Horta das Corujas
São Paulo, Brazil · Operator: Volunteer gardeners from the Hortelões Urbanos network
Overview
An experimental community garden created by citizens in Praça das Corujas in western São Paulo. A forerunner of a new movement in which a social-media-born citizen network cultivates public space, it inspired gardens across the city.
Citizen participation
One of São Paulo's first community gardens in public space, born from Hortelões Urbanos, a citizen group started on Facebook in 2011 by journalist Claudia Visoni and others. The first communal workday (mutirão) was held in mid-2012, and weekend mutirões remain open to anyone for planting, tending and swapping seeds and seedlings, with harvests shared rather than claimed.
Operating model
Entirely volunteer-run and non-commercial, with nothing sold. Materials and seedlings come from participants' contributions and donations, and the aim is social interaction and environmental education in public space.
Impact
Set a precedent in São Paulo that citizens may cultivate public space, helping spur the city's later regulation of community gardens and dozens of successor gardens. It remains a symbol of the debate over urban agriculture and the use of public squares.
Land tenure
Volunteers cultivate a municipally managed public square (Praça das Corujas) with the tolerance and cooperation of the city administration.
Crops
- leafy greens
- herbs
- cassava
- banana
- taioba
- vegetables
Scale
Garden beds in the public Praça das Corujas square in the Vila Beatriz neighbourhood, next to a creek in western São Paulo
Sources（2）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
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