Die Fachhochschule Dortmund nennt die Setzlinge “ErstTrees”—these are the trees that architecture students plant on Dorstfelder Allee at the start of their studies. With the 1,000th “ErstTree”—planted by University of Applied Sciences President Prof. Dr. Tamara Appel and Head of the Parks and Recreation Department Heiko Just—the grove has now reached a milestone on its way to becoming a future urban forest.
The Faculty of Architecture procured 120 hornbeams, rowan trees, and sweet chestnuts for this year’s initiative—one for each of the 120 first-semester students—and called on them to plant one tree each. Since the project began at the start of the 2020–21 winter semester, the new students in each graduating class have planted 100 to 200 trees, bringing the total number of trees planted to four figures this time.
An Important Building Material
For the organizers, Laura Wiederhold and Guido Kollert from the Faculty of Architecture, the trees symbolize wood as a building material—one of the most important raw materials in architecture. In their view, the initiative serves several purposes: As they plant them, the freshmen experience the “ErstTrees” not as a building material, but as a living part of the world that must be protected and preserved sustainably.
Furthermore, as the trees grow, so does the students’ connection to Fachhochschule Dortmund. “The idea is,” Guido Kollert tells the students, “that you’ll leave something lasting behind here.”
"Tree islands just fit right in"
The faculty is providing the trees, and the City of Dortmund’s Parks and Recreation Department is providing the land. Its director, Heiko Just, wholeheartedly supports the Fachhochschule Dortmund’s initiative. In his view, the location near the Dorstfeld Cemetery is ideal because “on the one hand, it’s close to the university, and on the other, it’s an area that was already a relatively extensive green space to begin with, and the tree islands simply fit in very well here. “We’re happy to be able to do this with the university every year.”