Future Scenarios of Allotment Gardens in the context of increasing urban densification and urban open space policies

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Project Logo
DOI of the original publication
Project type
angewandte Forschung
Project start
01.02.2014
Project end
31.07.2016
Project status
abgeschlossen
Project contact
Project manager
Description
Abstract
Allotment gardens have been scarcely addressed by planning actors. This has recently changed due to the reorganisation of cities as places to live, work, and invest. The corresponding urban growth has led to urban densification and discussions of economically low-value utilisation of urban space. Concurrently, because of new urban life-styles other forms of urban gardening and leisure interests have arisen and questions concerning the future of allotment gardens have been embedded in considerations of the suitable supply of open space. Hence, approaches to allotment gardens and its conditions for transformation have become a central question of urban development policy. The research project addressed this question by analysing discourses on spatial policies in the context of social change and its implications for allotment gardens and other forms of urban gardening. Planning practices, such as urban and social planning, was analysed in Swiss metropolitan areas to develop future scenarios in densely-developed areas. The research project was part of the COST Action TU1201 «Urban Allotment Gardens in European Cities - Future, Challenges and Lessons Learned» (20122016) and contributed to the international knowledge transfer through conference presentations and publications.
Created during FHNW affiliation
Strategic action fields FHNW
School
Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit
Institute
Institut Sozialplanung, Organisationaler Wandel und Stadtentwicklung
Financed by
Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation SBFI
Project partner
TUD COST Action TU1201
Contracting authority
SAP reference
S256-0061
Keywords
Allotment gardens
open space policy
qualitative analysis
urban densification
urban gardening
Subject (DDC)
300 - Sozialwissenschaften
Publications
Publication
How to develop urban gardens as learning spaces
(2016) Willman, Krista; Thomas, Nicola; Oehler, Patrick; Huber, Timo [in: Urban Gardens in Europe : Info Series]
01B - Beitrag in Magazin oder Zeitung
Publication
The Power of the Many. The fight for allotment gardens in Basel
(2016) Drilling, Matthias; Thomas, Nicola; Oehler, Patrick [in: Nordic Jounal of Architectural Research]
01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift
Publication
The idea of allotment gardens and the role of spatial urban planning
(Routledge, 2016) Drilling, Matthias; Giedych, Renata; Ponizy, Lidia; Bell, Simon; Fox-Kämper, Runrid; Keshavarz, Nazila; Benson, Mary; Caputo, Silvio; Noori, Susan; Voigt, Annette [in: Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe]
04A - Beitrag Sammelband
Publication
Urban gardening and green space governance: towards new collaborative planning practices
(Cogitatio Press, 2016) Nikolaidou, Sofia; Klöti, Tanja; Tappert, Simone; Drilling, Matthias [in: Urban Planning]
In the context of urban densification and central urban areas’ lack of open spaces, new forms of small-scale urban gardening practices have emerged. These gardening practices respond to urban pressures and open new modes of green space governance, presenting alternative and multifunctional ways to manage and revitalise cities. Focusing on the case of Geneva, the article unfolds two levels of discussion. On the one hand—and with reference to the theorist Habermas—it examines how multiple actors with different interests interplay and cooperate with each other in order to negotiate over open space, while discussing implications for local politics and planning. On the other hand, it describes how these negotiations result in new, innovative, and hybrid forms of public green space. The main findings indicate emerging forms of collaboration, partnerships, and governance patterns that involve public and private sectors and increase participation by civil society actors. Cooperation amongst several interested groups and the collective re-invention of public urban spaces increase these spaces’ accessibility for multiple users and actors, as well as present possibilities for alternative and diversified uses and activities. This might underline the hypothesis that future cities will be governed in less formalised ways, and that urban forms will be created through spontaneous, temporary, mobile, and adaptive negotiation processes.
01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift