Participatory Design and Self-building in Shared Urban Open Spaces

The book investigates the development of community gardens with self-built structures, which have existed as a shared public open space land use form in New York City's low-come neighborhoods like the South Bronx since the 1970s. These gardens have continued to be part of the urban landscape until today, despite conflicting land use interests, changing residents groups and contradictory city planning. Both community gardens and self-built structures are created in a participatory design and self-built effort by urban residents and are an expression of the individual gardeners' preferences, their cultural background and the decisions made by the managing residents' group in regards to the needs of their neighborhood. Ultimately community gardens with self-built structures are an expression of the people's will to commonly use this land for open and enclosed structures next to their homes in the city and need to be included in future urban planning.

Autorentext

Carolin Mees holds a Dr. Ing./PhD in Architecture and a Dipl.Ing/ M.A. in Architecture, both from the Berlin University of Arts, as well as a Vordiplom/ B.A. in Architecture from the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany. With her office mees architecture Carolin Mees has designed community-based open space structures since 2007, when she led the participatory design of the Gardenhaus shelter structure for the municipal community gardens program of New York City, GreenThumb. Carolin Mees has been the Project and Design Coordinator for New York City's Mayor's Offices Gardens for Healthy Communities Initiative that resulted in the participatory design and self-building of 13 new community gardens from 2012-2014. She has continued to work as an architect and researcher in the field of community-based urban design and has published widely about her research. Carolin Mees has been teaching in the field of architecture, landscape architecture, sustainable systems and designing urban agriculture at various universities in Europe and North-America since 2009.

Inhalt

**Foreword
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The emergence of shared gardens and self-built structures in European cities
*Germany with focus on Berlin
Austria with focus on Vienna
Great Britain with focus on London
France with focus on Paris

• **Chapter 3: The emergence of shared gardens and self-built structures in North American cities
  *The emergence of shared gardens and self-built structures in cities in the United States - Philadelphia as United States case study
  The emergence of shared gardens and self-built structures in Canadian cities Toronto as Canadian case study
• **Chapter 4: The emergence of community gardens in New York City with focus on the South Bronx
  *Social and economic background of the South Bronx
  Community gardens and urban land use
  Community gardens and community open spaces
  Community gardens versus housing
• **Chapter 5: The impact of stakeholders on the development of community gardens in the South Bronx
  *The federal government
  The state and the municipal government
  Banks
  Insurance companies
  Landlords
  Tenants
  Organizations
• **Chapter 6: Organizing, planning and governing community gardens
  *Community garden members and the economic situation
  Community garden members and the social situation
  Community gardens, community organizing and community change
  Community gardens and community planning
  Community gardens and governance
  Community gardens and public attention
  Community gardens and affordable housing
  Community gardens and open space planning
  Interdependency between city planning, housing and community gardens
• **Chapter 7: Community gardens and self-built structures as a form of cultural expression
  *Community gardens, shared design aesthetic and culture
  Design of community garden elements and cultural context
  The casita as Puerto Rican cultural expression
  The casita in Puerto Rican culture
  The development of the casita in the Puerto Rican context of the South Bronx
  Other self-built structures
  The batey
  The stage
  The chicken coop
  The pig roast
  The shrine and other artifacts
  Rincon Criollo as case study of community gardens with self-built structures
• **Chapter 8: Participatory design of community gardens and self-built structures: Lessons from field experiences
  *Participatory design and construction of community gardens
  Participatory design and use of shared open spaces
  Involvement of planners in the participatory design process
  Participatory building process and materials
  Lessons from the participatory design of the Gardenhaus structure
  Citywide regulations for self-built structures and their impact on the Gardenhaus
  Participatory design-build development of the Gardenhaus
  Looking back at the design of the Gardenhaus structure
  Lessons from the participatory design of the Gardens for Healthy Communities Initiative
  The Gardens for Healthy Communities Initiative
  Looking back at the Gardens for Healthy Communities Initiative
• **Chapter 9: Conclusion
  List of Figures