Putting vacant space to use
A use for idle, vacant and interim land in an era of population decline
Urban farms turn the vacant lots multiplying under population decline — and land idle before redevelopment — into valuable places at low cost. They suit easy-to-remove movable setups and work well as an interim use that bridges a site to its next phase.
235 related cases
Cases where this shows up
Minna no Uen Kitakagaya
JPOsaka, Japan
A flagship case of turning a vacant lot in Suminoe, Osaka into a community farm as interim pre-development use (opened 2012), linking a landowner's idle property to creative placemaking.
greenz.jp+4
Prinzessinnengärten
DEBerlin, Germany
A mobile community garden reviving a vacant lot in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Its DIY container growing and composting made it a flagship example of reusing idle urban land through citizen participation.
prinzessinnengarten.net+2
Minna no Uen Kitakagaya Farm 2
JPOsaka, Japan
The second Kitakagaya Minna no Uen site (2013), turning a former bathhouse and cultural housing of about 500 sqm into a larger community farm with ~33 plots and a kitchen studio.
minnanouen.jp+3
Osanpo Batake rental gardens by Akisuke Nagata, Hyogo and Nagata Wards, Kobe
JPKobe (兵庫区・長田区), Japan
A come-empty-handed rental garden run at two sites in Kobe — Kanda-cho in Hyogo Ward and Komagabayashi-cho in Nagata Ward — by Akisuke Nagata, a group that turns vacant houses and lots into neighbourhood assets. Its distinguishing feature is that vegetable waste and prunings are recycled into compost with a local type-B employment support workshop rather than incinerated, with the goal of getting people to use fully matured "craft compost", made entirely from local plant material and inputs, as a matter of course.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+4
Minna no Uen Neyagawa
JPNeyagawa, Osaka, Japan
A roughly 300 sqm community farm on a former residence in Neyagawa, Osaka, with 30 individual 6 sqm plots and a kitchen salon in a renovated old house.
minnanouen.jp+2
Sakanoen (Nakashinmachi, Nagasaki)
JPNagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan
A civic project by Nagasaki Urban Landscape Institute / null turning vacant lots on Nagasaki’s sloping streets into allotment gardens. Since Base opened in 2020 it has grown to five sites by 2025, including Japan’s Kyushu first civic entrustment of idle national land (The View). It eases owners’ vacant-lot upkeep while drawing younger residents, schools and welfare partners into the hillside neighbourhood.
nagasaki-null.design+6
Supporting research
Austerity urbanism and the makeshift city
Engages austerity urbanism through temporary designs and provisional uses of vacant urban space in European cities, questioning orthodox development timescales, planned uses and value capture. Provides a theoretical frame for interim vacant-lot gardening such as Sakanoen’s for-sale-site allotments.
Fran Tonkiss · 2013 · City
Meanwhile Use for London
A GLA report institutionalising 'meanwhile use' of vacant land/units awaiting development, presenting support via competitions, guidance, land provision and time-limited change-of-use permissions for interim community uses including gardens.
Greater London Authority, Arup · 2022 · Greater London Authority (GLA)
The meanwhile lease: enabling temporary community use of vacant property
The 'meanwhile lease' lets landlords grant short-term use to voluntary groups while keeping ownership and the right to recover the site; an intermediary provides standard contracts and insurance to make interim use legal and smooth.
Meanwhile Foundation · 2013 · Meanwhile Foundation (UK)
Vacancy as Precarious Property in Dublin's Temporary Urbanism Moment
Critical account of Dublin's 2008–2017 temporary-urbanism moment showing how the post-crash possibilities for community/garden uses of vacant land were foreclosed by governmental interventions that re-secured property relations, withdrawing interim uses once the market recovered.
Cian O'Callaghan · 2024 · Antipode