Towards Regenerated and Productive Vacant Areas through Urban Horticulture: Lessons from Bologna, Italy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Defining Vacant Lands in the Urban Environment
1.2. European Policies on Vacant Land Use
1.3. Bringing Horticulture into 21st Century Cities
1.4. Requalification of the Public Space and Civic Engagement
1.5. Benefits and Challenges of Urban Horticulture on Vacant Lands
1.6. From Vacant Lands to Vacant Areas for Urban Gardens
1.7. Goal and Objectives
2. Methods
2.1. Methodological Scheme
2.1.1. Selection of Cases
2.1.2. Data Collection
2.1.3. SWOT Analysis
2.2. Study Area: Urban Horticulture and Vacant Areas in Bologna
3. Results
3.1. Vacant Areas for Urban Horticulture in Bologna
- Flowerbeds along streets and squares: These spaces represent a cost for the municipality and often appear abandoned and degraded. In many cities, however, some guerrilla gardening initiatives are emerging. Activists organize demonstrative actions with the specific aim of transforming derelict plots by transplanting flowers and vegetables.
- Balconies and rooftops: Urban buildings have many open-air flat surfaces that can be converted to urban horticulture. Although each of them may represent a negligible agricultural surface, their overall vacant area may represent a crucial factor in greening the city. As reported by Orsini et al. [81], in the city of Bologna about 82 ha of flat rooftops can be found, which could contribute to more than three-quarters of urban food needs. Additionally, their aboveground height is associated with a reduction in environmental pollution related to heavy metals [86]. However, these spaces are often inaccessible to residents either for the high managing costs or more frequently due to the lack of a common and shared management project. If residents were able to conduct gardening on these premises jointly, increased food security would be among the range of advantages that would also include social and mental health functions [87,88]. Furthermore, the available literature indicates that rooftop agriculture initiatives show an environmental advantage compared to conventional and imported food [89]. In these locations, the application of simplified soilless systems may minimize manual labour, ease growing practices, intensify production and improve the use of resources [90,91,92,93].
- Abandoned buildings: The rate of abandoned public buildings in cities is constantly growing, as the public administration is unable to cover the management expenses of oversized departments and dismissed military bases and offices, and remains unable to sell them [94]. An emerging number of experiences where the civil society takes over these spaces is observed all across EU cities (Berlin providing one of the most diversified scenarios).
- Abandoned neighbourhoods: These lots lie primarily in suburban districts previously devoted almost exclusively to industrial activity. These are muted, transformed environments, difficult to re-adapt due to both the high cost required and to their scarce connection to the city centre. Nonetheless, urban horticulture has become a tool for establishing a re-ruralisation process in abandoned neighbourhoods. As an example, the failure of the automotive industry of Detroit (United States) resulted in an abandonment of the city. Detroit’s inhabitants actively adopted gardening as a strategy to pursue food security and environmental sustainability, leading the city to be conceptualized as an “agricultural powerhouse” [66].
3.2. Requalification Experiences in Bologna
3.2.1. Flowerbeds along Streets and Squares—“I Colori dell’Orto”
3.2.2. Flowerbeds along Streets and Squares—“Orti della Fornace”
3.2.3. Flowerbeds along Streets and Squares—“Aiuola Donata”
3.2.4. Balconies and Rooftops—“GreenHousing”
3.2.5. Abandoned Buildings—“Làbas”
3.2.6. Abandoned Neighbourhoods—“OrtoCircuito”
3.3. SWOT Analysis
4. Discussion
4.1. Addressing Social Gaps in Urban Areas
4.2. The Role of Local Governments: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Experiences
4.3. Policy-Making Recommendations
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Case Study | Type of Stakeholder | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Manager | User | Local Administration | Association | Total | |
I Colori dell’Orto | 1 | - | 2 | - | 3 |
Orti della Fornace | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 4 |
Aiuola Donata | - | 1 | - | - | 1 |
GreenHousing | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 4 |
Làbas | 1 | - | - | - | 1 |
OrtoCircuito | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
Total | 5 | 7 | 5 | 1 |
Appendix B
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Element | Description | |
---|---|---|
Management | Location | Mobility status for accessing the place or distributing the produce |
Self-organization | Capacity of community to organize and manage the garden | |
Participation | Involvement of the community in the garden | |
Public-private relations | Dialogue between public entities and gardeners | |
Public funding | Financial support by public bodies | |
Networking | Setting of relations with other institutions and experiences | |
Vandalism | Destructive or robbery actions | |
Long-term viability | Capacity of maintaining the experience active and viable | |
Urbanism | Landscaping | Improved aesthetics of the area |
Up-scaling | Current potential for repeating the experience in other cases | |
Urban regeneration | Regeneration of abandoned and unused urban spaces | |
Place-making | Development of sense of place | |
Society | Social inclusion | Involvement of disadvantaged groups of the society |
Community building | Creation of networks and relations among citizens | |
Food security | Provision of food to the community (in quantitative terms) | |
Individual health | Contribution to mental and physical health of participants | |
Collective health | Livability (e.g., air quality, microclimate regulation, climate adaptation) | |
Food safety | Quality of food products regarding contamination | |
Economic development | The experience results in a business model | |
Education and culture | Cultural heritage | Maintenance and transfer of traditional knowledge |
Education and training | Formal knowledge transfer to the community (e.g., schools) | |
Life-long learning | Acquisition of practical knowledge by citizens (e.g., adult education) | |
Research | Production of knowledge through research activities | |
Recreation and culture | Use of garden for recreational and cultural activities |
Type | Case | Year | City Area | Stakeholders | Property | Type of Agreement | Users | Type of Production | Motivation | Description | Main Outputs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flowerbeds along street and squares | I Colori dell’Orto | 2014–2015 | Suburbs | ResCUE-AB 1 DipSA 2 Municipality of Bologna BiodiverCity 3 | Public | Official agreement to manage the space | Citizens, primary schools | Aromatic plant Vegetables plant Flowers | Community building | Top-down strategy with participatory process. Social urban horticulture projects. Requalification of public spaces | Activities useful to create new collaboration group, which work for the same objective: get better their cities and develop relationships. |
Orti della Fornace | 2014–2015 | Suburbs | ResCUE-AB 1 DipSA 2 Municipality of Bologna BiodiverCity 3 | Public | Official agreement to manage the space | Citizens, primary schools | Aromatic plant Vegetables plant Flowers Cereals | Community building | Top-down project. Social urban horticulture projects. Requalification of public spaces | Educational programmes in public schools; networking of local associations. | |
Aiuola Donata | 2011 | City centre | Terra di Nettuno 4 Trame Urbane 5 | Public | Occupied | Citizens | Aromatic plant Vegetables plant Flowers | Active citizenship | Bottom-up project. Green actions along streets. | Repossessing of public spaces, exchange of seeds. | |
Balconies and rooftops | Green Housing 6 | 2010 | City centre | DipSA Municipality of Bologna BiodiverCity | Private ACER 9 | Official agreement to manage the space | Residents, Citizens | Aromatic plant Vegetables plant Flowers | Community building Food production | Top-down strategy with participatory process. Social horticulture done in a vacant surface in the city centre. Inhabitants take care of garden and share products. | Creation of a residents’ associations to manage the rooftop garden. Event organization to promote the project. |
Abandoned buildings | Làbas 7 | 2012 | City centre | Political collective | Public | Occupied | Citizens | Vegetable plant | Active citizenship Community building | Bottom up project. Urban horticultural activities (garden and farmer market) in an ex-military barrack of 9000 m2. | A place for citizens with a strong cultural movement. |
Abandoned neighbourhoods | Orto Circuito | 2015 | Suburbs | ResCUE-AB DipSA Municipality of Bologna BiodiverCity EtaBeta Cooperative 8 Enel Cuore Onlus | Private (EtaBeta Coop) | Official agreement to manage the space | Citizens Cooperative | Aromatic plant Vegetables plant Flowers | Social inclusion Food production | Bottom-up project. Creation of a permaculture garden. Requalification of a vacant building in an abandoned ex-industrial area. Proximity and Community Supported Agriculture. | Professional training and generation of new jobs in the agricultural field. Ethical purchasing groups. Multifunctional center. Eating place with home-grown produce. Creation of a new association “Spazio Battirame”. |
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Gasperi, D.; Pennisi, G.; Rizzati, N.; Magrefi, F.; Bazzocchi, G.; Mezzacapo, U.; Centrone Stefani, M.; Sanyé-Mengual, E.; Orsini, F.; Gianquinto, G. Towards Regenerated and Productive Vacant Areas through Urban Horticulture: Lessons from Bologna, Italy. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1347. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121347
Gasperi D, Pennisi G, Rizzati N, Magrefi F, Bazzocchi G, Mezzacapo U, Centrone Stefani M, Sanyé-Mengual E, Orsini F, Gianquinto G. Towards Regenerated and Productive Vacant Areas through Urban Horticulture: Lessons from Bologna, Italy. Sustainability. 2016; 8(12):1347. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121347
Chicago/Turabian StyleGasperi, Daniela, Giuseppina Pennisi, Niccolò Rizzati, Francesca Magrefi, Giovanni Bazzocchi, Umberto Mezzacapo, Monique Centrone Stefani, Esther Sanyé-Mengual, Francesco Orsini, and Giorgio Gianquinto. 2016. "Towards Regenerated and Productive Vacant Areas through Urban Horticulture: Lessons from Bologna, Italy" Sustainability 8, no. 12: 1347. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121347