Compostable

«[…] prima che […] l’estate si consumi tutte le spoglie, ormai putrefatte, tornano nel terreno per renderlo grasso, nero e fertile. Non passerà molto che […] ciò che è marcito e si è disfatto riprenderà vita in forme nuove, belle e colorate.» Hermann Hesse In giardino, 1908

«[…] kaum ist wieder […] ein Gartensommer verblüht, so sind alle die Leichen schon verwest und kommen wieder in den Boden, den sie fett und schwarz und fruchtbar machen müssen, und es geht wieder nicht lange, […] so kehrt das Faule und Aufgelöste mit Macht in neuen, schönen, farbigen Gestalten wieder.» Hermann Hesse, Im Garten, 1908

Installation
Site-specific

Concept
Alan Alpenfelt

Design coordination
Camilla De Camilli

Idea e design
Marta Dell'Erba
Michael Guggenheim
Elisabetta Maifredi
Andrea Vailati

Biological and structural advice
Guido Maspoli

Compostable is an installation for the exhibition Nei Giardini di Hesse at the Hermann Hesse Museum in Montagnola, from March 29, 2025 to February 1, 2026.

Together with a handful of architecture students from the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, we imagined an installation that could involve the citizens of Montagnola and beyond, to become gardeners, poets, and bring their vegetable scraps to be transformed into precious humus. The rich soil generated over the months will be used to enrich Hermann Hesse's garden and plants.

Lo scarto entra in copostiera senza alcuna malinconia della propria identità, accettando di divenire altro, trasformandosi individualmente e trasformando l’intero composto; eterogeneo assemblaggio multilivello tra molecole, corpi uni, e pluricellulari che cooperano, negoziano, si invadono e parassitano, cambiando in continuazione l loro composizione e ciò che li circonda, al punto da rendere impossibile la differenziazione degli elementi.
- Antonia Anna Ferrante

Waste enters the composter without any melancholy about its own identity, accepting to become something else, transforming itself individually and transforming the entire mixture; a heterogeneous, multi-level assemblage of molecules, single-celled and multicellular bodies that cooperate, negotiate, invade and parasitize each other, continuously changing their composition and their surroundings, to the point of making it impossible to differentiate the elements.
- Antonia Anna Ferrante

Compost is rebellious and wild, it cherishes slow yet deep ongoing life transformation, it is colourful, it loves infinite possibilities, ends always mean new beginnings.

Often, the word “compost” makes humans think
oh no! It stinks!
oh no! all those flies!
oh no! It attracts mice!
oh no! It’s ugly!

However, the way compost behaves, is very much up to the care and actions of the humans themselves.
(Spoiler: compost actually doesn’t stink, it smells of moist wood. Mice don’t like it, unless they find meat or pasta leftovers. And what’s more, it shrinks 70% of its initial volume and becomes a dark, nutritious, healthy earth.
What one defines as waste, another defines as a source of new possibilities.)

The great Swiss poet Hermann Hesse knew this and loved compost. It was a way to take care of his garden. In fact, often poets are gardeners.
Or gardeners are poets.

We wanted to pay homage to Herman Hesse by building a new type of compost bin, which would be an inspiration to the local population and be located in front of the Hermann Hesse Museum in Montagnola. Some of the questions we asked ourselves were:

How can a structure contain, protect, sustain and valorise the conditions of an efficient transformation of a living and well-being society?
How can a structure be the skin of a system which lives as a dynamic balance between the parts, based on relations, exchanges and ratio of its regenerative cycle?
How can we create an architectural structure which can communicate and express the intrinsic beauty and positivity of what is happening inside?
Can it itself be generated by a circular process of material reuse?
Should this object be explicit or mysterious? Serve other functions, allow grafts, contaminations, appropriations?
Could it be easily replicated by the population in the future?
How can we help transform a heap of veggies into a political, philosophical, and poetical body to be inspired by?

Let’s make bacteria, fungi, worms and humans feel at home together!

If you want to know more on how to create a healthy compost, follow these two links:

EN: How to compost - a beginner’s guide
IT: Come compostare - città di Mendrisio (CH)

In collaboration with
Museo Hermann Hesse

QUICK GUIDE TO COMPOSTING!

You need 2/3 of brown material (leaves, saw dust, twigs, bark, clean cardboard..) and 1/3 of veggies.
The brown material makes sure the compost gets activated and it limits smell and flies! So keep adding!

What to add:
1/3 of:
raw fruit and vegetable scraps, stale or moldy bread, crushed eggshells, coffee grounds, tree leaves
2/3 of:
leaves, saw dust, twigs, bark, clean cardboard

What not to add:
meat and fish, plasticized cardboard, magazines, color prints, glossy paper, cigarette butts and coal ash, carnivore manure, rope, glass, plastic, metal, textiles, leather