Tag Archives: on cities

OpenGreens research : outline of the project

Open Greens : marginal zones where culture and nature overlap and enter into a symbiotic relationship. The Kabinet : a collection of city gardens, abandoned agricultural and industrial spaces or miniature parcs on your balconies and window sills. Discover how you can expand your creative space by participating in an ecological network, studying the interactions between organisms and their environment.

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Research on the ecology of urban habitats, guided by the observation of city honeybees.
The range of habitats in urban areas is surprising. Most of the major terrestrial habitat types are represented in towns and cities, either as remnants of previously rural environments, or as artificial analogues of semi-natural habitats.
The Open Green project focuses on two rooftopgardens located in Brussels’ city center on 400 m from one another : an edible forest rooftop garden on top of a parking lot and a wild flower rooftop garden on top of an old warehouse.
The Open Green project blends organic and technological matter into one and the same nature. Through analogue and digital means we do long term observations on the growth, blossoming and decay of plants and insects submitted to natural elements such as wind, sun, rain and pollution in an urban context.
We monitor and extract data from natural processes both on micro garden level as on macro city level and make these data in realtime available online via open wireless citynetworks.
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improvisation for 2 veggie winter tagines

Tagine recipies with vegetables from the season – some of them straight from our city rooftop garden:
take 2 tagine cookers, a 31cm one and a 25cm one. Soak them for some moments in water.
Ingredients for the smallest tagine pot, in chronological order: virgin olive oil, ginger powder, cardemom pods, sliced onions, sliced parsnip, potatoes, pepper, seasalt, thyme and suffuse with a little bit of water. Turn the fire low, check the moistness regularly.
Put following ingredients in chronological order in the bigger pot : virgin olive oil, freshly picked sage (whole twigs), thyme, seasalt and black pepper, sliced onions, garden beans, 10 garlic cloves, 10 fresh dates, homemade honey, brussels sprouts, beetroot and suffuse with a bit of water. Turn the fire low and stir once in a while.

okno, foam and klorofil @ micronomics


Since 2006, City Mine(d) devote themselves to the issue of economic paradoxes in Brussels. Under the banner MICRONOMICS, they look for answers at the micro scale. They have brought together a wealth of micro-initiatives, who are actively building an urban micro-economy that is fair to those who take part in it and that is at the heart of the way our cities are shaped.
During the 2010 Micronomics festival, Klorofil, FoAM and OKNO join forces to spread the green virus in the city. In a collaborative action they organize seed-balling workshops, construct small vertical gardens and give all information on how to grow your own vegetables on the tiniest spaces in the city …
Interested to join us? The workshops start on May 1st at Micromarché, from 11:00 am.
Check the Micronomicsprogram here.