Palimpsest: Co-creating

The process of developing the prototypes of Łódzkie Meandry and Rain Flowers was open and participatory from the very beginning. Co-creation was one of the key elements of the Łódź edition of the PALIMPSEST project – we wanted all activities to emerge in dialogue with residents, artists, and people working with urban greenery, and to respond to local needs. We sought to combine scientific knowledge, design experience, and the intuition of space users, while also taking into account the real needs arising from everyday life in the city.

_Workshop I: “Free Flow in the City”
 

The first participatory workshop took place in March 2025. It was an open meeting aimed at people interested in retention, urban greenery, and local nature-based initiatives. Together with the Deer Garden. Naturalnie team and Magdalena Stecka, we discussed how the problem of water management in Łódź is growing, what happens to water after heavy rainfall, and how to relieve the sewer system that is connected to the network of underground rivers. The participants – among them architects, activists, representatives of the Department of Biology and Environmental Protection of the University of Łódź, and people involved in urban gardening – drew attention to the problem of salinization of green areas after the winter season and to pollutants flowing from the streets, which visibly affect the condition of urban plants.

 
During the discussion, the topic of aesthetics also emerged. Participants emphasized that many people have difficulty accepting greenery in its so-called dormant phase – for example, meadows in the autumn–winter period or areas that are naturally overgrown with ruderal vegetation. Therefore, the prototyped solutions, in addition to their environmental functions, should also have visual value: they should be legible, attractive, associated with care for the place, and even refer to land art or sculpture in public space.

 
As part of the first workshop cycle, the concept of the Plant Exchange Station was also developed – a place that builds a relationship with urban nature and has a community-based character. The Station became the first element marking the experimental area at Łódź Art Center and at the same time a reference point for further design activities.

_Workshop II: “Station: Green”

The topics discussed during the first meetings quickly evolved into practical action. On the grounds of Łódź Art Center, the first gutter meander was built and connected to the existing downspout system, becoming a test object to be observed under various weather conditions. Its construction was part of the workshop “Station: Green”, dedicated to the practical aspects of establishing and maintaining urban greenery and to implementing the first prototypes developed within the project. It was then that Deer Garden. Naturalnie presented the concept of meanders as modular structures designed to slow down water flow, and Magdalena Stecka introduced the idea of a ceramic irrigation vessel inspired by the traditional olla, equipped with an innovative flower-shaped funnel. This is how the Rain Flowers project was born.

_Workshop III: “The Łódź Meander – Łódź Birthday at Abramka”

The next activities took place in July, during the city celebrations of Łódź’s Birthday, in Abramowski Park. These were open workshops during which another meander was created – this time with plantings and enriched with fragments of wool obtained from the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw. The introduction of wool did not yet change the structure of the meander as a whole, but it made it possible to begin exploring the potential of more local and biodegradable materials. In parallel with this work, the idea emerged to create a second Experimentarium – on the trampled, depleted soil around a large tree in the park – which was intended to become a site for long-term testing of subsequent meander variants.

_Workshop IV: “Natural Weaves of Urban Greenery”

The availability of a larger amount of wool made it possible to carry out the next stage. During the workshop “Natural Weaves of Urban Greenery“, organized in cooperation with the artist Anna Raczkowska from the “Wici” Association, the first entirely wool-based meander was created. This was the only workshop fully dedicated to working with wool as a construction material. Participants created retention elements from hand-felted and plant-dyed mats, thanks to which this prototype combined a hydrological function with a craft-based form of expression. The wool meander will become a permanent element of the Experimentarium in Abramowski Park.

_ Residential Workshops

Parallel to the work on the meanders, the Rain Flowers prototyping process was developed. The first vessels were created during international Residential Workshops attended by PALIMPSEST project partners, including Politecnico di Milano, Aalborg University, Karakorum, and members of the Advisory Board. Under the guidance of Magdalena Stecka, they jointly prepared the first experimental Rain Flowers vessels, testing in practice whether the creation process was suitable for amateurs.

_Open workshops 

The next stage of prototyping involved open workshops led by Magdalena Stecka in her studio in Księży Młyn. They were attended by people involved in the project, residents interested in micro-retention, and representatives of cooperating institutions, including Deer Garden. Naturally, the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Łódź and the Management Board of Urban Greenery of the University of Łódź. Everyone co-created elements of Rain Flowers, worked with forms, shaped vessels, and prototyping became a form of education, embedded in the real process of creating objects.

As a result of these activities, several vessels were created for installation in the space at the Plant Exchange Station, where they formed the first “ceramic meadow”. Further copies were prepared by Magdalena Stecka specifically for the research conducted by ERCE PAN and the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Łódź. These series were used to test the porosity, permeability, and retention efficiency of Rain Flowers in laboratory and semi-field conditions, complementing the experience gained during the project work and workshops.