In recent years, we’ve seen a surge in initiatives aimed at making our cities greener and more biodiverse. However, communities on the margins are often excluded from the conversation, as are native plants and the importance of reconnecting people with their city’s natural history.
In São Paulo, a group of citizen gardeners are hoping to change this, with the launch of a community programme called Germinatorium. Led by artist Daniel Caballero and biologist Edegar Silva, this project revolves around a mobile plant nursery that is designed to bring native species back to the city. The pop-up structure can be installed indoors or in sunless areas such as school rooms, cultural centres, slums, or warehouses — wherever needed. And as the seedlings grow, the local community is invited to learn how to germinate each species, introducing the environmental and historical context of the city’s vegetation in the process.
As winners of the Redesign Everything Challenge, Daniel and Edegar joined us in Amsterdam last summer to tell their story on the WDCD Live stage. Here, we ask them a few questions about how biodiversity, access and education meet in the context of Germinatorium, and the change that they ultimately hope to see in Brazil.
Daniel and Edegar with a model of the Germinatorium. Photo: Anisa Xhomaqi.
Hi Daniel and Edegar, can you introduce yourselves and your project?
Daniel: My name is Daniel Caballero, I am a visual artist and the creator of Germinatorium. This biodiverse nursery is designed to reproduce a series of plants that I have been cultivating for over 10 years in a vegetal territory that I call Cerrado Infinito. These are all native plants of São Paulo, and they are practically extinct. I hope to make them common again with Germinatorium.
Edegar: I’m Edegar Silva, and I’m a biologist. Daniel and I first met at my university. I was working there on some conservation projects, and one of them had these native plants. And by that time, Daniel was looking for these plants as well. So, we started working together, and I think we complement each other because he’s the artist and I’m the biologist. Although he knows a lot about plants, too! (laughs)
“These species disappeared from view, but also from the minds of the people.”
How did the idea first come about?
D: My city is a huge city, and it developed by destroying its nature. Contrary to common belief, the city did not develop on the lush tropical forest, which we call the Atlantic Forest here, but in fact on a cerrado—a savanna full of little plants and flowers. From the period of colonial occupation to the current urban development, this vegetation was disintegrated and forgotten. These species disappeared from view, but also from the minds of the people. I wanted to change that, to recreate the landscape. Germinatorium is a step forward in this effort as it gives citizens the possibility of cultivating their own gardens with the true native vegetation of São Paulo.
E: Exactly, we have this issue in São Paulo today, where the city has a great need for green spaces. So, when we started to work with these native plants, we realised that we needed to spread them elsewhere in the city, in other neighbourhoods. So, Germinatorium was an idea to bring the plants to the people, where they are.
Native plants surviving in São Paulo. Photo: Germinatorium.
Can you tell us more about CERRADO— and why it’s so special?
D: Yes, so the cerrado is the Brazilian savanna, similar to the African savanna, but with a smaller and more delicate fauna, which allowed the plants to develop with a greater number of specializations. Botanically, it is the most biodiverse savanna on the planet and it is very beautiful. São Paulo is not exactly famous for its natural life, like all large megalopolises, it lost its roots and contact with the characteristics of the local landscape. My search as an artist was to discover in hundreds of urban expeditions, almost in an archaeological way, this vegetation that the city turned its back on.
E: I fell in love with cerrado after a trip I made to the heart of Brazil, where the savanna still is. And there was a time when I saw the vegetation from the airplane. I realised it that it has its own colours, its own adaptations. And I thought, oh my God, I love this. I need to help somehow these plants, these ecosystems.
What kind of adaptations are we talking about?
E: So, one interesting example is the way cerrado deals with fire. Usually, we think about fire in ecosystems as a threat. And it is, because today there’s too much fire by human action. But in the Brazilian savanna, fire is actually really important. There are some seeds that won’t even grow if there’s no fire. So, the plants and flowers are specifically adapted to that. I think it’s so curious that here, fire can be part of something’s rebirth.
How did this lead to the design of Germinatorium?
E: So, we can explain Germinatorium as a mobile nursery that will allow us to provide a large number of native plants to people in the city. It can produce around 3,600 seedlings per harvest. But not only this, we also want it to be a place for integration of people, of citizens and of art as well.
D: The design is inspired by the street market tents of São Paulo. They are very typical here and are very easy to assemble and disassemble. We go to where people are and involve them in the germination process. After a few months we go to another part of the city and start the process again. In this journey we intend to leave a new mentality and create a collaborative network, learning together how to cultivate these native plants. People will have access to a variety of species that have never been created by commercial nurseries, and will be able to rebuild plant territories so that they can return to the daily life of the city.
A drawing of the mobile plant nursery. Photo: Germinatorium.
What sort of response do you get from the community?
D: It is difficult to imagine São Paulo’s natural past; we have replaced everything with exotic plants. We have a colonized self-image, as if Brazil were limited to tropical forests like the Amazon. Without a doubt, forests are very important, but the savanna, the vegetation of the Pantanal and the semi-arid region also have important roles to play and need protection. You can’t protect anything you don’t know about, so the entire project is based on the idea of celebrating this rich biodiversity.
At first, people are surprised, but little by little we educate them and bring them a real perception of the biological wealth of the city and the country. Our history is made up of successive erasures, and when we mention this, people are surprised and curious — they are like, wow, seriously, there was a cerrado in São Paulo? And the cerrado is very beautiful, and once we understand its logic, we never forget it.
“You can’t protect anything you don’t know about, so the entire project is based on the idea of celebrating this rich biodiversity.”
What kind of change do you hope to see in the city?
D: I think this project is revolutionary because it is the first time that this vegetation has been reproduced using indoor cultivation technology. While the destruction of the cerrado continues, we can continuously grow a huge number of plants, to meet the challenge of bringing the city closer to its biodiverse past. What we perceive and feel from this is very important in a city like São Paulo, which has a lot of political and social influence in the country. If we want to change people’s mentality, São Paulo is the best place to start.
We will teach and expand the perception of biodiversity, starting from a biome completely adverse to what most people understand as nature. Unlike the Amazon, for example, the cerrado is not necessarily green all year round; it’s a poor land with beautiful plants. It develops against all our generalist understanding of plant cultivation. It’s anti-agricultural; it does not develop based on the idea of soil fertility. This makes it an opportunity for people to learn — to understand that other ecosystems exist, are possible and important, and that the conservation of natural vegetation goes far beyond planting trees.
E: Yes, I really believe in education. I think that if this project was just about giving away plants or selling them, maybe people won’t feel connected to them. And the important thing is that people reconnect to the plants and consequently to the environment. Because with the way that climate change is affecting our cities now, we really want more people to be aware that these plants can be part of the solution.
A garden of native plants in São Paulo. Photo: Germinatorium.
What are your next steps?
D: We are establishing partnerships and possibilities to implement Germinatorium in various areas. The first prototype is in the final stages of construction and we intend to end the year producing the first plants, which already have a specific destination. I see many possibilities and developments for this project.
E: Yes, we are also still looking for more places to put our tents, but we have a good network of people that may help in public parks or even in art galleries. We are ready to make it happen, but we need the support to make it grow. And it’s not only about the money. It’s about how to plan everything so we can make it in the best way possible.
“With the way that climate change is affecting our cities now, we really want more people to be aware that these plants can be part of the solution.”
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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Interview by Natasha Berting and Chieri Higa.