The team of two designers worked in collaboration with a series of creative practitioners from different fields to explore how they can create a more sustainable way of living in the 21st century and to examine how we can minimise our impact on our ecological environment through the sharing of knowledge, ideas and taking an experimental approach to design.

A weed is a plant out of place. An undesirable plant because it is out of human-control. These plants grow in places where they don’t belong, places that are governed by us. This simplifying definition reflects our relationship with nature and our desire to control and grow the species that we define as beautiful. As such weeds become disregarded and unseen, all presence removed from our carefully curated spaces.

These species are seen as intruders causing anarchy by growing in unwanted spaces. This brings to question on how humans try to control nature but nature has its own agenda. All species have in themselves a value, only by existing, independent of the values humans ascribe to them. As a contribution to overlooked plants, this project is a study of the personal characteristics and life of these plants.

“Plants Out Of Place” aims to unveil lost knowledge and narratives to challenge our perceptions of these undesirable species and to facilitate the celebration of the unwanted and the unseen. The project seeks to engage with the wider communities to reconsider the value of wild plants and how we may utilise them to design for a more sustainable future.