I will introduce you to my fruit farm project The Common Orchard, in which I deal with private property and the need to be more open in order to learn how to share. It also includes ways of thinking about future handling of agriculture and esteem for old knowledge, such as identifying livings around us, different species that have specific requirements for space, soil type, shade and growth, in order to treat them with respect. The analysis and handling of this real orchard can be seen as an example for other small farms, parks and gardens. The trend towards establishing open healthy places has been decreasing, yet is needed more than ever.
The whole project is based on the idea of a connectivity, that our earth is a complete organism (Gaia) and that we have the responsibility in design, art and architecture to handle it carefully. Through the Common Orchard project we analyzed the property respectfully, understanding it as a venue and network for a multitude of human and non-human actors. While analyzing the space we identified the practice of commoning as one of the most sustainable and collaborative ways to share responsibility fairly, particularly as the ground used to be a Common in the past.
The trees in the orchard were among the most influential of the non-human actors. Through our care for them, we developed a sustained practice in handling and harvesting. As the harvest could only be manually, we recognized a relationship between agricultural work and physical exercise, in which we saw a cyclical choreopgraphy. The sequence of movements allowed us to take a closer look at humans, plant and man-made spaces, and this resulted in an architectural proposal for the space.
“Spatial structures, like any form, must be realized by structures in action. […] The talk of a duality of space clearly expresses the by no means self-evident consideration that spaces do not simply exist, but that they are created in (usually repetitive) action and as spatial structures, embedded in institutions, Control action.” (Loew 2001: 172).
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Elisa Sophia Prašelj Braun (she/her) was born in July 1989 in Darmstadt and lived part of her childhood with her relatives in Trieste (IT) and Rovinj (HR). This connected her strongly with the mountains and the sea, and nurtured the value of intercultural exchange, since the Italian city of Trieste has a strong Slavic and Austrian influence, a mix that is still noticeable today. Sophia grew up with an Italo-Slowenian mother, a German father and a younger sister. Her parents, who both worked as architects, gave her an early connection to aesthetics and design. This was further promoted by dance courses at the Academy for Music in Darmstadt and creative lessons with artists and musicians.
2011, after a year of studying Industrial Design at Darmstadt University she moved to Berlin to study Italian Philology and History of Art at the FU Berlin. During this time she undertook various courses in gender studies which had a lasting impact on her until today. In 2012 she transferred from History of Art to Architecture at TU Berlin. Here she was particularly interested in projects that focused on social issues and environmentally conscious content. Coming from a family with different backrounds and a partisan history she realised that the socio-political aspect of architecture needed deeper interrogation, as such she has spent the last few years working as an exhibition designer with a focus on the second world war. In 2019, together with her sister, she took over her grandfather‘s orchard, which they are converting collectively, with a community of artists, designers, gardeners and carpenters, into a common. The project about art and ecology is an ongoing process and formed already an association.
Currently she is finding and building her niche in ecological sustainability and society, all within an intersectional framework in architecture.