design your workshop experience
Atelier Florestania brings together hands-on learning, environmental knowledge, and community creativity to offer workshop experiences that are nourishing and transformative. Whether you are a corporate team looking to reconnect to nature, or a university class exploring circular design — we shape the experience around you.
Our offerings include plastic upcycling into forest-inspired sculptures, urban foraging walks, presentations on ancestral herbalism, the hidden effects of plastics on our health, and our signature session: Reforesting the Imagination. Each workshop is facilitated by a directory of experienced, personable guides who bring genuine warmth and expertise to every session.
At the heart of every experience is the same invitation — to slow down, make something together, and reimagine our relationship with the living world.
Write to us at transformplastic(a)florestania.at and tell us about your company or organization, group size, and general interests, and we'll help you design something that fits, and provide a pricing quote. You can choose one of the workshops below, or combine multiple workshops for a full-day experience.
WORKSHOP OFFERINGS
Core Session: Reforesting the Imagination
Facilitator: Mary Maggic (Artist & Workshopologist)
Before we can care for a forest, we must first be able to imagine belonging to one. This signature Florestania session opens with a presentation on the concept of florestania — what it means, why it matters, and why this particular moment in history is calling for it. From there, we move into a collective exercise in speculative imagining: a guided journey that invites participants to loosen the boundaries between self and nature, and to dream, together, of a different relationship with the living world.
Plastic Upcycling: Growing a Forest from Waste
Facilitators: Fantoplast & Precious Plastic Vienna
What if the plastic we discard could become the forest we are trying to protect? In this hands-on workshop, participants are guided through a series of techniques for transforming urban plastic waste. Through plastic shredding, heat-sculpting, injection molding, and weaving, participants create forest-inspired sculptures that carry the energy of the collective process. More than craft, these pieces become lasting ecological symbols — a tangible reminder of your organization's commitment to reimagining waste, creativity, and care for the earth.
Re-imagining Urban Identity with Plants
Facilitators: Oi Pui Hoang (Biologist & Cultural Organizer) & Aki Lee (Artist in Social Design)
This workshop begins with an introduction to the Lianjiang Herbalist, a 2021 project in Qingyuan Canton, China where 107 identified plants tell the story of community resilience and belonging in an urban landscape. Next, we go on a group foraging walk to identify the local plant species around us. This collective exercise will bring a fresh new awareness on our relationship with plants and what urban identity means.
Plastic and Our Health
Facilitator: Dr. Maša Kenda (Toxicologist)
What toxic effects do chemicals in plastics have? What is our exposure and how can we protect our health and the environment? Dr. Maša Kenda is a toxicologist focusing on the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals in cancer development and is passionate about knowledge sharing in the public sphere.
Roots of Wisdom: Ancestral Herbalism
Facilitator: Cristian Mesa (Researcher from the Colombian Amazon)
This workshop is a sensory journey into the living pharmacy of the Colombian Amazon. The objective of this workshop is to educate, preserve ancestral wisdom, and promote the aware and responsible use of plants. We begin with an introduction to the “Healing Jungle,” plants that heal and purify, followed by "The Women's Apothecary" and finally to the ethics and sustainability of endangered plants. Cristian Mesa is a Colombian born and raised medicine man, who specializes in ethnobotanical and traditional medicine practices from native and Indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest.
