Research & reports

Udo Weilacher · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

This chapter discusses the historical perception of gardens and gardening in urban contexts, noting that from the mid-19th century, ornamental gardens were often questioned by architects and urban planners. Leading 20th-century European landscape architects criticized gardening as neither artistic nor scientific. However, in the 21st century, gardens, particularly urban gardening, have seen a renaissance as a living component of the 'network metropolis', suggesting that the fundamental principles of garden thinking remain relevant.

Angela Bernadete Lima · História e Cultura · Germany

A historical study examines the food situation in Berlin, Germany, during and after World War I, looking at how residents sought alternatives to the food scarcity of the time and how urban spaces were used for food production, building on a practice of urban cultivation already present in the city's daily life since the 19th century.

Flora Del Debbio · estudoprévio revista do centro de estudos de arquitectura cidade e território da Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa · Europe

Using primary sources such as historical written documents and cartography, an article examines how the interpenetration of urban and rural space has been a defining feature of Lisbon, Portugal's history, and attempts to map in detail the agricultural land occupation within the city's urban soil. The available abstract breaks off mid-sentence while describing a balance maintained over the centuries, and no further specific findings are given.

Barbara Maćkiewicz, Raúl Puente Asuero, Antonio Garrido Almonacid · Quaestiones Geographicae · Spain

This study investigated how urban allotment gardens in Baeza, Andalusia, Spain, affect the city’s sustainable development. The research showed that allotment gardens in Baeza endorsed all three pillars of sustainable city development: ecological, economic, and social. However, it was found that developing broader community relations on the city scale, reviving the declining local grocery market, and disseminating environmental initiatives that allotment gardens could promote and facilitate were missing.

Sabrina Giuca, Simonetta De Leo · ECONOMIA AGRO-ALIMENTARE · Italy (Rome)

This study investigated the role of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) using the "Kalulu" network, a web platform operating in the rural and peri-urban territory of the Metropolitan City of Rome, as a case study. Analysis revealed that this platform creates a local market recognizing fair and sustainable exchange value between producers and consumers. This commercialization model increases consumer awareness and responsibility regarding consumption choices while also ensuring the economic needs of small farmers.

Anna Boneta, Martí Rufí-Salís, Mireia Ercilla‐Montserrat, Xavier Gabarrell, Joan Rieradevall · Frontiers in Plant Science · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed an 18 m2 polyculture rooftop soilless urban home garden in Barcelona city center from 2015 to 2017 to estimate its degree of self-sufficiency and sustainability. A total productivity of 10.6 kg/m2/year was achieved, estimating that 5.3 m2 would be needed to fulfill the yearly vegetable requirements of an average citizen. While a high degree of self-sufficiency was achieved, fertilizers and their associated leachates accounted for the highest environmental impacts in all studied categories.

Edward Wigley · Cultural Geographies · United Kingdom

This research investigated how the historic custom of orchard wassailing is reinvented in contemporary practices, including in community orchards, city farms, and public gardens, in southern England. Through in-depth interviews with organizers of local wassails, it was shown that wassailing, traditionally rural, is now popular in urban areas with little history of fruit farming. Organizers modify historical elements due to contemporary regulations or social attitudes, yet mobilize the notion of "tradition" to authenticate and reassert the local identity of the event, even when recently reinvented.

Carme Melo Escrihuela · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Spain (Valencia)

The evolution in the preservation, management, and planning of l'Horta de València, a historical Mediterranean huerta in Valencia, Spain, was assessed. It is argued that negative changes and impacts in l'Horta are not simply the outcome of global dynamics but result from the region's planning trajectory and landscape management approach. This approach has been shaped by a lack of territorial and supra-municipal perspective and the primacy of culture, identity, and heritage aspects over the landscape's productive dimension.

Juan Ignacio Plaza Gutiérrez, Daniel Herrero Luque, Marta Martínez Arnáiz, Eugenio Baraja Rodríguez · Cuadernos Geográficos · Spain

This article explores the singularity and diversity of peri-urban garden landscapes characterizing the surroundings of several cities in Castilla y León, Spain. The study analyzed the spatio-temporal evolution, landscape dimension, functional relationship with urban space, and the consideration of their protection, management, and maintenance in planning instruments. Results reveal the unequal persistence of traditional garden belts, their diverse types, and their uneven treatment in urban planning in the studied cases.

Sofia Nikolaidou · Manchester University Press eBooks · Europe

This chapter examines new forms of urban gardening, often involving informal and temporary reuse of vacant land, and their impact on urban green space governance and planning practices. Using examples from Greece and Switzerland, it highlights differences and similarities in practices, social and institutional contexts, and collaborative governance patterns. The study calls attention to the critical role of the temporary nature of these initiatives, which affects new configurations of urban green areas and public space, and related planning practices.

Global Generation · Global Generation · United Kingdom

Global Generation's Skip Garden was a portable urban garden that operated for 10 years, from 2009 to 2019, within a 67-acre King's Cross construction site, relocating within the site as land was sold and developed. Food was grown in skips by young people and local business volunteers, using largely self-sustaining organic practices including composting, rainwater harvesting and beekeeping, with produce served at the on-site Skip Garden Kitchen.

Paul de Graaf · Eetbaar Rotterdam · Netherlands

This Eetbaar Rotterdam retrospective (author Paul de Graaf, published 30 April 2019) on Rotterdam urban farming project Uit Je Eigen Stad (UJES) states that UJES was declared bankrupt on 13 November 2018, bringing a definitive end after 6 years to one of the most notable urban agriculture experiments in Rotterdam. It opened with a festive celebration in September 2012, but the idea's seed dates to 2006, when Bas de Groot's graduation plan at the Warmonderhof school (for a care garden) went unrealized and later grew within the urban-agriculture expertise group Eetbaar Rotterdam. The site was the Marconistrip, designated a 'freezone' by the municipality; financing came from housing corporation Havensteder (investing in buildings, expecting return via rent), high-interest loans from Stichting DOEN and Rabobank, small crowdfunded contributions, and municipal officials' time (under alderwoman Van Huffelen) securing permits. The plan was to build a farm and recoup investments over 10 years, but the article describes this as a difficult effort in which urban-farming ideals clashed with profit-driven activity.

Luc Menapace · Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France, blog) · France

Blog article from the BnF's Gallica platform recounting how Abbé Lemire founded the Ligue du Coin de Terre et du Foyer in 1896 to promote workers' gardens. The league was recognized as a public-interest body in 1909, renamed the Fédération nationale des jardins ouvriers in 1921, and renamed again to the Fédération nationale des jardins familiaux in 1992. Gardens were framed as remedies for insalubrity and alcoholism and as sources of food and leisure.

VIPARIS · VIPARIS · France

Official news article from venue operator VIPARIS describing Nature Urbaine, a 14,000 m² urban rooftop farm atop Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. It produces about 200 kg of fruit and vegetables per day, promotes short-circuit local distribution, and reuses urban resources such as unused space, organic waste, and waste heat. Open to visitors on Monday and Saturday mornings.

Anna Trembecka, Anita Kwartnik-Pruc · Sustainability · Poland

This study analyzed data on the number and area of allotment gardens, their distribution across Poland, and the process of regulating the legal status of land occupied by allotment gardens. The research identified the number and area of family allotment gardens in Poland, along with the range and types of claims against them. The study found that land occupied by family allotment gardens requires protection and legal status regulation, which is difficult due to various entities submitting claims to these areas because of their attractive urban locations.

Inmaculada Marques-Pérez, Baldomero Segura García del Río · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Spain (Valencia)

This study focuses on "Huerta de Valencia," a peri-urban agricultural system around Valencia, Spain, analyzing the debate between urban growth strategies and farmland preservation. It uses multifunctionality approaches and multi-criteria analysis techniques to examine territorial planning processes by stakeholders. Differences in perceptions among stakeholder groups result in varying future visions for this agricultural system, impacting the design of rural development and agro-environmental measures.

Calvin Siméon · · France

This report describes the creation of a didactic booklet for beginners and curious individuals interested in urban agriculture around Toulouse, France. The booklet provides tools to diagnose a plot of land using pedology and bio-indicator plants. Based on observed data, agronomic advice is offered to select the most suitable plant production for the soil.

Emrah Yalçınalp, Özgür Demirci · Türk Tarım ve Doğa Bilimleri Dergisi · Turkey (Trabzon)

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the edible plant potentials of three different urban parks in Trabzon, Turkey, by questioning users' approaches. Introducing edible landscapes in urban parks is believed to help urban residents feel closer to nature and contribute to their awareness of ecology and environmental conservation.

Neriman Yörür · Journal of Planning · Turkey

This article presents analyses and proposals for the Mugla Plain in Turkey, an agricultural area designated as a Special Project and Planning Area. The aim was to develop a project to preserve the plain's agricultural character and prevent urban sprawl by integrating it with urban residents. Proposed strategies include protecting agricultural land, establishing an agricultural development cooperative, reducing urbanization impact, and integrating the city with the area's natural landscape through urban agriculture approaches.

Pascale Scheromm, Christophe‐Toussaint Soulard · Geographical Research · France

This paper provides a spatial analysis of agriculture in three mid-sized French cities, focusing on professional farms. It confirms the existence of significant agricultural spaces within cities and the persistence of field-based, market-oriented agriculture. Key determinants in the observed dynamics include the cities' geographies, the impact of land speculation and urbanization on farmers, and the resistance and adaptation processes implemented by some farmers.

Luciana Macaluso · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) · Europe

This paper discusses the historical perspectives of architects Leberecht Migge (1919) and Giuseppe Samonà (1976) on urban and rural connections. Both recognized the necessity of gardens within large towns and saw urbanization as a partial solution to agricultural production crises. The authors suggest that integrating gardens into urban design, inspired by these ideas, can contribute to soil conservation, especially as soils are increasingly recognized as cultural heritage.

Daina Romeo, Eldbjørg Blikra Vea, Marianne Thomsen · Procedia CIRP · France (Lyon)

This paper analyzed the environmental impacts of ReFarmers' pilot farm, a high-yield vertical hydroponic croft in the urban area of Lyon, France, from a life cycle perspective. Results indicated that the hydroponic farm performed better than cultivations in heated greenhouses and similarly to conventional open field farms. Furthermore, the electricity input source was a determinant factor; if carbon neutral (e.g., wind energy), vertical hydroponic production could outperform the two conventional agriculture types.

Attila Tóth, Barbora Duží, Jan Vávra, Ján Supuka, Mária Bihuňová, Denisa Halajová, Stanislav Martinát, Eva Nováková · Nature and Culture · Europe

A historical review article on allotment gardening in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Tracing back to the eighteenth century, it identifies the periods and events that shaped Czech and Slovak society and urban gardening in particular, and analyzes the development of allotments before and after 1989 using case studies and examples. The article offers this historical narrative as a basis for discussing contemporary trends, challenges and visions for allotment gardening in both countries.

İşık Sezen · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Europe

The paper traces the history of allotment gardens (AG), which originated in the United Kingdom, and shows that in European countries such as Germany they now function mainly as recreational and social sites rather than agricultural production areas. Examining Turkish examples — Atatürk Forest Farm, the Yedikule Gardens adjacent to Istanbul's UNESCO World Heritage territorial walls, Boğazköy Kuzguncuk Garden, and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Diyarbakır City Walls and Hevsel Gardens — it concludes these sites have long served the same function as European allotment gardens, as urban agricultural land in Turkey.

Justyna Kleszcz · Architecture Civil Engineering Environment · Europe

This paper compares urban farm initiatives across European cities (Paris, Barcelona, Vienna) and non-European cities (New York, Brasilia, Hong Kong), differentiating them by scale, purpose, and the role urban agriculture plays according to a developed taxonomy. A system analysis identifies common characteristics behind the growing popularity of new forms of urban agriculture. The paper argues that comparing the causes behind their emergence, how different solutions have been implemented, and the modifications arising from functional analysis of existing facilities is important for developing guidelines for the further development of urban agriculture systems, including in Poland.