‘De staat van verzorging’
Fascinated by the many ways in which green is placed, cared for and used in cities, we started our research searching for symptoms that show themselves in our daily connecting with greenery. Why are certain plants being hunted down and killed, while other plants are getting the care they need? What is the difference between a veteran tree in a park and the normal one in the streets? In what ways do we prefer to use our green? Is it a place for recreational purposes, is it a place to look at, is it a place to dump your garbage, or is it perfect to have your dog take a shit on it?
During the project I worked on making a diary. The diary is written by the very first ‘Veteran’ tree in The Netherlands, which is standing on the grounds of Clingendael in The Hague.
The idea behind this status comes from England, where a lot of old trees are still standing. This particular Linden is said to be around 300 years old. The idea is that the Linden can die a natural death. The municipality has put a fence around it, so people can’t come near the tree.
During my interviews I found out that there are two young neighbouring trees that eventually will outgrow the Linden. The council that takes care of maintaining the list of monumental trees in the city decided it would be best to cut these trees down, in order for the Linden to last longer.Which tree goes first?
In collaboration with Stroom Den Haag, Constanze Schreiber, Mirjam Linschooten, Jakob van Klinken & Jack Engelbrecht.
Poster campaign The Hague
To incorporate our research back into public space we wanted to create a poster campaign throughout the city. We designed ten different posters, all posing questions about greenery, trees and parks. The posters were to be seen in The Hague for one month.