Terrestrial Test Field

The Terrestrial Test Fields on the ground of the Club Hybrid in Graz are decentralized experimental fields for the investigation of areas withdrawn from human use. They visualize actors and living beings that are not included in urban planning processes. As objects of co-habitation, they simultaneously refer to the immense sealing of land by human construction activity and address the resulting threat to species and diversity.
In the objects, constructed from materials of the construction industry such as rebar and scaffolding protection nets, micro-wildernesses are formed which contrast with their surroundings. This contrast sharpens the perception to the untamed and untreated, allowing the investigation of the aesthetics of these surfaces in the context of human order.

The Terrestrial Test Fields explore whether and how these surfaces develop a 'life of their own'. How do they behave in comparison to their surroundings? What animals and plants settle there? What happens to a partial ecosystem in the city when left to its own devices?

The development process of the Terrestrial Test Fields will be documented and supplemented with information on the emerging fauna and flora in an interdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists and entomologists.

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Process

Construction