Around 600 trees planted by architecture students at Fachhochschule Dortmund in recent years to mark the start of their studies have been given a new location. Together with the city's Parks Department, the Faculty of Architecture managed a perfectly organized relocation.
Carefully excavated tree by tree, transported to the other side of Dorstfelder Allee and - well watered in fresh topsoil - professionally replanted: thanks to the initiative of the project team and the active support of architecture students and employees of the Parks Department, the transfer was successful after just two days and the grove of hornbeams, rowanberries and chestnuts was successfully relocated.
Proximity to nature
Initially, the city had made an area of around 3,500 square meters near the Emil-Figge-Straße campus available to the university. In the development plan, the area on the renaturalized Emscher between Dorstfelder Allee and Emscherpfad was designated as a possible expansion area for an allotment garden site. However, it was not until the coronavirus pandemic that the need for a corresponding new use actually arose. Many people discovered how nice it is to be out in nature, to grow their own fruit and vegetables, to watch plants grow and to spend time with others in the garden as a family.
A green start to your studies
As the "ErstTrees", which have been planted every year since the 2020 winter semester to give students a green start to their studies, are still young, they could now be easily relocated to the neighboring grounds at Dorstfeld cemetery, where they will grow into an urban forest in the future.
Background to the "ErstTrees" project
The "ErstTrees" project aims to make first-year students in the Faculty of Architecture aware of the sustainable resources they need to consider when planning buildings and how materials such as wood can be reused. The trees, which the students take care of as they progress through their studies, also symbolically create a tangible link to the topic of sustainability(Opens in a new tab) , which Fachhochschule Dortmund takes into account on several levels.