Cultural innovation

The regeneration of the square in Catania has been envisioned since 2016 and completed in 2017. Apart from the changing rules in the accessibility of the square, the central area was equipped with a large flowerbed and additional trees and plants of different geographical origins. The whole green area provides illumination infrastructure, benches and bins to collect trash. This is expected to improve the whole area, and to create a new place of social inclusion and meeting point. (Ref.1.)

Port Sunlight River Park has been transformed from a closed landfill site to a 28-hectare park providing a popular community space with an array of walkways, wildlife, wildflowers, woodlands and a wetlands area. Port Sunlight River Park is a 30 hectare green space, park and wetland reclaimed from a former landfill site with a 37m high hill offering unrivalled views across the Mersey, Wirral and North Wales. (Ref 9). Autism Together were later brought in to help realise the Land Trust’s vision to provide a community site that makes a positive difference for local people and visitors, promoting healthy lifestyles in the process. (Ref. 1, 2).

Due to the changing burial culture and the declining burial rates, Hamburg decided to establish a long-term development strategy called Ohlsdorf 2050 for the Ohlsdorf cemetery. The aim of the project is to preserve and develop the cemetery as a cultural landmark and a garden monument. The municipality aims to limit the burial services to a 120-hectare large area and develop a cemetery park in the remaining 280-hectare area. The strategy is being developed together with the locals, relatives of interred and experts. The participant's ideas included among others places for outdoor sports, allotment gardens and planting indigenous species. In any case, the entire cemetery will be preserved and maintained according to principles of garden heritage conservation and nature protection. Places for interaction, meditation, reflection and recreation will play a dominant role. (Reference 1, 2). In September 2020, the result of the consultations and the strategy itself is still unknown.

The Center for Initiatives for an Ecological Transition (CITE ASBL) developed an eco-center; a center of demonstration of the techniques respectful of the environment, that functions as an educational community garden. They wanted to create an ecologically-managed and user-friendly green space, that is conducive to the exchange of knowledge and skills but also to mutual aid and dialogue (Ref. 1). Located on the meadow of the Bâneux, in the Saint-léonard district of Liège, the eco-center is integrated in the eastern part of the slopes of the citadel of Liège. (The plot of the eco-center is located on the vestiges of the old coal mine of Bâneux that was closed in 1942.) .Characteristics of the place include proximity to a multicultural urban center, post-industrial environment, accessible by public transport, natural area of tourist interest (Ref. 2).

The project is an initiative that is part of the environmental management system of the University of Murcia. This initiative aims to implement activities related to sustainable agricultural systems while also serving as a space for social cohesion for the members of the community (Ref 3). For this reason, a community garden was constructed and the slots are until 2019 distributed between members of the community of the university based on a bid (Ref 1).

It is a community garden initiated by the autonomous assembly of the Poblenou neighborhood. It has changed location a number of times, eventually occupying the empty lot of demolished buildings. Over time the garden has expanded, taking over an adjacent empty space, as well as other yards in the neighborhood. The garden is not maintained for strictly productivity purposes, especially because much of its soil has been contaminated by a soap factory. It is, rather, used as a space for social encounter and knowledge sharing on planting and working with the earth on a communitarian basis (Ref 1 and description provided by CEU). This NBS is also part of a wider movement, the 15M movement in Spain (Ref 1), which had influence on the creation of larger similar global economic 'occupy' movements (Ref 5). Video for the opening party of the 8th self-managed squatted garden in the Poblenou neighborhood, Barcelona from April 11, 2020 shows that the idea of the first garden has lead to the creation of at least 8 of these gardens in the city (Ref 6).

This is a co-management initiative fostered by the City Council of Barcelona that aims to involve civil society in defining, installing and managing unused spaces across all districts of the city. The city council provides temporary use for public entities or non-profit associations to develop temporary uses and activities (from one year to three renewable years) in order to promote social activism and cohesion in the neighborhood. Most part of activities are social urban gardens (Ref 1). The initiative had 2 editions, with 12 projects in the first one (2013) and 5 projects in the second one (2015) (Ref. 12). One of the most popular projects is the community gardens such as ConnectHort, in Poblenou, dedicated to permaculture, which has allowed the restoration of an abandoned area through sustainable urban agriculture practices (Ref. 12). Another project, the Illa dels Tres Horts project in the Font de la Guatlla neighborhood, is an orchard where work is done with vulnerable groups and allow the recovery of vulnerable species (Ref. 12)

Fil vert aims to help green the streets in Normandy and raise awareness among citizens of the importance of being an actor of their daily life with regard to the occupation of public space. They aim to "embellish our streets, which are often devoid of vegetation, but also to train responsible citizens" (Ref. 7). "Operation "Fil Vert" was launched at Croix de Pierre (District) in Rouen in September 2013 to beautify and revitalize the district by mobilizing residents and tradespeople. It aims of installing planters in front of the inhabitants and the merchants (subject to obtaining the agreement of the owners in case of hiring), along the pavements, provided that it makes at least 1.40 M width to allow strollers and wheelchairs to pass." (Ref. 3)

The orchard of the Vallon was established by the city in an area that had historically served as an orchard fifty years previous (Ref. 9). A few pear trees had survived and gave rise to the idea of ​​reconstituting it. In 2014, the city planted apple, peach, pear, cherry, apricot and other fruit trees on one and a half hectares of greenery. "At the beginning of 2015, the association Le Verger du Vallon was born. With its members, its mission is to maintain these trees with a view to sharing knowledge and educational exchanges "(Ref. 9). "Called upon by the city of Rouen for the establishment of a participatory orchard, the social center wished to promote this project among the inhabitants within the framework of the arrow projects of the CAF (social security) de la Seine Maritime entering the field of financing "to support a cooperative project of residents initiated and built with them from a common concern " (Ref. 3, page Description).

The city of Rouen has been redeveloping the docks of the Seine River over a number of years. The Prairie Saint Sever (park) is one part of this redevelopment planning. Completed in 2017, this park "allows its inhabitants to reclaim their river and offer new spaces of use" (Ref. 5) with "generous alleys lined with six hundred trees, cycle paths, original children's games, metal slides grafted to the stairs of the Jeanne-d'Arc bridge, picnic benches and tables, wooden deckchairs encouraging reading or idleness, sports apparatus and rollerblading equipment ... today, Rouen residents can enjoy a walking park of twenty-three hectares and more than three kilometers long, between the Corneille bridge and the Rollet peninsula" (Ref. 6).
It is a prairie in the heart of the city offering a large river walk on more than 3km (Ref. 2).