FERALcatalyst
FERALcatalyst
Michelle Howard, the Artist Ingo Vetter and team (ecologist Ingo Kowarik, illustrator Grit Koalick, eisat.de, studio-erde.com, manmadeland.de) have won the international, interdisciplinary competition caused by the expansion of the central rail line (RRX), through the city of Düsseldorf. In inviting artists and architects to work together the city expected ground-breaking proposals for the integration of noise protection in complex urban situations. At 25 km in length, this is currently the longest art and design competition in Europe.
Our proposal, FERALcatalyst, envisions using the necessary barriers for noise protection as a catalyst for biodiverse, regenerative, and social urban redevelopment through unsealing, rewilding, collecting, including, pooling, and retaining. This rewilding of Düsseldorf aims, eventually and with time, to create and connect areas of rich biodiversity, where non-human life is given room to thrive as part of Düsseldorf’s urban ecology. FERALcatalyst links and expands existing green spaces and parks, connecting the urban and the rural. FERALplay is the script we assembled that describes the processes (rather than ready-made solutions) we propose to respond to diverse urban situations and respect the work of existing activities and cooperative groups. FERALcatalyst has as its goal the regeneration of biodiversity, enrichment of urban ecology, and the encouragement of kinder human and non-human cohabitation.
Three proposals were chosen as winners and the discussions on how to implement them begins this April 2023. We plan to cooperate with the two other winning teams around the artists Ursula Damm and Ute Reeh and pool our resources.
Further information can be found on the homepage of the Art Commission Düsseldorf https://www.kunstkommission-duesseldorf.de/wettbewerbe/interdisziplinaerer-gestaltungswettbewerb-zur-integration-des-schallschutzes-beim-rhein-ruhr-express/ as well as on the homepage of the City of Düsseldorf https://www.duesseldorf.de/medienportal/pressedienst-einzelansicht/pld/jury-praemiert-gewinner-im-gestaltungswettbewerb-fuer-schallschutzwaende.html.
