A/Z&T

Wunderkammer, online resource catalogue

Günther Vogt's "Wunderkammer" is the result of a 3-year research project together with his chair at the ETH Zurich.
The goal was to create a source of inspiration and reference for everything related to landscape architecture.
Research which has so far been documented mainly in analogue form was to be given a digital representation.
For the chair, a strong source of inspiration was the concept of the Wunderkammer, which flourished especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. A cabinet of curiosities, that follows the interests of its owner and inspires others.
The resulting platform combines several features Wunderkammer features: it brings dissimilar objects together and creates multiple references between them; its content highlights the special interests of the chair but also of the individual collectors.
The possibilities of the online medium turn the "Wunderkammer" into a digital construction kit in which the objects appear in various combinations. The navigation is guided by a specially developed ontology, acting as a filter.
The individual records are generously presented...
...and can themselves act as filters for related content.
A special educational feature of the "Wunderkammer" is that records can be gathered in collections that discuss specific topics through editorial contributions.
This function is also used to answer specific questions from students about specific things, or landscape architecture in general.
Last but not least, the students themselves create references by arranging objects in their own collections and printing them out as workbooks.