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Vacant lotUnknownSince 2013

Vnútroblok — mobile community gardens on unused plots, Bratislava

Bratislava, Slovakia · Operator: 市民団体ヴヌートロブロク(Vnútroblok, o.z./サンドラ・シュタッセロヴァーら)

Overview

Mobile community gardens on Bratislava's idle plots, started in 2013 by residents inspired by a community garden in Amsterdam. The first garden on Sasinkova Street ran 2013–2015 on a private plot leased for three years; in spring 2015 the group opened a garden on Pionierska Street on an abandoned vineyard in cooperation with the city (90 wooden boxes, 100–110 participants), and in spring 2016 a garden in a school courtyard on Karpatská Street (50 boxes, ten of them for the school).

Citizen participation

Residents join by taking a single wooden box. The beds sit on pallets and are movable, so they need no building permit and can be carried to another site when a land-use permission ends. At the Karpatská site a school and its neighbours share the courtyard.

Operating model

A meanwhile-use model: the association obtains temporary permission from the owner of an idle plot (private, municipal or a school) and installs the boxes. The group's own survey found that about five percent of Bratislava's Old Town — roughly the area of seventy football pitches — is unused space, and that is what it targets.

Impact

"The aim was to do something that will encourage engagement of people in co-creation of their neighbourhood and the city," says co-founder Sandra Štasselová. It is cited as one of the leading examples of the community gardening that has spread in Slovakia since 2012, after the socialist-era allotment tradition faded; in Bratislava, Živica, Jedlé Mesto, Latifundia and Projekt Život followed with gardens of their own.

Land tenure

License / permitInterim use

Temporary use under a time-limited permission from the owner; the first garden used a private plot for three years. Making the beds movable lets the group continue elsewhere when a permission ends.

Crops

  • 野菜
  • ハーブ
  • ブドウ

Scale

ピオニエルスカ通りの放棄ブドウ畑に木箱90基、参加者100〜110人。カルパツカー通りの学校中庭に木箱50基(うち10基は学校用)

In the media(1)

Sources(1)

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Vnútroblok — mobile community gardens on unused plots, Bratislava — Urban Farm DB