Transforming urban bioresources through community gardening in Public Housing, Kuala Lumpur

Urban Farm DB summary

This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach supported by field observations to examine the lived experiences of long-term gardeners at the PPR Intan Baiduri public housing estate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, exploring how grassroots gardening supports resilience, health and informal governance. It found that gardening provides retirees and low-income residents with routine, emotional wellbeing and opportunities for informal economic participation, that community gardens function as micro-level bioresource systems by repurposing reserve land, composting household waste and drawing on institutional collaborations with agencies such as DBKL and TNB, and that participants collectively organize planting cycles and maintain shared infrastructure while navigating labor constraints and fluctuating participation.