Urban Allotments

DUŽÍ, Barbora - TÓTH, Attila - BIHUŇOVÁ, Mária - STOJANOV, Robert. 2014. Challenges of Urban Agriculture: Highlights on the Czech and Slovak Republic Specifics. In VÁVRA, Jan - LAPKA, Miloslav - CUDLÍNOVÁ, Eva (eds.) Current challenges of Central Europe: society and environment. Praha : Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, pp. 82-107. 194 p. ISBN 978-80-7308-551-3.

The paper illustrates some grass-root allotment gardening practices in the Roman area, including the activities of Lavangaquadra (Nova Arcadia) active in the fifth municipality of Rome, focusing on the pollution of metropolitan soils and the relationship between archaeological models and allotment design.

The agrarian reform, promised by King Ferdinand during World War I and enacted shortly after its end, determined the introduction of the measure of allotment at a large scale, exceeding the rural context, as a specific instrument of the interwar Romanian social policy. The introduction of the measure of allotment through the agrarian reform served as a precedent for the enactment of the legislation regarding the distribution of building plots in the cities. Thus, in 1921, the year when the second phase of the enactment of the agrarian reform was ending, another law that governed the distribution of building plots in all Romanian provinces was promulgated: The Law that Authorizes the Cities to Sell Building Plots to Invalids, Widows with War Orphans, Public Servants, and to All Ex-Servicemen. In Transylvania, its provisions overlapped some of those of the agrarian law of this province.
The legislation regarding the distribution of building plots generated inevitable expansions of urban areas, leading to the territorial growth of more than 80 cities throughout the country. The extensions were produced at a very rapid pace, in a context of sustained attempts to introduce the systematization plan as an indispensable instrument of rational urban development. It was initially sustained by various specialists in the field and, after 1925, through the administrative legislation of the country.
Starting from these premises, the paper follows the legislative context of the distribution of building plots, its quantitative and qualitative impact on the development of the cities during the interwar period, and the positions of various state authorities and specialists in relation to the issue of subordinating the inevitable expansions to a planned urban development.

ABSTRACT: The valuation of urban ecosystem services may be a valuable diagnostic tool for programming revitalization processes. At the same time, the specific nature of these processes and a multitude of their aspects, thus, a high cost of implementing them (as it involves extended social research, field studies, etc.), make it unjustifiable to undertake yet another environmental diagnosis due to financial and time reasons. It would thus seem reasonable to include such issues in the situations when it is possible to use data from other studies and analyses carried out in a given area or comparable data from other spatial units.

STRESZCZENIE: Wycena świadczeń ekosystemów miejskich może stać się elementem ewaluacji działań strate-gicznych i planistycznych w miastach. Szczególnie wartościowa wydaje się w odniesieniu do procesów rewitalizacji przestrzeni. Specyfika procesu odnowy przestrzeni miejskiej, połączonej z szerokim spektrum inter wencji spo-łeczno-ekonomicznej, umożliwia wykorzystanie co najmniej kilku metod wyceny świadczeń. Zdecydo wanie mniej kosztowne wydaje się jednak posługiwanie się wynikami badań prowadzonych dla innych potrzeb lub adaptowanie wyników z innych jednostek przestrzennych. Jako przykład praktycznego zastosowania zaprezento wano ewaluację świadczeń dla terenów zieleni poddawanych rewitalizacji w Gnieźnie.

Using empirical ethnographic data, and citing UK allotments as a case study, this think piece examines changes in the use of urban growing spaces as a response to a national crisis. Despite established links between urban growing spaces and improved health, competition for land globally threatens their existence. In the UK, COVID-19 has drawn attention to the importance of urban allotments as local resources and a means of increasing food security. Even so, some European local authorities quickly closed urban allotments in response to the pandemic. Allotments in their design offer a ready-made socially distanced solution to urban food, mental and physical health challenges. This think piece exposes the divergence between citizens’ actions and government responses to the pandemic.

The aim of this paper is to introduce urban agriculture (UA) in Barcelona Metropolitan Region on four case studies including different types of UA at several scales and in diverse contexts. The seven analysed case studies were selected with the purpose to emphasise the diversity and complexity of UA and in order to discuss diverse aspects and issues related to different typologies. We grouped these case studies into four main categories. The smallest scale is represented by the category of urban gardens, followed by squat farming, vineyard landscape, up to the largest scale represented by the category of agricultural parks. Our main objective is to provide a complex analysis of spatial and perceptual characteristics of UA sites in relation to their users. We used UA Identity Cards as a tool to summarise the most important issues and information about selected case studies in the form of factsheets including also results of our spatial and perceptual analyses. KEY WORDS agricultural parks, squat farming, urban agriculture, urban gardens, vineyard landscape.

Lettura e progetto di spazi urbani collettivi nel paesaggio: il ruolo della storia per il transetto processuale
Alessandro Camiz Ph.D.
”Sapienza” Università di Roma, Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto, Laboratorio di Lettura e Progetto dell'Architettura
[email protected]
Parole chiave: Morfologia urbana, progetto urbano, transect theory

Atelier 9:  "Spazi pubblici/paesaggi comuni: un progetto per la rigenerazione urbana"


Tesi sostenuta

Secondo un parallelo tra morfologia urbana e biologia, la teoria del transetto ha preso in prestito una tecnica di campionamento usata dagli zoologi, il transetto lineare, un metodo utilizzato per il censimento della fauna selvatica. Un asse è tracciato in un determinato territorio per campionare le specie viventi all'interno di un biotopo specifico. Questi dati possono essere utilizzati per il ripopolamento, evitando di introdurre individui non conformi ai caratteri di ciascun luogo. L’applicazione di questa teoria al progetto urbano, seguendo con le dovute cautele l'analogia tra il mondo biologico e il concetto di tipo, è stata ampiamente sperimentata dalla scuola del New Urbanism  . Abbiamo sperimentato tale metodo all'interno della città di Roma, nel PEEP Casilino 23 per la progettazione di un asse tra le polarità urbane principali, come parte del tridente indicato dal PRG del 1931  .

Campo entro il quale la tesi trova argomentazioni

La griglia iugerale desunta dalla lettura del luogo è stata utilizzata per il dimensionamento del tessuto urbano. Lungo quest’asse, usato come transetto, i tipi di edifici sono stati campionati. Questo esperimento mira a costruire per ogni sito il tipo edilizio prevalente, come se si trattasse di una specie animale. L'asse fornito un percorso pedonale all'interno del nuovo ecomuseo "ad duas Lauros", recentemente approvato dal sesto municipio e di Roma, sotto l'influenza di comitati locali.

Prospettive di lavoro

Come in altri casi studio analoghi, si tratta della sperimentazione di un metodo per leggere una parte di città che propone una strategia per la riprogettazione delle periferie contemporanee, in cui le regole per la  trasformazione sono desunte dall'analisi morfologica e dalla storia. Questo metodo ci permette di trovare all'interno di un determinato territorio le informazioni di base da utilizzare per il rinnovo contemporaneo . La tesi dell’introduzione della quarta dimensione nella teoria del transetto si colloca nel progetto urbano radicato, capace di inserire una identità nei contesti particolarmente sensibili quali i paesaggi fragili , le periferie metropolitane e i piccoli centri storici.

Urban Agriculture (UA) is a contemporary term that stands for the phenomenon of land cultivation within the urbanised environment of urban and rural settlements, including their peripheral parts and contact zones. The objects of UA are represented by production (vegetable and corn) gardens at family houses and blocks of flats, polytunnel and greenhouse production, urban and rural orchards, vineyards, allotments etc. These objects represent a significant organic part of the Green Infrastructure in the urban environment with a wide range of services for the inhabitants. UA has a potential to contribute to a sustainable and resilient urban development that aims at the creation of a multifunctional urbanised landscape with a higher resistance to diverse stress factors. It represents an effective tool of landscape planning and architecture at the level of urban landscape design and creation. It stands not only for vegetable production in the urban environment, but mainly for discovering and implementation of new ways of achieving multiple aims by food and for the potential of a qualitative conversion of settlements into more sustainable environments for the inhabitants and green infrastructure biotopes. This issue is being solved within a European scientific and research project COST-Action TD1106 Urban Agriculture Europe.

W poprzednich artykułach cyklu poświęconego naszemu ogrodowi wspomniałem, że działki dają wiele możliwości do aktywnego wypoczynku i realizacji różnych pasji związanych z ogrodnictwem i przebywaniem na łonie przyrody. Nasi działkowicze poza ogrodnictwem mają też wiele innych niezwykłych pasji i zainteresowań, które często są powodem do dumy dla ich rodzin, przyjaciół, także dla naszej społeczności ogrodowej.
Chciałbym przedstawić wybrane aktywności jakie wżyciu zawodowym i prywatnym, oczywiście poza ogrodnictwem, realizują członkowie naszej społeczności, ponieważ ROD to przede wszystkim ludzie z ich marzeniami, pomysłami, osiągnięciami w ciekawych dyscyplinach, np. sporcie, poezji i pisarstwie, malarstwie, aktorstwie, muzyce czy architekturze. W tym numerze przedstawimy sylwetki kilku naszych działkowców. Przez sąsiedztwo wzajemnie się ubogacamy, a ROD jest pod tym względem miejscem wyjątkowym.

Urban gardening has never been a tradition in Greece. Their recent growing number is mainly linked to the economic crisis affecting particularly urban households. The deepening crisis and the increasing urban (neo)poverty began to challenge local authorities to search for alternative ways of food (fresh and affordable) provisioning. Municipal Allotment Gardens, the prominent type of institutional response, are embraced by both the local authorities and citizens as alternative spaces within city neighborhoods for ensuring livelihoods and providing a way out of the multiple effects of the recent crisis. Drawing on empirical fieldwork from three different municipal allotment gardens, this study explores the institutional and political context of their establishment and local authorities’ aspirations. In addition, through interviews and focus groups investigates motivations for applying for a municipal plot as well as lived experiences of gardeners shedding light on sustainability issues and future perspectives of these “crisis gardens”. Either driven by the economic crisis, or other motivations such as community building, psychotherapy, re-connection with nature and greening the city, these projects play an important role in the city as well as in the creation of new identities and a sense of belonging for urban dwellers. However, despite their success and their growing popularity, municipal allotment gardens are considered a short-term action of social policy rather than a long-term sustainable urban planning strategy challenging the conventional modes of land management and governance in Greek cities.

In response to rapidly changing urban conditions and planning systems that cannot reconcile speculative development with social needs, other types of urban allotments are emerging which differ from the conventional forms of the past. A number of case studies from 11 European countries form the evidence base for the identification of new approaches to the design and implementation of allotment gardens which substantially differ from the conventional type on green land.

Pasieka w ogrodzie spełnia bardzo pożyteczną rolę. Oddziałuje na ogród i jego otoczenie. W znaczący sposób zwiększa plony owoców i innych roślin zapylanych przez ten gatunek. Trzy czwarte naszego pożywienia pochodzi z roślin zapylanych przez pszczoły. Bez pszczół i innych owadów zapylających nasz gatunek skazany jest na zamienne i bardzo kosztowne metody zapylania bądź na żywność genetycznie modyfikowaną. Nie jest to wcale fikcja gdyż w niektórych rejonach Chin już teraz owadów zapylających nie ma, a ich rolę przejęli ludzie, zwani zapylaczami.
W ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu lat obserwuje się znaczący spadek liczby pszczół także w ogrodach działkowych. Spowodowane jest to wieloma czynnikami środowiskowymi, chorobami, chemizacją rolnictwa itp. Również zmiana przepisów w ROD, zakazy hodowli pszczół w polskich miastach1 i malejące zainteresowanie pszczelarstwem przyczynia się do zmniejszania liczby pasiek i rodzin pszczelich w kraju. Negatywnie wpływa to na plonowanie i środowisko. Obecnie na ogródku działkowym uli trzymać nie można, a tylko nieliczne RODy posiadają specjalne tereny wydzielone na pasieki. Ochrona pszczół i pasiek to nasz obowiązek.

Urban gardening has never been a tradition in Greece. Their recent growing number is mainly linked to the economic crisis affecting particularly urban households. The deepening crisis and the increasing urban (neo)poverty began to challenge local authorities to search for alternative ways of food (fresh and affordable) provisioning. Municipal Allotment Gardens, the prominent type of institutional response, are embraced by both the local authorities and citizens as alternative spaces within city neighborhoods for ensuring livelihoods and providing a way out of the multiple effects of the recent crisis. Drawing on empirical fieldwork from three different municipal allotment gardens, this study explores the institutional and political context of their establishment and local authorities’ aspirations. In addition, through interviews and focus groups investigates motivations for applying for a municipal plot as well as lived experiences of gardeners shedding light on sustainability issue...

In response to rapidly changing urban conditions and planning systems that cannot reconcile speculative development with social needs, other types of urban allotments are emerging which differ from the conventional forms of the past. A number of case studies from 11 European countries form the evidence base for the identification of new approaches to the design and implementation of allotment gardens which substantially differ from the conventional type on green land.

O referido trabalho objetiva a realização de um estudo acerca do processo de formação do bairro Edilton Fernandes, município de Marcelino Vieira-RN, enfatizando quais os elementos responsáveis por essa crescente expansão, atuando na formação e transformação do espaço urbano: os agentes produtores do espaço (os proprietários dos meios de produção, os proprietários fundiários, promotores imobiliários, os grupos sociais excluídos e o Estado). Para tanto é feita uma caracterização histórica no tocante às políticas públicas de habitação no Brasil, visto que essa contextualização torna-se necessária, uma vez que o bairro surge como intervenção do Programa habitacional da casa própria desenvolvida pelo Governo Federal (Conjuntos Populares). O referencial base para a realização deste estudo se deu sob suporte de autores que abordam a questão do urbano e seus múltiplos processos de formação e transformação), dentre outros. Considerando que a ação dos agentes se dá de forma a reorganizar o espaço urbano a partir da incorporação de novas áreas, Corrêa (2000), o bairro vem a se consolidar como resultante desses processos e caracterizando-se como uma área em crescente expansão, tanto em relação à ação contínua do Estado, a partir da implantação de programas habitacionais, quanto em relação ao uso e ocupação do solo por iniciativa dos proprietários fundiários, na comercialização de residências por intermédio de financiamentos. Esse processo de expansão se dá também em virtude da atratividade da localidade, assim como pelos valores acessíveis imbuídos no móvel da localidade.


THE PROCESS OF FORMATION AND EXPANSION OF THE EDILTON FERNANDES DISTRICT, IN MARCELINO VIEIRA – RN

Abstract: The main goal of this work is to study the process of formation of the Edilton Fernandes district, in Marcelino Vieira-RN, emphasizing which elements are responsible for this growing expansion, acting in the formation and transformation of urban space: the space producing agents (owners of the means of production, landowners, developers, the excluded social groups and the State). So, historical characterization is made in respect to public housing policy in Brazil, once this contextualization is necessary, since the district's intervention comes as the housing homeownership program developed by the Federal Government (Popular Assemblies). This study is based on works of authors who address the issue of the city and its multiple processes of formation and transformation, we emphasize Souza (2008), Gomes (2000), Correa (2000, 2007), Santos (2005) , 1998), Carlos (2005, 2011), among others. Whereas the action of the agents are given in order to reorganize the urban space through the incorporation of new areas, Correa (2000), the district consolidates as a result of these processes and characterizing as an area of significant expansion, both continuous action in relation to the State, since the implementation of housing programs, and in relation to the use and occupation of land on the initiative of landowners in the marketing of homes through loans. This expansion process also occurs because of the attractiveness of the town as well as the values imbued in mobile accessible location.

W bogatej historii ruchu działkowego rodzinne ogrody działkowe (ROD) w lokalnych środowiskach, w których są od dekad zakorzenione, spełniały istotne zadania socjalne, prozdrowotne, ekologiczne, rekreacyjne i wiele innych. Dawniej w myśl jeszcze XIX-wiecznej idei higienistów powstawały w sąsiedztwie osiedli robotniczych skupionych wokół fabryk. Produkty z ogródka wzbogacały skromne budżety domowe robotników, a odpoczynek na łonie przyrody umożliwiał regenerację po ciężkiej pracy. Dziś ogrody działkowe to niezwykle złożone i wartościowe miejsca dla mieszkańców osiedli blokowych i kamienicznych,  podnoszące standard życia w mieście i pozwalające na bliższy kontakt z naturą, a hodowla własnych warzyw urozmaica dietę nie stanowiąc już podstawy funkcjonalnej ogrodu. Jako miejsce aktywnego wypoczynku osób starszych jak również pracujących mieszkańców miast działki stanowią interesującą alternatywę dla parków. Wiele starszych osób poprzez uprawę kawałka ziemi w bliskim sąsiedztwie miejsca zamieszkania dłużej utrzymuje sprawność. W ogrodach działkowych można zaprzyjaźnić się z działkowcami, spędzić miło czas na wspólnych zabawach ze znajomymi, czy też najzwyczajniej pospacerować. Późnym latem i jesienią można też zaopatrzyć się w zdrowe warzywa i owoce, których nadwyżki z pewnością ma każdy działkowiec.