23-24-group8

Research on gentrification:
As we worked on the subject of gentrification, we consulted academic articles written on the topic. After our research on the pre-existing literature, we have stumbled upon five universal harms of gentrification that were accepted by the scholars. According to the article “What is wrong with gentrification?” written by Margaret Kohn, 2013, it is argued that residential displacement; exclusion; transformation of public, social and commercial space; polarisation; and homogenisation are the five harms of gentrification. From this lens, we analysed the neighbourhood Afrikaanderwijk and found out that the neighbourhood was undergoing changes that would result in a total gentrification of Afrikaanderwijk. Later on, we did more research on the area and found out about facts such as the percentage of immigrants in the area, education level, and the how close knitted the community was. In this stage, the article written by Faidra Ntafou was extremely helpful to get an insight on the neighbourhood.

2) Interactive video about gentrification in the Hillevliet

Feedback 1 idea:
can work as a guideline for gentrification

Three Learning Experiences

A learning experience that can be seen as an holistic process.
From only having the idea of giving back, ➡️ to making a product that we can actually use

Transdiciplinary Education

After our “pressure cooker presentation feedback” we realised the the topic of gentrification wasn’t felt as a pressing issue or close matter of concern by our group due to the distant relationship we had with the Hillevliet neighbourhood and due to its precious complexity that we didn't want to generalise, simplify or loose for the sake of making it into a interactive game especially considering that we were dealing with real people, actually at risk of displacement and to the other harming factors of gentrification.

This lack of personal interest to the topic was also influencing our working process for the worst so we collectively decided that our interest towards Interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and Undisciplinary approaches to education experienced in the RASL minor were enenching our learning and thus should have been central to our final “learning experience” project.

Some of the factors that interested us the most from about this work frames/approaches explored within the minor were the focus & space given to subjectivity and embodied knowledge opposed to the detached and objective approach commonly found in academic settings,why
The capability of addressing environmental issues or regenerative possibilities because of their multidisciplinary nature that involves a vast range of different disciplines/sciences.

The transdisciplinary approach capacity of dealing with the entirety of subjects or processes, presenting holistic views and approaches, something we felt was lacking in our educational experiences and commonly avoided in academic settings.

So we recollected and agreed that we wanted instead to propose a trans-disciplinary workframe for education hoping for more holistic future educational practices.

We scouted for neglected green spaces (around Hillevliet building) with opposite characteristics to the well maintained and moaned patches of grass commonly found around the city

Started with the idea:
1) 3D Hillevliet model as an archive

Target group workshop finds!

Transdisclinary Education as group matter of concern for learning experience

Feedback summary
During our midterm presentation we gave an overview of our positioning towards the assignment (New forms of education inspired by Transdisciplinarity) and its relation to our chosen learning experience (seed bombing workshop) project exercise. We tried to give a holistic view on the chosen theme by talking about the history of seed bombing practice, different techniques and its materiality and giving instructions on how to make it/use it and where to, Although in the feedback received there was an overall theme of unused potential and random meaningful moments and topics that could be highlighted to strengthen the project and make the seed bombing more central to the learning experience. Furthermore the scarce realisation of the workshop (lack of gloves, work plates, water dispenser, etc etc ) played a part in the students' involvement

Working on the feedback

discussing the 5 harms of gentrification

after the feedback we narrowed the map

"We found out through our research that the Rotterdam City Council doesn’t have transparent care plans or regulations regarding the distinctions of different green spaces and areas present in the city. Therefore, we collectively tried to identify archetypes of green spaces/areas through cross-referenced research, with the goal of being able to recognize who is managing them, when, and how we can act within these pre-established frameworks to improve their biodiversity.The places we identified are as follows:Patches of grass, where the lawn is perpetually trimmed (around 24 times per year) with no distinctions for weeds or flowers blooming in this designated area, weakening the biodiversity.The second green space we identified is the “tree base" or plinths that delimit its space between the tiled pavements. Also, really common in the city, they are frequently covered by a thin layer of sand over the soil to protect from the elements, making it really hard for other vegetation to occur in impoverished biodomes like this.Last but not least, we have "medium/large greenery pots" of soil that inhabit sidewalks, squares, and parks. These green places vary drastically in biodiversity, shape, and size due to the local district's management and their respective possibilities. Sometimes, these can be filled with seasonal flowers that are swapped two or more times per year, but they can also be easily neglected and fall into disuse, losing biodiversity and bringing harm to the local community. On the other hand, these types of greenery present an inherent potential for community overall health because of their large presence both in the built environment and our private life spheres due to their proximity to private households. Frequently, these spaces spark collective efforts that can result in prospering community gardens that strengthen the social fabric and biodiversity.Because of the multiplicity of positive/regenerative factors presented by these places, we decided to propose the "medium/large greenery pots" as guideline targets for our SeedBombs. Additionally, there is the possibility to flip or remove the first row of tiles adjacent to private houses by notifying the city council, but these have to be removed if needed by the council."

Topics we focused on

Utilisation of seed bombs by green guerillas

- Loss of biodiversity disrupts the essential mechanisms needed for food production, health maintenance, and climate regulation.
- disease resistance: genetically diverse species have better chances to survive pandemics etc
- Vegetation and soil in ecosystems like forests, peatlands, grasslands, seabeds, wetlands, and kelp beds act as carbon sinks, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- food security: food system and agriculture are strongly linked to biodiversity. Millions of species work together to supply us with a variety of grains, vegetables, fruits, and animal products.
- overall health and happiness:being in contact with nature has a host of benefits for humans

Led mostly by hipsters and gardening enthusiasts, green guerillas in the New York City aimed to bring more non-human life to the highly urbanised city, especially in the neglected areas of the city, such as vacant lots without a purpose. Rather than losing time with bureaucratic process asking for permits for planting seeds, they adopted a bottom up approach in order to reach their goals. Since it was not possible to enter these areas, the seed bombs were exceptionally handy for this purpose.

Final Learning Experience

Fertilised or naturally rich soil for germination of the seeds.

Link to biodiversity map of Rotterdam

Links to different Gemeente restrictions

"Seed Bombs" or "Balls" are an ancient technique for propagating plants from seeds without opening up the soil with cultivation tools such as a plough.
The earliest forms of this practice can be attributed to ancient Egypt, where farmers would toss clay balls containing seeds onto their fields, boosting their chances of a prosperous harvest and repairing farms after the annual spring flooding of the Nile
The technique for creating seed balls was rediscovered by Japanese "Natural Farming" pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka after the Second World War. He aimed to find a technique that would increase food production without taking away from the land already allocated for traditional rice production, which thrived in the volcanic-rich soils of Japan.
Not all the "Seed Bombs" (or "Clay Dumplings," as he called them) would actually grow or bloom, but this is part of the natural farming philosophy.

Winterproof, spreads through self-seeding, any soil

Sifted or regular clay for protection of the seeds

preparation:
to have a successfull LE we had to provide all the material as seeds, compost and clay
- the seeds and compost were provided by a public garden
- the clay we got at WDKA uni

Also we had to make the seed bombs that got thrown during the LE beforehand since they have to dry for 24hrs

Reflection:
During the first weeks we struggled with finding a topic we wanted to work on. We decided to work with the feedback we got and ended up with the concern of gentrification. Generally, we were interested in it. However, we had no personal involvement. Further, we struggled with the final LE since we wanted to create a board game based on the actual map around the south.
The concept was a great idea but not easy to put in a fulfilling LE within the given time.
Most of the work we put was into the ideas we had for the game but we lagged actual knowledge on how a board game works. Looking back at the idea we tended to think about it too general without really knowing how the final product should look like.

We decided to give back to the neighbourhood around Hillevliet by trying to increase the biodiversity. We thought it would be a good idea since it is common sense that biodiversity decreases due to urbanisation and the climate change. However, during our research we came across some informations strengthening our decision.
In the Netherlands the pressure on biodiversity remains high as only a limited amount of land can be used and it is used intensively since the country is densely inhabited.
Among 355 municipalities, Rotterdam was ranked the 353 lowest in a sustainability score. Which underlines why there is an urgent need to recover biodiversity in Rotterdam.
However, generally it is visible that the biodiversity is higher in cities than in rural areas. The reason behind this observation is that cities can provide unique biotopes ( a distinct landscape, uniform in environmental conditions) thus they provide habitats that cannot be found outside of cities. These circumstances make many species migrants to the city habitat by adapting to the specific circumstances of the area. This process can even lead to a dependence of the species to the city habitat. This situation makes us creating the city responsible for the animals living in their new created habitat.
However, in the Netherlands and Rotterdam it is shown that populations of dutch insects are declining. It is known that Insects are an important group in many ecosystems and they can function as a useful indicator of biodiversity and a functioning ecosystem.
That is why spreading seeds that can later function as shelter and food for many insects can be seen as a coherent step to fight the decrease of biodiversity and spreading awareness for the topic.

Reflection:
After changing our topic we got some new motivation to create a LE. We all have a personal connection to the topic education and how our current academical system could be improved. Also, we knew that the idea of the actual LE needed to be more specific and doable in the given time. This change in our mindset helped us coming up with several good and defined ideas we decided to work on. We all looked into a different LE that could be a potential final product. This approached helped us with staying involved with the project since all three decided personally what topic they wanted to research.

Reflection:
While working on our try out presentation it was difficult for us to decide what to include in the presentation. Originally we wanted to give the participants the opportunity to also create bee houses. However, we could not provide the material needed. We ended up only talking about the bee house and compost bin idea while actually making seed bombs with the audience.
Also at this point we had no clear idea what needs to be included into the LE to be successful.We just knew how to make seed bombs but not how to give the audience the needed introduction and motivation to engage with the material.
Including the needed preparation of a working place beforehand.

Reflection:
The last weeks were a productive time for our group. We got specific feedback we could work on while deepening our knowledge about the topic. We worked on improving the actual experience for the audience but also on the information we wanted to provide. We were able to further develop the LE. However, during the time we also had some miscommunication, what slowed down our process and made us collect needed material quite late. Also we could not try the LE beforehand to see how it goes even when we wanted to in the beginning. Overall, all of us putted the needed work into our project what made us deliver a good LE. Nevertheless, many parts of it were added without knowing if they can work together. A bit more preparation and trying beforehand could be a nice add on that could have improved our final presentation.