The body of work takes on a playful and aesthetically teasing near-future language. Hortulanus is an exploration into middle-European indigenous technologies that stands exemplary for indigenous knowledge and materials anywhere. The concept is to look at nature-centered technologies which, due to their site- specificity and resilient nature, bear strong potential to be reconsidered in the future. Johanna Seelemann created her pieces using natural well-known materials that regrow annually, are compostable, and simply returnable to the soil, such as straw, loam and crop. The objects aren’t made for permanence, incorporating maintenance, change, and decay in their design.

Hortulanus employs vernacular architecture techniques from Germany while simultaneously questioning the aesthetics that long have been associated with high-tech design and 'green' design. As a result, the project questions whether the high-tech solutions society is currently pursuing will have the longevity and reliability of their nature-centric alternatives.

The objects are made in one part from straw panels, a newly engineered material, using agricultural leftover straw and additives like miscanthus, hemp and sea grass, which are fully biodegradable. Other parts are finished with clay plaster, as it renders the structure more stable and has excellent qualities for the indoor room climate. As loam is raw and unfired, it can be reused and reshaped by simply adding water to it, or it can returned to the ground. Details like corn ears from barley and wheat were collected in the fields in July before the harvest and in a manner accustomed with German harvest ritual objects.