Research & reports

Jennifer Jackson · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United Kingdom (Lincoln)

This qualitative case study examined Green Synergy's community garden initiatives in Lincoln's Abbey Ward, UK, using observation, interviews, a focus group, and a workshop. It explored the social element of community gardening in building connections between social and natural capital. The study found that collaborative creation of green spaces fosters bonding and bridging social capital within communities and challenges narratives of individual and community capacity.

Sertaç Güngör · Journal of Agricultural Faculty of Gaziosmanpasa University · Turkey (Konya)

This study investigated the current state of gardens in 7 nursery schools in Selçuklu district, Konya city, Turkey, regarding landscape design and space usage. The findings revealed that the nursery school gardens were not used effectively, lacked sufficient green space in their landscape design, and were not properly designed to contribute to children's mental and physical development.

Ana Cristina Torres, Sophie Nadot, Anne‐Caroline Prévot · Ecology and Society · France

This study used participant observation and semi-structured interviews to explore motivations, practices, and processes in French community gardens, relating them to environmental stewardship. It found that environmental, social, and self-motivations drive gardener participation, fulfilling needs through processes like nature contemplation, environmental education, and renewing social-ecological relationships. French community gardens provide new experiences of nature and foster environmental stewardship by cultivating relational values, offering opportunities for creative conservation.

Ju Eun Kim · International Journal of Urban Sciences · United Kingdom (London)

This empirical research evaluated the role of London's community gardens in promoting participants' environmentally friendly food consumption patterns, thereby lowering London's foodprint. An online survey was circulated to 95 community gardens in London, with 48 gardeners responding, complemented by semi-structured interviews. The study confirmed that the timespan of community garden participation is not an absolute indicator of low-carbon food consumption choices, while identifying experiential and social learning as key aspects promoting gardeners' behavioral change.

Barış Kara, KAHRAMAN, Delal, AYDOGAN, Gungor Yasin · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Turkey

A 2017 paper documents the design process of a school garden in Yenipazar district, Aydın province, Turkey, created through collaboration between teachers and students. It argues that a school garden should be simply designed and meet users' needs, guiding children's play, fun, and learning while building creativity and teamwork, and that design should be a collective product of designers and users rather than the designer alone. It presents the full design process, including detailed design, perspective drawings, and an animated film.

Sima Pouya, Elif Bayramoğlu, Öner Demirel · Kastamonu University Journal of Forestry Faculty · Turkey

A study of the Doğan Çağlar Orthopedic Disabled School in Ankara Province, Turkey (2017) determined how outdoor space was used at the school and developed the main decisions for an environmental (landscape) design project addressing those uses. Face-to-face interviews with school management, teachers, and parents, plus a parent survey, examined contributions to children's physical, emotional, and social development according to disability type and degree. Following a process of problem identification, data collection (questionnaire and evaluation), field analysis of functions, and design master decisions, the study produced landscape-design suggestions for the school garden, highlighting the need to plan for different age groups and physical characteristics, to create spaces where children encounter nature and develop creativity, and to design school and garden spaces for children with disabilities differently from general spaces because their needs vary by disability type, both physically and psychologically.

Aysun Çelik, Elvan Ender Altay · Kocaeli Üniversitesi Mimarlık ve Yaşam Dergisi · Turkey

A study evaluating the landscape condition of school gardens at 49 schools (30 primary, 19 secondary/equivalent) in the central district of İzmit, Kocaeli Province, Turkey, assessed for space-use profiles, landscape design components, and vegetal components (using a proportional range method for space use and frequency analysis for landscape and vegetal component data). The study found that landscape design of the school gardens is neglected, and that space-use rates fall far below standards compared with developed countries. Green space use was observed in only 43.33% of primary schools and 57.89% of secondary schools; the gap between the school with the largest green area and the one with the smallest was 313 times in primary schools and 57 times in secondary schools. Plant diversity in existing green spaces was found to be quite poor, with grass areas and flower beds rarely used. 93.34% of primary schools, which serve children of play age, had no play equipment areas, and 47% of secondary schools lacked multifunctional playgrounds suitable for basketball and volleyball. The study recommends treating school gardens as part of education and adopting a uniform standard for organizing spaces and components so all students have equal access.

Mikkel Gabriel Christoffersen, Finn Bo Petersen · Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science] · Europe

Describes a redesign of Copenhagen's public library system away from a fixed, physical-media-centered model toward deconstructed, modular learning services embedded across the city — in schools and kindergartens, secondary education institutions, sports and cultural centres, and community allotment gardens, where the library provides inspiration for online research into botany and garden design, alongside its traditional library spaces. The stated goal is for the library to become part of ubiquitous public urban space, driven by a goal of "equal opportunity" in bridging socioeconomic gaps in reading and digital competency. The piece is descriptive, presenting the initiative and its venues rather than measured outcomes.

Jens A. Geißler, Tim Schümann · · Germany

The Bad Oldesloe City Library developed a new event series, "Harvest Your City," focused on urban gardening. This series aimed to impart knowledge on food cultivation in urban spaces, encourage environmental responsibility, address the origin of food, and promote collective action. Traditional event elements like lectures and exhibitions were combined with a seed exchange and an analog makerspace for building insect hotels, successfully establishing the library as an active learning space.

Josselin Rouhier · · Europe

Shared gardens are a powerful support for social connection, enabling collective activities and participatory consultations that foster exchanges and interactions among various stakeholders. They serve as a meeting point for administrations, developers, associations, and residents. Shared gardens are presented as an example of sustainable development, promoting intergenerational communication and socio-professional diversity within urban natural spaces.

Malin Gustafsson, Matilda Olsson · · Netherlands (Schiedam)

This thesis focuses on a design proposal for a multifunctional foodscape in a peri-urban area on the city edge of Schiedam, in the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands. The proposal includes food production, education, and recreation, aiming to transform peri-urban areas into multifunctional zones and exemplify their role as transition zones between urban and rural landscapes. An empirical pre-study was conducted, focusing on urban farming in Rotterdam, dairy farming in Midden-Delfland, and greenhouse horticulture in Westland.

Davide Fassi, Laura Galluzzo, Annalinda De Rosa · Virtual Community of Pathological Anatomy (University of Castilla La Mancha) · Italy (Milan)

This paper discusses social innovation-based experiments developed within the "campUS" research project at Politecnico di Milano. Focusing on urban agriculture, it examined the design strategy, methodologies, and social innovation impact of two experiments conducted in a nursery school and a middle school in Milan. These experiments are positioned as a step towards infrastructuring, a more open-ended long-term process where diverse stakeholders can innovate together.

Wanda Kononowicz, Katarzyna Gryniewicz-Balińska · Digital library of Zielona Gora (University of Zielona Góra) · Poland

This paper describes the historical development of allotment gardens in Wrocław, Poland, from the mid-nineteenth century. It notes the emergence of various types, including rented gardens, gardens for the poor or factory workers, school gardens, Schreber gardens, and "war" vegetable gardens cultivated between 1914-1918.

Jens A. Geißler, Tim Schümann · · Germany

The Bad Oldesloe City Library in Germany organized an event series on urban gardening, integrating makerspaces and community learning. This initiative aimed to position the library as a modern learning hub and foster new urban initiatives.

Richard Almenius · · United Kingdom

A 2016 urban planning thesis on London, United Kingdom. It states that London imports 80 percent of its food, much of it from abroad over long distances ("food miles"), raising sustainability concerns and contributing to road freight congestion and pollution in the inner city. The thesis proposes redeveloping the brownfield land of Greenwich Peninsula in south-east London — near the Millennium Dome, the Thames, and underground access — by combining rooftop and courtyard urban farming with large-scale food production in a converted former industrial building, presented as a pilot project for a sustainable way of living in London beyond meeting housing needs alone.

Krystyna Pudelska, Kamila Rojek · Teka Komisji Architektury Urbanistyki i Studiów Krajobrazowych · Poland

This case study examines the historic school and its adjoining park in the village of Sobieszyn, Ułęż County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, established at the end of the nineteenth century under the will of Count Kajetan Kanty Kicki. Located away from the village center on the slope of the Świnka, a tributary of the Wieprz River, the site continues to operate today as the Kajetan Kicki Agriculture School.

Irma Stopka, Heike Molitor · 0028-0615 · Europe

The abstract, which cuts off mid-sentence, states that as society changes, demands on urban open spaces also change, and that new open-space formats such as urban gardening reflect a need for participation and appropriation of space. The available text ends there, with no further content provided.

Scheromm P. · Développement durable et territoires · France (Montpellier)

Based on 40 semi-structured interviews, this study examines the agricultural motivations and practices of urban dwellers participating in collective gardens in Montpellier, revealing how city residents reconstruct an agricultural identity through gardening.

Marta Camps‐Calvet, Johannes Langemeyer, Laura Calvet‐Mir, Erik Gómez‐Baggethun, Hug March · Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) · Spain (Barcelona)

This research examined the role of urban gardens in building community resilience and articulating resistance in Barcelona, Spain, based on data from 27 urban gardening initiatives (13 self-governed, 14 public). Results showed that urban gardens contribute to resilience by fostering social and ecological diversity, transmitting local ecological knowledge, and creating opportunities for collective action and self-organization.

Maria Boștenaru Dan · Open Journal of Ecology · Italy (Pavia)

The Green Revolution Game is employed in teaching at Karlsruhe University in Germany and Ohio University in the US. This game is used not only for simulation but also as a basis for generating data for study projects, analyzing educational approaches, the applicability of game theory for simulating water scarcity hazards in rice cultivation, and its transferability from India to the context of high-yield rice and urban agriculture in Pavia, Italy.

Miren Rekondo Iparraguirre · TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa) · Europe

This doctoral thesis explores the development of eco-citizenship competence in school gardens, specifically through collaborative technological design activities. Elementary school students designed and assembled an irrigation system for their school garden over ten activities. Analysis showed students integrated elements from various design proposals without exclusive opposition, and that design conflicts led to a more dynamic and complex garden model. The study also found differences in argumentative discourse structure and dynamics between scientific argumentation and technological design activities.

Beth Perry, ⁄ Walsh, Diana Silver · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) · United Kingdom

This project, conducted from October 2014 to May 2015, focused on the Biospheric Foundation in Blackfriars, East Salford, UK. The Biospheric Foundation was an urban socio-ecological experiment aiming to implement a whole-system approach to urban farming in a deprived area. Its goals included designing interconnected systems, retrofitting a building for ecological research, and raising public awareness of healthy food and ecological systems in urban settings.

Carlos Verdaguer Viana-Cárdenas · · Europe

This report describes the third Training School of the COST Action Urban Agriculture Europe, held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain, from 24 to 26 September 2014. The city had recently expanded through two new neighborhoods, Zabalgana and Salburua, along its greenbelt, but these areas suffered from over-dimensioned public space lacking density and mixed uses and were expensive for the municipality to maintain; the Training School used Zabalgana as a practical field to explore urban agriculture as a way to re-qualify this excess public space, through field visits and presentations followed by a one-day design charrette.

Karen Hart · Primary Teacher Update · United Kingdom

A short article (2015, United Kingdom) describes the design of a new school in West London — featuring state-of-the-art classrooms, a rooftop garden, and a multi-use sports facility — as aiming to fulfil the borough's holistic vision.

Pernille Malberg Dyg · · Europe

This qualitative, explorative study of four school gardens in Denmark combined garden observations, interviews with teachers and garden educators, and focus group discussions with children conducted two months after the programs ended, to examine pedagogy and learning effects in school garden settings. Preliminary findings show children felt more motivated learning outdoors, were better able to understand complex connections and concepts, and found garden-based learning more exciting, with children's sense of ownership over the garden experience and harvest, and their understanding of the seed-to-table process, pollination, and biodiversity, leaving the strongest impressions.