A seed-based participatory toolkit that transforms shared spaces into platforms for conversation, reflection, and community connection.

Sow & Tell is a participatory experience designed to foster conversation, reflection, and connection within community green spaces. Using seeds as both a physical and symbolic medium, the project invites participants to engage with their environment—and each other—through storytelling and exchange.

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THE OPPORTUNITY

Public green spaces often rely on passive engagement. While people share the same environment, opportunities for meaningful interaction and dialogue are limited.
This project asks: How might we design simple, accessible interactions that encourage people to connect through shared space?

THE APPROACH
Sow & Tell introduces a lightweight, modular toolkit combining:
- Seed cards and plant matching
- Prompt-based storytelling
- Open-ended interaction between participants
The system is intentionally flexible–structured enough to guide participation, yet open enough to allow for personal interpretation and improvisation.

THE EXPERIENCE
Participants:
- Match seeds to plants
- Exchange stories or reflections tied to nature and place
- Contribute perspectives shaped by their own experiences
What begins as a simple activity evolves into a shared dialogue, where knowledge, memory, and identity intersect.

KEY INSIGHT
Tangible objects can act as powerful social catalysts.
Seeds–small, familiar, and symbolic–lower the barrier to participation while creating space for deeper engagement. By grounding interaction in something physical, the experience becomes more approachable, inclusive, and memorable.

WHY IT MATTERS.
Sow & Tell reframes engagement in public spaces as something active, collective, and evolving.
Rather than designing for passive use, it creates conditions for:
- Conversation
- Knowledge sharing
- Community connection

REFLECTION
This project demonstrates how design can facilitate–not dictate– interaction.