Water Barn

For the first four weeks of this fall semester, a gathering space in the garden of Hönggerberg is being built. The structure will be a Doppelgänger of an early work of Frank Gehry: The O’Neill Hay Barn, which is located in San Juan Capistrano in California. The North American West Coast is also where the sequoia redwood - the material we work with - originates. Urban myths claim that seeds were gifted to Zurich’s high society by Queen Victoria. These seeds of the sequoia trees were usually planted in villa parks all around Zurich and have grown for over a century. Now, affected by climate change and disease, one tree needed to be cut down, presenting the rare opportunity to work with this precious wood with its striking red color.

It is called the Water Barn, though it has many nicknames. It is a shelter. It is a structure for the previously abandoned wisteria to grow on. It is a visual marker.

It is a slanted surface, where water for the garden is collected.

It is a project, we are working on.

questions we ask

or: the replantation of a wysteria

where do we even stand with this project

where are our feet

is there so much weed around them

that we don’t see where we stand

what do we hold on to, when the old structure is gone

do we grab each others arms and entangle ourselves

but where is the end of me

and the beginning of you

is there too much material of us

which branches do we deem unnecessary

what happens to discarded limbs

after we cut them off

how deep run our roots

how much strength is needed to unearth us

how long will we survive out here

without any ground to stand on