By: Bonnie Fortune and Brett Bloom
Auburn, IN: Let's Re-Make, 2019
Pages: 8 + A1-sized fold out poster
Format: PDF

Prinzessinnengarten sits on Moritz Platz in Kreuzberg, the heart of Berlin. Slightly over 100 years ago,  this area was the edge of the city, slowly turning from farm land in to workers housing and shopping. Prinzessinnengarten Kreuzberg—a community garden to some, a beer garden to others—wants to consider what the next 100 years will bring to this deeply contested 5800m2 parcel. A rich culture has flourished over the past ten years here that includes community organizing, bee keeping, composting, urban design and planning, cultural events, bike repair,  cafe culture, and lots of plants.  As the garden community prepares to shift and swarm to new endeavors, a question hangs over Prinzessinnengarten Kreuzberg about how to work with the city and the neighborhood to maintain the space and grow it in to something with a greater impact. This Deep Map of Prinzessinnengarten Kreuzberg visualizes a fraction of the complexity that has flourished in the garden from 2009-2018. Also included in this map is the expanding void of the future shaped by climate breakdown, an unknown element that is tinged by wishes for what the place could be and what will be needed in a shifting reality. Right now, when you visit the garden, you feel like you have stepped out of the pressures to consume, fight for living space, and endure the madness of the machinations of a capitalist city. More spaces like this are needed in cities. Rich places that are not about getting the money out of your hand, but about leaving the world a better place.