Belfast Community Plant Library
We are super excited to be working on an exciting new collaborative project Belfast Community Plant Library for Culture Night on Friday 18th September. For this exciting new project we are working in collaboration with one bite design, an architecture-based, multidisciplinary design firm and Hong Kong’s first certified B-Corp architecture practice, David Keys Woodworker, the Green Re:make group, plant expert Jilly Dougan, Karishma Kusurkar and Blick Shared Studios.
Belfast Community Plant Library will be an interactive event during Culture Night that will bring together designers, plant enthusiasts and the community to explore Belfast’s relationship with plant life and place through an interactive design installation, plant clinic and community co-design workshop.
On the run up to Belfast Community Plant Library we will be gathering stories about local people and their experiences with plants.
How idea came about
The Belfast Community Plant Library is a collaborative initiative between Belfast Design Week and onebite Design Studio (Hong Kong, Singapore and London). The project was inspired by an impromptu meeting between the two organisations in Hong Kong in 2024, where they discovered a shared set of values and a common vision for creating meaningful, plant-centred community spaces.
We (Belfast Design Week and Blick Shared Studios) had recently completed the Grow Your Own Way project. A project which brought together designers and gardeners to explore the potential for supporting residents to grow their own food within the urban environments of Botanic and the Holylands in Belfast. We were in Hong Kong working on a design installation for the British Council Spark Festival 2024 when we met Alan from onebite design at his studio where we saw the plant library on the street outside. We had a great meeting with Alan and left very inspired by the work they do. We loved the plant library as an accessible intervention to bring green spaces to cities. We left with hopes of collaborating in the future and in 2025 Alan and his business partner Sarah visited Belfast and we then worked together on Islands of Design for Irish Design Week.
Onebite had come up with the idea for the Community Plant Library in 2021 as a collaborative platform to introduce native plants in Hong Kong. By collaborating with nearly 20 local shops in San Po Kong, a neighbourhood known for light industries and traditional retail shops, the library hoped to display, gather, and introduce plants to reinvigorate the community, and to discover the social and cultural value of a plant in urban context by using plants to initiate conversations and collect interesting information about the community network. The Community Plant Library encouraged local residents to walk around and get to know their community, offering the opportunity for fresh encounters and interactions in public spaces among plant lovers.
In the first part of the programme, onebite worked with 30 partner shops, ranging from snacks shops, herbal tea shops, and eateries to co-design and adopt “plant furniture”, using the power of flora and fauna to transform the look and mood of their interior spaces. The furniture was made with discarded wood materials gathered by Coutou Woodworking Studio from Nan Fung Group’s construction site. Based on a few prototypes, onebite and Coutou then customised the plant furniture based on requirements gathered from partner shops, making the design process to design a dual functional plant rack collaborative and insightful in understanding users’ needs.
In 2023 the second edition of Community Plant Library took place in Hong Kong in partnership with Partnerships Community Development (PCD). The location shifted to Sheung Wan and Sham Shui Po, a traditional residential neighbourhood with both new and traditional arts and cultural attractions such as bookshops, cafes, and art galleries.
Apart from retaining popular programmes in the inaugural round (2021) such as the roving plant clinic, the second round also invited groups of participants, comprising residents and others of all ages to join as plant librarians, mapping out the plants in the neighbourhood and designing wood furniture for potted plants through workshop and guided tour sessions. They were also involved in creating a large-scale Community Plant Map of Sheung Wan with well- known map illustrator, Maoshan Connie. they also invited local artists to lead plant-inspired art workshops, such as botanical storybook sharing and creation workshops led by artist Connie, Garlic Lamp Making workshop conducted by artist Tsang Tak-ping, and illustrator Ivy Wong’s botanical sketching workshop.
More Info On the Project
At the heart of the project will be an interactive design installation created by onebite Design Studio. Designed as a living, evolving space, the installation will invite participation from the public through an ongoing co-design process and during a dedicated community workshop. The structure will be sustainably manufactured by David Keys Woodworker using environmentally responsible materials.
The installation will be located in Bankmore Square during Culture Night on Friday 18 September. This public setting will encourage passersby to interact with and contribute to the project throughout the evening.
Visitors will be invited to bring their own plants and planters to add to the installation, share personal stories, photographs, and information connected to plants, or take home plants and plant-related knowledge gathered through the experience.
As part of Culture Night, a community co-design workshop will bring together designers, makers, volunteers, plant specialists, and local residents to collectively shape and build the installation. Participants will be encouraged to contribute local and native plants alongside stories and memories that reflect Belfast’s relationship with plant life and place.
Alongside the workshop, a drop-in Plant Clinic will support community connection, placemaking, and a sense of belonging. Local plant expert Jilly Dougan will share practical advice, offer plant care guidance, and help curate the placement of plants within the installation.
In the lead-up to the event, an online campaign will invite the public to submit stories, memories, and information about Belfast and its plant culture. We will work with a local illustrator to create a Belfast Community Plant Map that we will print and distribute during Culture Night. These contributions will also be shared digitally to promote the event at Culture Night and as part of the installation, creating an evolving archive of community voices and local plant knowledge.
