Growing Place is funded by re:arc’s Practice Based Funding programme. re:arc is a non-profit based in Copenhagen, that supports self-initiated, and community led projects that reorientate construction towards non-extractive practices. The project aims to explore the possibilities of alternative learning models, materials, economies and cultures in constructing the infrastructure required to access and nurture land.

In the first phase of the project, Material Cultures worked with the site caretakers at Pasteur Gardens in North London to install key infrastructure at the food growing site: this includes a workshop and canopy, followed by a second phase of the project brought together land workers, growers, builders, architects, and strategic organisers to engage in the design and make of a typological building that can be replicated across similar sites.

A series of participatory workshops hosted on site over summer 2024 explored the use of experimental materials made from agricultural by-products. The process of design and making became a tool for reimagining a reparative relationship with the land.

Photography by Elena Cremona, Michael Sabuni and Henry Woide

Growing Place is funded by re:arc’s Practice Based Funding programme. re:arc is a non-profit based in Copenhagen, that supports self-initiated, and community led projects that reorientate construction towards non-extractive practices. The project aims to explore the possibilities of alternative learning models, materials, economies and cultures in constructing the infrastructure required to access and nurture land.