Concept Summary

With its theme "Growing Green Cities", Floriade Expo 2022 sought answers for a greener urban future. Humorous, multi-layered, and light-hearted, the German Garden presented "BIOTOPIA - Growing Community", an urban utopia promoting co-creativity, diversity, and exchange. BIOTOPIA encouraged active visitor participation by highlighting the role of community as its central narrative. Fun, interactive elements communicated innovative solutions and best practice examples in the four sub-themes of Green, Food, Health, and Energy. Smart bracelets were given to guests to collect theme-specific icons, activate show pieces, and 'like' ideas. The exhibition's grand finale displayed the collected icons, representing the individual’s and Growing Community’s interests. These were then transformed and visualized into a collaborative urban vision for the future. Within the six months of its exhibit length, the German Garden welcomed over 685.000 visitors in the Dutch city Almere, amongst which 133 nationalities were recorded. The participation of more than 79.000 BIOTOPIA visitors successfully proved the project’s central narrative of making a sustainable change through a community's combined strength and effort.