The Nature Design Guide (NDG) is the annual micro publication of the Nature Design Camp (NDC), which took place for the second time in the UNESCO Biosphärenpark Großes Walsertal in spring 2023. The NDG serves as a guide and orientation for systematic thinking with nature, especially water in times of the Anthropocene. The NDC curator duo Christoph Matt and Isadora Alves present a guide, which combines knowledge and interaction over several sections.
The water glossary with the Lutz map offer the opportunity to explore the blue heart of the biosphere reserve, documenting your observations and preserving them for the future. In addition, creative text contributions from different parts of Europe around the theme of water from near and far have been produced in the course of the NDC Changemaker Fellowship. The combination of perception of water from a scientific and creative perspective is meant to help you to find a conscious approach to nature and water.
The guide can thus function as a perspective kaleidoscope, a perception barometer or to orient you. On a scale from valuable micro-reading to maximum interactivity, anything is possible. Regardless of what it serves you personally, it is ultimately an ode to water and humans, and thus to our togetherness as Homo Aquaticus.
Prelude by Dr. Gerd Estermann
A UNIQUE ELEMENT
What a delightful feeling to move in water, free, in all three dimensions of space,
weightless, completely enclosed by this unique element. The Chinese philosopher Laotse
already stated in the 6th century before Christ: “In the whole world there is nothing
softer and weaker than water. And yet, in the way it adds to the concrete, nothing
equals it.” In fact, even the hardest rock cannot withstand water indefinitely, as the
rocky landscapes formed by rivers or the surf impressively confirm.
The resistance that water offers to any movement, but which it also yields to at the
same time, is an elementary experience. From a scientific point of view, it is the
attractive forces between the water molecules that are responsible for the diverse
and special properties. Water molecules are extremely “social” particles, interacting
intensively with each other, changing partners in a fraction of a second, thus ensuring
the highest degree of adaptation to any shape and movement. A single molecule has
no properties in the macroscopic sense, no melting or boiling point, no color or other
optical properties.
It is the sum of the particles and, above all, their interaction that make water the
substance we know or think we know. Despite centuries of research, by no means
all the secrets of this fascinating medium have been uncovered. Water is the basis of
all life. Only if we succeed in protecting springs, rivers and oceans sufficiently and
sustainably, future generations also will be able to live on this beautiful
The publication is a collaboration of the Nature Design Camp and the UNESCO
Biosphärenpark Großes Walsertal, supported by the federal government, the federal
province and the European Union (LEADER). The production was implemented with the
environmentally friendly printing process risography, using only recycled paper from
Herr & Frau Rio. The risography uses rice bran-based inks, hemp fiber master sheets,
and uses a fraction of the energy of a digital press.
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© Nature Design Camp, UNESCO Biosphärenpark Großes Walsertal, 2023
©Isadora Alves & her dear friends 2025