Karen Van der Perre

Department: Man and Leisure
Website: www.karenvanderperre.be

Room to Grow

Karen Van der Perre has devised a way for people who live within restricted environments, such as prisons or clinics, to interact with nature. These people live by strict schemes and cannot go outdoors whenever they want. But experiencing how things grow is beneficial to them. ‘Room to Grow’, a scheme for growing houseplants, offers a solution: the seeds are planted indoors in pots. These have a colour code to indicate how much sunlight is needed and a system for keeping track of the watering scheme. The intensive interaction between plant and caretaker achieves a therapeutic effect in places where it is most fruitful.