may spur the creating of new local collaborations.

- When the vegetation has taken place, it might be easier to organize people around usage and further improvement of the park.

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a pioneerproject...

Pioneer Park should be seen as a pilot project - an initial experiment to kick off the pioneer park movement and get things started. To maximise the impact, the first pioneer park should be observed, discussed and documented: This

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- The first pioneer park is the starting iteration of the concept and is mainly focusing on local plants.

- First part of the project is simply to establish a prototype pioneer park, to test the technical principle in praxis.

- In the future, the effort can be broadened to gather research to realize pioneer parks in other parts of the world. Other aspects of hor-ticulture could be drawn in such as phytoremediation of polluted soil or perhaps even edible pioneer gardens.

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gives a construction phase and then a monitoring phase where the concept of time-generated green force can be studied: first wave of feedback. The second phase will be to publish a booklet - a manual, where all the principles

and experiences written down. The project will be open-source: This disclosure will form the basis for the second wave of feedback, if necessary, through an internet community promoted along with the publication.

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- The second part will be publication of all knowledge, open-source, as a booklet and a free digital catalogue.

- Last part will be the establishment of an internet based knowledge-exchange platform where people can share their experiences of trying to implement the concept, with all the innovation that follows.

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Anders Bjerregaard-AndersenKasper Kristoffer SørensenCover illustration: Johan Bengtsson