Black Box Garden is a project that took place between April and November 2011 at Krøyers Plads, which at the time was a deserted site situated in Copenhagen by the harbor. Berner cultivated a site-specific garden from the existing vegetation and materials found there.

In high season, Berner did gardening work at the site every day and wrote about the day’s labor and experiences in a logbook. She designed the garden according to the growth of the plants and not the other way around, which has the plants adapt to a design. As part of the project, Berner mapped out the diversity of the plant species growing at the site – the most expensive and contentious wasteland in Copenhagen at the time, and she observed the many interests involved around this particular semi-public space.

The list of species collected numbers 92 and represents a ‘Black Box’ of this site, a recording of what took place here and what influenced the development of the vegetation.

Today, the site contains some of the most expensive residential and commercial properties in Copenhagen.