For almost all green space sites or developments, we apply a new layer of “good” soil, erasing the diversity of soils by covering them with a generic layer of topsoil. Conditions linked to the specific realities of the soil are too often marginalised and buried under the notion of paved soil. Biodiversity flourishes on all these Anthropocene soils, and the city’s substrate provides opportunities for certain species to flourish.

It is this multitude of “new substrates” that Plant & Houtgoed wishes to use as an opportunity to demonstrate its potential for “biodiversity on an urban scale”. The results aim to link local experiments into materials and vegetation with documentary research and to bring them together in a visible way: events and animations in the city, a central place where the substrate and vegetation are experimented with in a narrative and visual way, through walks, directions and maps, etc.