The ethics and aesthetics of allotment gardens
Rute Sousa Matos, Desidério Batista
Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT)
Urban Farm DB summary
A philosophical essay (RCAAP, Portugal, 2014), drawing on landscape theorists Rosario Assunto and Ferriolo, examines allotment gardens as landscape spaces combining lived and contemplative experience, using Lisbon's allotment gardens as a case study of efforts to regulate, develop, and integrate such spaces into city planning. It situates allotment gardens historically in Portugal's 1960s-70s rural-to-urban migration, discussing them along both ethical dimensions (social, environmental, emotional, economic) and aesthetic dimensions (urban regeneration and city design), without reporting empirical measurements.