Photo: Amadeja Smrekar
pop-up exhibition
3rd—9th October 2022
all day and night
Plečnik's kiosk, Prešeren's Square
Project title: Forbidden Vernaculars
BIO27 team: Krater
Team members: Rok Oblak, Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Gaja Pegan Nahtigal, Andrej Koruza, Altan Jurca Avci, Primož Turnšek, Sebastjan Kovač
Mentors: Atelier Luma (Daniel Bell, Marie Vernay, Aline Dalgleish), BC Materials (Jasper Van der Linden)
In the spring of 2020, a dormant construction site in Ljubljana became the setting for the production space Krater. Here, mobile workshops enable on-site production methods with local matter, such as plants, earth and fungi. Despite the successful reception of Krater, we cannot overlook the fact that the use of natural construction materials in Slovenia is greatly challenged by costly certification processes, preventing these resources from being widely applied. As the legislation currently stands, local material landscapes have become forbidden vernaculars.
The design collective Krater, in dialogue with Atelier LUMA and BC Materials, has researched rammed earth architecture and locally sourced building materials to create a teahouse that is situated on the crater-like construction site in the heart of Ljubljana occupied by Krater.
In response to the ongoing climate crisis and biodiversity loss, Krater’s team members joined forces with cutting edge practitioners from Atelier Luma and BC Materials to pose an important question: How could Krater become a landscape-based forum to discuss the accessibility of sustainable materials in Slovenia?
Materials such as clay, wood or straw bales are either imported from abroad or used in construction illegally. The rich resources of an urban site enabled material experimentation with wild clay, invasive plants and gravel as construction materials for building a site-specific rammed earth pavilion for BIO27. The new space will host a series of public talks with practitioners and decision-makers, who will all be served herbal tea in wild clay vessels sourced from the urban site. Discussing the legal, social and ecological implications of designing with local materials will hopefully support a fresh start in making these forbidden practices part of the vernacular again.
The exhibition showcases products made at Krater mobile workshops from locally sourced materials like plants, earth and fungi. On display are Krater drinking ceremony tea set – teacups and their mycelium packaging, which could substitute polystyrene foam, and a building block – rammed earth cube in terrazzo style.
More about krater.si and @kratercollective.
More about the pop-up exhibition BIO27 Production Platform.
More about bio27.si.