Social interaction

The project is a community garden hosted by the first humanitarian NGO in post communist Romania, Fundaţia ’89 (1). It serves as a permanent sustainable source of the NGO in order to feed its employees and to engage in community work homeless people, itinerant workers, evacuated families, drug abusers. (1)

The River Alt Restoration Project at Stonebridge started in 2013 with an initial goal to remove culverts in order to create re-naturalised watercourses and maintain watercourses easier. It also involved the removal of rubbish and other obstructions to reduce the risk of flooding in the wider catchment (Reference 2). The project then evolved with a bigger goal to divert River Alt into a new 900-meter long linear park named Alt Meadows. Relevant engineering works were employed in the area. In addition, accessible paths and meadow, wetland and woodland habitats were created. The park was also linked into surrounding areas (like housing, shops, schools, etc.). The project benefits include the expected increase in wildlife biodiversity and improved water quality and flood protection (Reference 1, 3).
The project was led The Cass Foundation, in partnership with the Community Forest Trust, with funding from DEFRA’s Catchment Restoration Fund (via Environmental Agency) and Liverpool City Council. The Foundation remains responsible for maintaining Alt Meadows on behalf of the city council (Reference 3).

The area around Selma Lagerlöf’s square is one of the city's main development areas. The Park and the Parks and Landscape Administration is responsible for creating a new park in the area. It will be like a hub for meetings, greenery, relaxation and activities in the new Selma city. Together with the square area, it aims to become the basis for the common social life in the district. The park will attract visitors of different ages and with different interests and be an attraction for all of Göteborg. The project is currently ongoing and is expected to get completed in 2023. (Ref. 1, 4)

The Park Jose Antonio Labordeta is the most extensive park in all of Zaragoza, consisting of municipal nurseries, botanical gardens, and areas for leisure and recreation. (Ref. 4) From 2006 to 2007 a process of citizen participation was started to collect ideas for the improvement of the park on its 75th anniversary. (Ref. 1) In 2010, the City Council of Zaragoza developed a Master Plan to document these ideas and to guide future management of the park. (Ref. 1) The interventions in the Master Plan include landscape improvement, park management, agronomic improvements, among others. (Ref. 1)

"After decades of abandonment and deterioration, Zaragoza took advantage of the opportunity of the Expo 2008, to form a new relationship with the Ebro River, transforming empty, inaccessible, degraded and unsafe banks into places of encounter and representation. Public works on the Ebro were designed as structures with various functions." (Ref.3)

"MiColtivo, Orto a Scuola" promoted by Fondazione Riccardo Catella, aims at involving children with horticulture with the aim of educating them on the importance of a correct diet and environmental issues. The first pilot project was launched in local schools in 2012. The project was developed in the concept of the imminent EXPO 2015, as the main topics were nutrition and the environment. (1)

This is a private initiative located in a residential complex in the northern area of Rome. When a new tenant purchases or rents a house, he is provided with a private garden for horticulture, together with the assistance of experts in vegetable planting and growing. The initiative was designed to educate people on the importance of consuming local foods and living in close interactions with green areas inside urban areas (1 and 6).

Since 2007, in the area of a former tree nursery, the international garden in Bonn gives space for social integration. Covering 3,000 m2 the area was turned into an allotment garden with garden plots of approximately 40 m2. The plots are allocated to 25 families from different cultural backgrounds, living in the deprived neighbourhood of Bonn-Dransdorf to support their self-sufficient agricultural practices and foster their social integration (1,10). The aim of the project is to provide gardening families with the option for intercultural exchange and a chance to take roots in a new country. In 2003, the International Garden Bonn project was initiated is implemented by "Wissenschaftsladen Bonn", a community service group who persuaded the city of Bonn to provide the once city property free for this social inclusion project (1).

The Urban Environment Observatory is located on a plot of 7,000 square meters of surface transformed into a garden with native vegetation. It is comprised by a library, an Assembly Hall, exposition rooms and spaces for educational activities. There was planned to be a cistern that would collect the rainwater that will serve for irrigation of the garden and the garden terraces (Ref. 1 and 7). The project has since been halted for what seems to be politically-relevant financial reasons, according to Ref 8:"everyone has many explanations to give about the current situation of an unfinished building after more than a five-year period".

These gardens fulfil several purposes and have become more and more often a point of aggregation and leisure, of socialisation and recreation, didactic and cultural education. Two interventions were made and in 1991, where 36 and 48 ornamental plants were produced. Subsequently, the gardens were built in the PEEP area of ​​Zelarino (in 1997), and in via Pertini (in 2002) and thanks to the environmental context and the available space, an element of novelty is introduced: the gathering area for communities to share environmental common values and activities. (2).