“The goal of this collaborative project was to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange between students from various subject areas and to work together to create initial concepts for a potential university pavilion at the Bundesgartenschau,” explains Professor Mirjam Hey, vice-president at Hochschule Geisenheim University. The hope is that a dedicated pavilion at the 2029 Bundesgartenschau could serve as an exhibition and event venue for the partner universities, as well as an inspiring space for academic and professional exchange.
During the course of the 2024/25 winter semester, this interdisciplinary teaching project helped students from three different fields of study shape their initial ideas into more tangible concepts. The project was led by Professor Lydia Kater-Wettstädt (Primary School Pedagogy, Koblenz University), Eva Cift (Architecture, Koblenz University of Applied Sciences), as well as Professor Sebastian Sowa and Lukas Weber (Open Space Development, Hochschule Geisenheim University). For both teachers and students, this collaborative form of learning and sharing ideas was a special experience.
“We were pleased to see students taking such bold and lively approaches to this challenge, and are delighted with the multifaceted ideas that developed as a result,” says Bernd Metz, the Bundesgartenschau coordinator at Hochschule Geisenheim University, who – together with Julia Trapp (Koblenz University of Applied Sciences) and Dr Miriam Voigt (Koblenz University) – initiated this inter-university project and now provides organizational support. It is especially important to the three coordinators that students not only benefit from the teaching experience but are also continuously involved in the project’s continued development, from the planning through to the realization and use of the pavilion. Dr Voigt has the event itself in focus: “Direct contact between students and visitors to the 2029 Bundesgartenschau has the potential to be another highlight of this project.”
Four universities are behind the cooperation, namely Bingen University of Applied Sciences, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Koblenz University, and Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. The project has also received support from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which has funded a coordination role at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences since January 2025. “As universities in the Middle Rhine Valley, we want to make a contribution to the continued development of sustainability in the region and present the results during the Bundesgartenschau in 2029,” says Professor Heiko Weckmüller, vice-president at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences.
An Important Step on the Road to the Bundesgartenschau
On February 3, 2025, the students presented the results of their hard work to interested university guests and representatives of the Bundesgartenschau at a two-hour event at Hochschule Geisenheim University’s Villa Monrepos. The evening ended on a relaxed note, with guests being served pretzels and wine, but there was nonetheless plenty of chatter and excited planning amongst the various poster displays. After the success of the evening, it is clear that there will be follow-up projects in the spring.
There are still plenty of open questions to pursue, as students will need to further develop their architectural and landscape design ideas, as well as delve deeper into concepts for exhibitions and didactic communication activities. At the same time, the universities, the Bundesgartenschau’s organizers, and the local councils will need to coordinate on important parameters, such as the location of the university pavilion and the project’s funding.
Even if these are still just initial, tentative ideas that will need fleshing out in the coming years, a first step has been taken. Together with their dedicated student bases, the universities are on their way to shaping their contribution to the 2029 Bundesgartenschau.
