The Living Library is a transdisciplinary project developed at the Bio Design Lab of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Over the course of two years, it fostered practice-based learning focused on locally sourced raw materials within a 50-kilometre radius around the academy, experimental making, and regenerative modes of production.
The project is a hybrid and continually evolving ecosystem. It brings together a physical archive showing material samples, tools, processes, and workshop artefacts, and a digital archive featuring interactive maps, research, and material documentation. Guided by the principles of compostability, locality, and sustainability, the project follows ecological rhythms of seeding, growing, harvesting, and decay. Students, researchers, and local practitioners collaborated to map regional resources, harvest and transform bio-based materials, and investigate their lifecycles from origin to decomposition.
This publication reflects the project’s circular approach. It documents the physical and digital Living Library and brings together a series of essays that explore themes such as the archival qualities of soil or the garden-like cultivation of digital platforms. These essays invite readers to reconsider how knowledge can be grown, shared, and ultimately returned to the ground from which it emerged.