Forest of Reconnection lies in the meeting point between the forest, ritual and city. It is a place where a ritual can transform our understanding of the forest and propose a new relationship with the surrounding environment by ritualizing our behavior towards and creating an emotional connection with it.
The Cultural Hub, a central element of the project, is a congregational ground for the village Karangasem in Gunung Kidul regency, Yogyakarta. It is designed to provide means for collaboration and act as a common ground for the city with is knowledge, technology and information and countryside to interact, proposing new ways of managing the land, agriculture and forest activity. Located at the edge of the lake Telaga, it initiates ritualized reforestation of the area with opportunity for a new economy. The cultural activity of the hub is structured around the existing festival introducing new forms of offering that reimagine the old tradition.
The Cultural Hub, a congregational ground at the edge of Telaga Sunut
Section showing the market area
Reforestation scheme consists of three stages: planting grass and pioneer legume species, species trials of commercial trees, then teak and fruit trees plantation
As the new forest grows, the structure develops with it, getting more and more overgrown and finally becoming one with nature.
Site analysis: Migration in Gunung Kidul
Site analysis: soil and water resources in the karst area
Stretching outwards from the centre, reforestation program takes up the slopes of the cockpit karst landform leaving valley bottoms with more fertile soil for agricultural activity
Walking Forest is a ritual of bringing the forest into an urban scenario. By wearing the construct a person becomes a vessel for the forest, its messenger, generating new encounters.
