Design Map · Eindhoven
The Five Seasons of Care
Graduation project by Greta Pauer at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
The Lüneburger Heide is a landscape maintained through grazing, labour and continuous care. Without the yearly movement of sheep, the heathland would slowly become forest. Drawing on childhood visits to her grandparents’ farmhouse, Greta Pauer examines the care that keeps this ecosystem alive.
Based on an interview with a shepherd in Wilsede, the project follows five seasons: lambing, spring care, heath season, autumn after-grazing and winter. Each is translated into a soap bar made from locally sourced sheep fat, usually discarded by the butcher. Hay, honey, ash, wool, wood, moss, earth and plant scents give each season its own material character. A map marks local ingredients and features of the area, while the packaging is based on her grandfather’s drawings and memories of the farmhouse. Together, they translate the care that sustains the Heide into forms that can be held, smelled and rinsed.