Client: IBA Thüringen
Design team: Lysann Schmidt in collaboration with Gruppe F
My role: workshop moderation and concept design for the “landscape of resources”
Location: Rohrbach (Weimarer Land), Germany
Date: 2017-2020
Surface: 27 000m²
As part of the International Building Exhibition Thuringia, the village of Rohrbach with its 200 inhabitants was chosen as a model project: Within this community innovative technics for reusing resources are combined with new ideas for the community spirit and tested on a concrete project on site. The idea of a “landscape of resources” will be brought to life step by step and in dialog with the local community. The innovative plant wastewater treatment system, which serves as research project at the Bauhaus University Weimar, is only the first step into this new landscape. The new system separates grey and black wastewater und the cleaned water will be reintegrated into the he local water cycle. At the same time many other aspects follow this first impulse of reusing wastewater: A rainwater management can be developed by creating a visible rain landscape instead of sending the rainwater into the canalisation; the wastewater recycling can produce fertilizer and therefor create income for the local community; workshops where ideas from the locals and a real we-feeling are developed can strengthen the bonding of the village community.
But the water treatment system is only one element within an overall landscape design, which is developed together with the local inhabitants from Rohrbach in a participative process. As a first idea a circular walk has been pronounced. This walk opens up from the entrance square and connects the components of the wastewater treatment system with all other existing and new elements of the village landscape: fishing pond, vegetable gardens, water playground, luge run, BBQ house, village museum.