Lecture & Guided tour / Experts of practice | Down to Earth
Down where the waters flow – Hydroponik und Aquaponik als urbane Praktiken. Roof Water-Farm
Grit Bürgow, Anja Steglich
The Roof Water Farm is a real life inner city laboratory for urban recycling that combines technologies of waste water purification and food production. Anna Steglich and Grit Bürgow are the initiators of this pilot project and after an introductory lecture they will take visitors on a guided tour of the Roof Water Farm demonstration site.
The Roof Water Farm pilot project in Block 6 of Bernburger Straße 22 in 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg contains an International Architectural Exhibition residential project from 1987 with an innovative use of water. Here we present technologies that can be used to design buildings and residential quarters in a resource-efficient and sustainable way. These include:
- farming technologies for water-based plant and fish production (hydroponics, aquaponics) in conjunction with decentralised water-treatment technology applied to rainwater, greywater and blackwater
- technologies to recover urban liquid fertiliser for hydroponic farming
- technology and design for the use, evaporation and leaching of rainwater
The trajectory of Grit Bürgow’s life was inspired by taking part in Stensund Wastewater Aquaculture, a European pilot project in Sweden that used ecological engineering and a living aquatic ecosystem to turn domestic waste water from 120 campus residents into clear fresh water. This educational project has since been discontinued but it motivated the qualified engineer and landscape architect to continue working on practical applications that can be integrated into everyday life to make cities more habitable. She initiated the Roof Water Farm – an inner city living lab for urban recycling. Since she founded aquatectura studios for regenerative landscaping, Bürgow has worked locally as well as internationally on water-conscious design, urban farming and infrastructures for everyday recycling. She is currently designing a hydroponic vertical farm installation for the BEACH 61-volleyball complex in Berlin’s Park am Gleisdreieck run on locally recycled shower water for participatory culinary purposes.
Anja Steglich has a doctorate in landscape design and is the initiator of Roof Water-Farm, an inner-city real-world laboratory for a circular Berlin, which links technology for wastewater treatment with food production. Hydroponics and aquaponics are used here as building-integrable, water-based farming strategies. Roof Water Farm also actively protects the climate in and around the building through rainwater management: by using plants for evaporation and CO2 storage. With the broad implementation of a blue-green infrastructure, houses will be able to produce high-quality process water and fresh food instead of wastewater in the future. Anja Steglich has applied her experience in ecological sustainability practice in various artistic formats and is founder of the Studio für Landschaftschoreographie [Studio for landscape choreography] Berlin.