The Idea of Allotment Gardens and The Role of Spatial and Urban Planning

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6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page i
Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe
Although urban allotment gardening dates back to the nineteenth century, it has
recently undergone a renaissance of interest and popularity. This is the result of
greater concern over urban green space, food security and quality of life. This book
presents a comprehensive, research-based overview of the various features, benefits
and values associated with urban allotment gardening in Europe.
The book is based on a European COST Action project, which brought
together researchers and practitioners from all over Europe for the first detailed
exploration of the subject on a continent-wide scale. It assesses the policy, planning
and design aspects, as well as the social and ecological benefits of urban allotment
gardening. Through an examination of the wide range of different traditions and
practices across Europe, it brings together the most recent research to discuss the
latest evolutions of urban and more recent forms of urban allotment gardening and
to help raise awareness and fill knowledge gaps.
The book provides a multidisciplinary perspective, including insights from horti-
culture and soil science, ecology, sociology, urban geography, landscape, planning and
design. The themes are underpinned by case studies from a number of European
countries which supply a wide range of examples to illustrate different key issues.
Simon Bell is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of

Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia, and Director of the OPENspace Research Centre,
Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of
Edinburgh, UK.
Runrid Fox-Kämper is an architect and Head of the research group ‘Built

Environment’ at the ILS Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development,
Aachen, Germany and Chair of COST Action TU1201 Urban Allotment Gardens
in European Cities.
Nazila Keshavarz is a landscape architect and a research fellow at ILS Research

Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Aachen, Germany.
Mary Benson is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth

University, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page ii
Silvio Caputo is Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, University of

Portsmouth, UK.
Susan Noori is a social research consultant and an affiliated researcher with

Birmingham School of Architecture, Birmingham City University, UK.
Annette Voigt is Visiting Professor in the Department of Geography and Regional

Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page iii
Urban Allotment Gardens

in Europe
Edited by
Simon Bell, Runrid Fox-Kämper,
Nazila Keshavarz, Mary Benson,
Silvio Caputo, Susan Noori and
Annette Voigt
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page iv
First published 2016

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Simon Bell, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Nazila Keshavarz, Mary Benson,

Silvio Caputo, Susan Noori and Annette Voigt for selection and editorial
material; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial

material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced

or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

[CIP data]
ISBN: 978-1-138-92109-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-68660-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by FiSH Books Ltd, Enfield
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Contents
List of boxes viii

Notes on contributors x
Preface xx
Foreword xxi
Introduction 1
SIMON BELL
1 A history of urban gardens in Europe 8

NAZILA KESHAVARZ AND SIMON BELL
PART I
Urban allotment gardens in the European political,
planning and legal sphere 33
2 The idea of allotment gardens and the role of spatial and urban
planning 35
MATTHIAS DRILLING, RENATA GIEDYCH AND LIDIA PONI ż Y
3 Grassroots gardening movements: towards cooperative forms of green

urban development? 62
BYRON IOANNOU, NEREA MORÁN, MARTIN SONDERMANN,
CHIARA CERTOMÀ AND MICHAEL HARDMAN
4 Political-economic urban restructuring: urban allotment gardens in the

entrepreneurial city 90
EFRAT EIZENBERG, SIMONE TAPPERT, NICOLA THOMAS AND ANDIS ZILANS
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vi Contents
PART II
The ecology of urban allotment gardens 113
5 Ecosystem services from urban gardens 115

JOHANNES LANGEMEYER, MONIKA JOANNA LATKOWSKA AND
ERIK NICOLAS GÓMEZ-BAGGETHUN
6 Environmental pressures on and the status of urban allotments 142

ANDREW S. HURSTHOUSE AND TERESA E. LEITÃO
7 Lessons learned: indicators and good practice for an environmentally-

friendly urban garden 165
ANNETTE VOIGT AND TERESA E. LEITÃO
PART III
Spatial design aspects of urban allotment gardens 199
8 The position of urban allotment gardens within the urban fabric 201
SANDRA COSTA, RUNRID FOX-KÄMPER, RUSSELL GOOD AND IVANA SENTI ć
9 Emergent approaches to urban gardening 229

SILVIO CAPUTO, EVA SCHWAB AND KOSTAS TSIAMBAOS
10 Allotment gardens as a challenge for an urban designer 254

ANTOINE ZAMMIT AND INA ŠUKLJE-ERJAVEC
PART IV
The social sphere of urban allotment gardens 289
11 Urban allotment garden: a case for place-making 291

SUSAN NOORI AND MARY BENSON
12 Motivations behind urban gardening: ‘here I feel alive’ 320

LAURA CALVET-MIR, HUG MARCH, HELENA NORDH, JEANNE POURIAS AND
BARBORA Č AKOVSKÁ
13 Building trust and social skills in urban allotment gardens 342

TIM DELSHAMMAR, MARIA PARTALIDOU AND RHYS EVANS
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Contents vii
Concluding remarks 364

RUNRID FOX-KÄMPER
Index 370
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Boxes
3.1 Agros in Hellinikon, Greater Athens area, Greece 67

3.2 Community garden networks and their impact on politics and
planning – the case of Milan, Italy 70
3.3 Hybrid brownfield development – De Site community gardens in
Ghent, Belgium 79
3.4 Collaborative green urban development – the example of Ökotop
Heerdt in Düsseldorf, Germany 82
4.1 Claiming the right to public space and neighbourhood stabilization in
Maroussi, Greece 96
4.2 Fight for allotment gardens in the city of Basel, Switzerland 98
4.3 Loss of urban green infrastructure: allotment gardens in the city of
Riga, Latvia 100
4.4 Allotment gardens in the city of Berne, Switzerland in process of
transformation 103
4.5 Allotment gardens and food sufficiency in the city of Cesis, Latvia 105
5.1 Food provision by collective urban gardens in Paris, France 119
5.2 Urban horticulture and food production in Bologna, Italy 120
5.3 Provision of ornamental plants in allotment gardens in Warsaw, Poland 126
5.4 Social-ecological memory in allotment gardens in Tampere, Finland 130
5.5 Cultural benefits from allotment gardens in Salzburg, Austria 133
7.1 Gardens close to the sea shore, Israel 174
7.2 A wondrous world of sustainability and nature, Jerusalem, Israel 175
7.3 Kraut und Rüben garden, Bochum, Germany 177
7.4 Allmende Verden permaculture garden, Germany 178
7.5 Environmentally-friendly practices of allotment garden users: case
study, Warsaw, Poland 181
7.6 Sataf garden Jerusalem, Israel 184
7.7 Microclimate regulation by water bodies in Tamera, Portugal, 2013 186
7.8 Allotment gardening integrated with homes in Eco-Viikki, Helsinki,
Finland 187
7.9 Beim Gemüse gardening group, Kalkbreite Cooperative, Zürich,
Switzerland 191
8.1 Hanbruch allotment garden, Aachen, Germany 204
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Boxes ix
8.2 Lucavsala allotment garden in Riga, Latvia 205

8.3 Les Jardins du Zéphyr, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France 207
8.4 Martineau Gardens, Birmingham, UK 215
8.5 Horta da Lada, Porto, Portugal 218
8.6 Quinta da Granja, Lisbon, Portugal 221
9.1 The Skip Garden, London, UK 233
9.2 Salatpiraten, Vienna, Austria 235
9.3 Gerilja park Oslo, Norway 236
9.4 Condominium in Central Athens Greece 240
9.5 Food from the Sky, London, UK 242
9.6 Aspern Seestadt, Vienna, Austria 244
10.1 HirschGrün community garden, Aachen, Germany 259
10.2 Park Dolny allotment garden, Warsaw, Poland 263
10.3 Uplands allotments, Handsworth, Birmingham, UK 266
10.4 Via Chiodi urban allotment garden, Milan, Italy 269
10.5 Thumegg community allotment gardens, Salzburg, Austria 272
11.1 Edible Eastside and the social process of place-making,
Birmingham, UK 297
11.2 Greek allotment gardens reminiscent of rural reference and a sense
of place, Alexandroupoli, Greece 299
11.3 Space translating into place through affection in Pispala allotment
garden, Finland 300
11.4 Place-making in a former gardening cooperative in suburban Tallinn,
Estonia 303
11.5 Movements and tensions in place-making: the case of allotment
gardens in Kulgu, Narva, Estonia 305
11.6 Garden as a shared language in the old allotment complex in Warsaw,
Poland 308
11.7 Major investment in urban gardening: the case of Real Food
Wythenshawe, UK 309
11.8 Allotments as a re-imagining and re-imagination of landscape:
boundaries, personalization and representations of home, Dublin,
Ireland 312
12.1 The case of Barcelona, Spain 324
12.2 The case of Nitra, Slovakia 327
12.3 The case of Paris, France 329
12.4 The case of Oslo, Norway 331
13.1 Enskifteshagen community garden, Malmö, Sweden 345
13.2 Conflicts in the urban allotment garden of Alexandroupoli, Greece 347
13.3 Four community gardens in Helsingborg, Sweden 350
13.4 Knowledge and social skills in the urban allotment garden of
Thermi, Greece 353
13.5 The Urban Agriculture Network, Malmö, Sweden 355
13.6 Bærkraft Liv kolonihage, Bergen, Norway 359
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Contributors
Kristine Abolina is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at the

University of Latvia, Riga. Her research interest is in neighbourhood develop-
ment and responsible lifestyles. Contact: Kristine.abolina@lu.lv.
Theodosia Anthopoulou is a geographer and Associate Professor at Panteion
University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece. Her research focuses
on rural restructuring, localized agri-food systems, alternative food networks
and urban agriculture. Contact: antho@panteion.gr
Martina Artmann is a Researcher in Urban Ecology at the Paris Lodron
University, Salzburg, Austria. Her research interests are in efficient sustainable
management of urban ecosystems and assessment of ecosystem services. Contact:
martina.artmann@sbg.ac.at
Erik Gómez-Baggethun is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute for
Nature Research (NINA), Norway, and the Autonomous University of
Barcelona, Spain. His research focuses on integrated assessment and valuation of
.
ecosystem services. Contact: erik.gomez@nina.no
Ligita Baležentiene is Professor of Ecology at Aleksandras Stulginskis University,
Kaunas, Lithuania. Her research interest is in plant ecology, biodiversity, allelopa-
thy, related to climate change (GHG emissions) in human inflicted ecosystems.
Contact: ligitaba@gmail.com
Johan Barstad is an economist and public planner and is Senior Researcher at the
Norwegian University College of Agriculture and Rural Development and
Research Advisor at Møre and Romsdal Health Trust. His research interests are
in peri-urban agriculture, local and regional development, community develop-
ment, communicative planning, public health issues and patient involvement.
Contact: johan.barstad@hlb.no
Béatrice Bechet is a Researcher in Environmental Geochemistry at IFSTTAR
(French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and
Networks), Nantes, France. Her research interests are urban soil pollution and
pollutant transfer in urban waters and soils. Contact: beatrice.bechet@ifsttar.fr
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xi
Contributors xi
Simon Bell is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of

Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia and Director of the OPENspace Research Centre
at Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of
Edinburgh. His research interest is in planning and design of urban green space
for human well-being. Contact: simon.bell@emu.ee.
Mary Benson is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth
University, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Her
research interests are urban sociology and the implications of changing
cityscapes. Contact: mary.benson@nuim.ie
Mária Bihunova is a Lecturer of Garden and Landscape Architecture at the
Horticulture and Landscape Engineering Faculty, Slovak University of
Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia. Her research interests are landscape architecture
and recreational planning. Contact:bihunova.maria@gmail.com
Hervé Bonnavaud is Vice-president of the ‘Office International du Coin de Terre
et des Jardins Familiaux (International Federation of Allotment Gardens) and
Past president (2005–2014) of the Fédération Nationale des Jardins Familiaux
Collectifs (French National Federation of Allotment Gardens). Contact:
h.bonnavaud1@jardins-familiaux.asso.fr
Jürgen H. Breuste held a Chair in Geography/Urban Ecology at Paris Lodron
University, Salzburg (Austria). His research interests are urban ecology and urban
development, with a specific focus on urban ecosystem research, nature protec-
tion and modelling of urban development, including several studies of urban
allotment gardens in Germany and Austria. Contact: juergen.breuste@sbg.ac.at
Barbora Čakovská is a landscape architect and Researcher at the Faculty of
Horticulture and Landscape Engineering, Slovak University of Agriculture in
Nitra, Slovakia. Her research interests are landscape architecture, private gardens
and urban agriculture. Contact: barboralipovska@gmail.com
Laura Calvet-Mir is a Research Fellow with IN3-UOC (Barcelona, Spain) and
affiliated Researcher at ICTA-UAB (Barcelona, Spain). Her research focuses on
urban and rural agriculture, agroecological transitions and biocultural diversity.
Contact: lcalvetmir@gmail.com
Marta Camps-Calvet, holds a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Her research interests are in urban socio-
ecological systems, ecosystem services, and environmental and social
movements. Contact: martacampsc@gmail.com
Silvio Caputo is Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, University of
Portsmouth, UK. He teaches Architectural Design and Architectural Technology.
He has researched many aspects of urban resilience, including urban agriculture
as a practice endowing cities with multiple benefits and higher degrees of adap-
tation Contact: silvio.caputo@port.ac.uk
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xii
xii Contributors
Chiara Certomà is a Research Fellow in Environmental Governance and

Planning at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy. Her research focuses
on critical urban gardening, nature and technology and environmental politics.
Contact: c.certoma@sssup.it
Yvonne Christ is a Research Associate at ZHAW Institute of Natural Resources
Sciences in Wädenswil, Switzerland. Her main interests include plant literacy
and environmental education, especially transdisciplinary learning environ-
ments. Contact: yvonne.christ@zhaw.ch
Sandra Costa is a landscape architect and urban planner. She is a Visiting Lecturer
and Researcher at the School of Architecture at Birmingham City University
(UK) and at the CITAB Research Centre (University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto
Douro, Portugal). Her research interests are in landscape experience, person-place
interactions and sense of well-being. Contact: sandracostabaptista@gmail.com
David Crouch is Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Derby. He
is author of The Allotment, 3rd edition (Little Toller Press, 2016); The Art of
Allotments: Culture and Cultivation (Five Leaves Press 2003); Project Director and
Report Author, UK National Surveys of Allotments (1993–2006); Producer, The
Plot BBC2, 1994. His most recent book, Flirting with Space: Journeys and Creativity
(Ashgate 2010) includes an in-depth consideration of allotments as a way to
know our own worlds.
Neslihan Demircan is a landscape architect and works as an Assistant Professor
in the Architecture Department of the Architecture and Design Faculty, Atatürk
University, Turkey. Her interest areas are landscape design, botanical gardens,
hobby gardens, urban design and urban transformation. Contact:
neslihan_demircan@hotmail.com
Tim Delshammar is Senior Lecturer in Landscape Planning at the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden. His research interests are plan-
ning and governance of urban green space with a focus on compact green urban
structures and sustainable urban development. Contact: tim.delshammar@slu.se
Matthias Drilling is Professor of Social Urban Development and Head of the
Institute for Social Planning and Urban Development in the School of Social
Work, University of Applied Sciences, Basel, Switzerland. His research interests
are social sustainable planning processes and democratic urban development.
Contact details: matthias.drilling@fhnw.ch
Jevgenijs Duboks graduated from the Latvian University, Faculty of Geography
and Earth Sciences. His research interests are city gardening and urban sound-
scapes. Contact: jevgenijs_duboks@inbox.lv
Efrat Eizenberg is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town
Planning, The Technion, Haifa, Israel. Her research interests include urban
nature and landscape perception, planning with communities, urban regenera-
tion, urban struggles and the politics of space. Contact: efrate@technion.ac.il
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xiii
Contributors xiii
Ina Šuklje Erjavec is a Senior Researcher at the Urban Planning Institute of the
Republic of Slovenia. Her research and practice interests are planning and
design of urban green and open space for quality of life and environment.
Contact: ina.suklje-erjavec@uirs.si.
Rhys Evans is an Associate Professor of Rural Community Development at the
Norwegian University College of Agriculture and Rural Development. His
main research interests include rural community development and human-horse
relations. Contact: rhys@hlb.no
Runrid Fox-Kämper is Head of the Research Group Built Environment at the
ILS Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development in Aachen,
Germany. Her research interests include adapting residential areas to social
change and the role of green infrastructure in urban development. She is chair
of COST Action TU1201 Urban Allotment Gardens in European Cities.
Contact: runrid.fox-kaemper@ils-forschung.de
Beata J. Gawryszewska is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at
Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Her research and practice interests are plan-
ning and design of residential areas, home garden theory and urban
revitalisation. Contact: beata_gawryszewska@sggw.pl
Renata Giedych is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Warsaw
University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests are planning
and design of green infrastructure and nature conservation in urban areas.
Contact: renata_giedych@sggw.pl
Zuzana Gogová graduated from Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) in
the field of environmental studies. Her final thesis discussed the environmental
way of life and small-scale societies in Serbian rural areas – cooperation among
rural orthodox believers and monks and nuns living in the monasteries located
in those areas. Contact: zuzkagogova@gmail.com
Russell Good is a Senior Teaching Fellow and programme leader for the master’s
in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture, Faculty of Arts, Design
and Media, Birmingham City University. His research explores the role of natu-
ral systems as a process-led approach for designed ecologies of built and natural
environments. Contact: russell.good@bcu.ac.uk
Michael Hardman is Lecturer in Geography at the University of Salford, UK. His
research interests are predominantly urban agriculture, particularly informal
ways in which food production can be integrated into the city fabric. Contact:
m.hardman@salford.ac.uk
Werner Heidemann is a horticulturist and a board member of the
Bundesverband Deutscher Gartenfreunde (BDG), Berlin. Contact: wernerhei-
demann@web.de
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xiv
xiv Contributors
Avigail Heller is the Head of the Plant engineering and Botanical Gardens branch
at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the State of Israel. Her
practice interests are in botanical gardens, community and allotment gardens,
urban forestry, water use efficiency and sustainable gardening. Contact:
avigh@shaham.moag.gov.il
Amnon Herzig is one of the leading volunteers in the community garden at the
Nature Museum in Jerusalem. He uses his managerial experience in the busi-
ness sector to develop the community garden as a unique multifunctional
sustainability and community centre. Contact: amnon.herzig@gmail.com
Ans Hobbelink is now retired and has a private consulting firm, Moos. As an
anthropologist and director she worked for many years managing research
focusing on ecological agriculture and urban allotments for Wageningen
University. She is currently president of the allotment association partnership in
the city of Utrecht and provides contributions to AVVN as a volunteer. Contact:
ahobbelink@yahoo.co.uk
Andrew S. Hursthouse is Assistant Dean for Research and Enterprise and
Professor of Environmental Geochemistry at the University of the West of
Scotland. His research interests cover the behaviour of potentially toxic elements
in surface environments and risk assessment for human health. Contact:
andrew.hursthouse@uws.ac.uk
Byron Ioannou is an Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at Frederick
University, Cyprus. His research interests are in planning the built environment,
green practices and community engagement in urban design. Contact:
art.ib@frederick.ac.cy
Ari Jokinen is a University Researcher at the University of Tampere, Finland. His
research focuses on environmental policy, particularly urban sustainability,
biodiversity politics and the use of natural resources. Contact details: ari.joki-
nen@uta.fi
Kadri Kasemets is a Researcher in Cultural Geography and Landscape Studies at
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia. Her research interests are landscape studies
and visual communication. Contact: kadrisem@tlu.ee
Minttu Kervinen is a PhD student at Tampere University of Technology and
planning architect at FCG Design and Engineering Ltd. Her research interest is
urban nature and her duties include urban and strategic planning. Contact:
minttu.kervinen@fcg.fi
Nazila Keshavarz is a landscape architect and a Research Fellow at ILS –
Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (Aachen, Germany).
Her research focuses on urban agriculture, urban green infrastructure, sustain-
able neighbourhood development, urban cultural diversity and interaction of
minority ethnic groups with local parks in Western cities. Contact:
nazila.keshavarz@ils-forschung.de
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xv
Contributors xv
Mart Külvik is a Professor of Biodiversity and Environmental Planning at the

Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia. His research interests are
conservation planning and policies with an emphasis on participatory planning
in green infrastructure development, especially on the interactions with spatial
planning and cultural heritage contexts. Contact: kylvik@emu.ee
Johannes Langemeyer is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Environmental
Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, and
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden. His interdiscipli-
nary research is focused on the valuation and integrated assessment of urban
ecosystem services. Contact: Johannes.langemeyer@uab.cat.
Monika Joanna Latkowska is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of
Horticulture, Biotechnology and Landscape Architecture, Warsaw University of
Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests are human issues in horti-
culture, people-plant interactions, urban gardens and their influence on the life
quality of city inhabitants. Contact: monika_latkowska@sggw.pl
Teresa E. Leitão is Senior Research Officer with Habilitation at the National
Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Portugal. Her main interests are in the field
of hydrogeochemistry and the prevention and risk analysis of soil, vadose zones
and groundwater pollution. Contact: tleitao@lnec.pt
Hug March is a Research Fellow at IN3, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. His
research focuses on the urban political ecology of the hydro-social cycle, urban
transformation, economics and the environment, and alternative socio-ecologi-
cal transitions. Contact: hmarch@uoc.edu
Duarte Mata is a landscape architect and currently is working at the Deputy
Mayor’s Office for Green Structure and Energy of the City of Lisbon as advisor
for the implementation of a green infrastructure plan, for climate adaptation
measures, biodiversity plan and other environmental issues. Contact:
duarte.mata@cm-lisboa.pt
Paulo Brito da Luz is Senior Researcher, with Habilitation for Research
Coordination at the National Institute of Agrarian and Veterinary Research,
Unit of Agrarian Systems, in Oeiras-Lisboa, Portugal. His main research inter-
ests are water cycle/balance and agro-environmental indicators for the
development of methodological tools and farming best practices guidelines, in
climate change interactions with resources (soil, water and energy), and in socio-
economic topics. Contact details: paulo.luz@iniav.pt
Gabriela Maksymiuk is Assistant Professor at the Department of Landscape
Architecture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. Her research
focuses on environmental bases for spatial planning as well as planning and
design of urban green spaces, with a special interest in green infrastructure.
Contact: gabriela_maksymiuk@sggw.pl
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xvi
xvi Contributors
Sophia Meeres is a civil engineer and landscape architect and is responsible for
graduate programmes in Landscape Architecture at University College Dublin,
Ireland. Her research is concerned with connections between the city and the
countryside. Contact: sophia.meeres@ucd.ie
Bent Egberg Mikkelsen is a Professor of Nutrition and Public Food Systems at
Aalborg University. His research is concerned with public health nutrition and
sustainable public food systems and how educational and community gardens
can contribute to healthier eating and food literacy. Contact:
bemi@plan.aau.dk
Nerea Morán is a doctoral student of urban planning at the Technical University
of Madrid. Her research interests are community gardens, collaborative urban-
ism and urban agriculture. Contact: nerea.moran@gmail.com
Helena Nordh is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the
Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning at the Norwegian
University of Life Sciences. Her research interest is in landscape architecture and
environmental psychology. Contact: Helena.nordh@nmbu.no
Susan Noori is a Social Research Consultant and an Affiliated Researcher with
Birmingham School of Architecture, Birmingham City University, UK. Her
research interests are in urban sociology particularly multi-cultural cities, urban
communities, and gender. Contact: susan.noori@bcu.ac.uk
Bruno Notteboom is a Research Professor at the Faculty of Design Sciences at
the University of Antwerp. His research focuses on landscape and urbanism.
Contact: Bruno.Notteboom@uantwerpen.be
Patrick Oehler is a Researcher at the Institute for Social Planning and Urban
Development at the School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences,
Basel, Switzerland. His research interests are community development, profes-
sional work and democracy. Contact details: patrick.oehler@fhnw.ch
Francesco Orsini is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Agricultural Sciences
Department of Bologna University, Italy. His research interest is multifunctional
urban horticulture in projects in the global north and south. Contact:
f.orsini@unibo.it
Maria Partalidou is an Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology at the Aristotelian
University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her research interests are social aspects of
food provisioning, food networks and social innovations. Contact:
parmar@agro.auth.gr
Ole Pihl is an Associate Professor at the department of architecture, design and
media technology at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research interests are
urban design, architectural history, architectural representation, through drawing
landscape painting and in drawing and writing graphic novels. Contact:
op@create.aau.dk
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xvii
Contributors xvii
Tarmo Pikner is a Research Fellow in Human Geography at the Centre for

Landscape and Culture, the Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University.
His research interests include urban cultures and emergent commons in ongo-
ing change of time spaces and the socialization process. Contact: tpikner@tlu.ee
Lidia Poniży is an Associate Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
Her research interests concern urban green infrastructure, space management
instruments and natural conditions in spatial planning. Contact:
lidkap@amu.edu.pl
Jeanne Pourias holds a PhD in agronomics and environmental sciences from
AgroParisTech and the University of Quebec in Montreal. She is presently a
Research Fellow for the UMR SAD-APT at AgroParisTech and INRA (Paris).
Her research interests are urban agriculture and fair and sustainable food systems.
Contact: jeanne.pourias.au@gmail.com
Jasminka Rizovska Atanasovska is Professor and Head of the Landscape Design
Department, Faculty of Forestry, at the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius
in Skopje, FYROM. Her research interests are planning and design of open green
spaces in an urban environment. Contact: jratanasovska@sf.ukim.edu.mk
Eva Schwab is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of Landscape
Architecture, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna,
Austria.Her research interests are socio-spatial urban research, and especially
deals with the politics of public space production and sociocultural aspects in
open space use. Contact: eva.schwab@boku.ac.at
Ivana Sentić is a Teaching Assistant of landscape architecture at the Faculty of
Agriculture, Novi Sad University, Serbia. Her research interests are related to
landscape planning and urban design. Her PhD research is focused on issues aris-
ing from the influence of highway systems on the environment. Contact:
ivanab@polj.uns.ac.rs
Giorgia Silvestri is a Researcher at DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for
Transitions) at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her
research interests lie in the areas of sustainability science and sustainability tran-
sitions ranging from environmental governance and policies, social learning,
grassroots initiatives, urban gardening and participatory methods. Contact:
silvestri@drift.eur.nl
Emanuele Sommariva is a Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of
Urban Design and Planning at the Leibniz Universität Hannover. His research
interests focus on landscape evolution, sustainable planning and the relationship
between agriculture and the city. Contact: emanuele.sommariva@gmail.com
Martin Sondermann is a Researcher and Lecturer in the Institute of
Environmental Planning, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. His research
focus is on local cultures of urban gardening and planning. Contact:
martin.sondermann@gmail.com
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xviii
xviii Contributors
Roberta Štěpánková is Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at the

Department of Garden and Landscape Architecture at the Horticulture and
Landscape Engineering Faculty, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra,
Slovakia. Her research interests lie at the intersection of public spaces design,
urbanism and the urban planning process and sustainable development. Contact:
roberta.stepankova@uniag.sk
Monica Pauline Stępień is a graduate of the Faculty of Horticulture,
Biotechnology and Landscape Architecture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences
currently working as a horticultural advisor and florist. Contact details:
monica.p.stepien@gmail.com
Simone Tappert is a Researcher at the Institute for Social Planning and Urban
Development, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, Basle,
Switzerland. Her research interests are urban and social planning in European
cities with a particular interest in gender and qualitative research methods.
Contact: simone.tappert@fhnw.ch
Nicola Thomas is a Researcher at the Institute for Social Planning and Urban
Development, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, Basel.
Her research interests are ethnographic urban and architectural research, green
urbanism and urban social movements. Contact: nicola.thomas@fhnw.ch
Dimitra Theochari is a PhD candidate at the National Technical University of
Athens, Greece (NTUA) and an architecture and landscape architecture profes-
sional at Atelier Dreiseitl. Her research includes innovative ways to deal with
issues of water and food in contemporary cities. Contact: dimitra.theochari
@gmail.com
Sandra Treija is Professor of Architecture at the Riga Technical University, Latvia.
Her research interest is regeneration of neighbourhoods, sustainable urban
development, and quality of residential environment. Contact details:
Sandra.Treija@rtu.lv
Kostas Tsiambaos is a Lecturer in History of architecture at the National
Technical University of Athens, Greece. His research interest is the theory of
design of urban green in relation to the cultural identity of the space and its
users. Contact: ktsiambaos@arch.ntua.gr
Sara Ursić is a sociologist and postdoctoral fellow in the Ivo Pilar Institute of
Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia. Her scientific interest is in the field of urban
sociology and urban planning, with an emphasis on suburban and edge spaces.
Contact: saritaursic@gmail.com
Carolina Villar is an anthropologist interested in urban transformations and the
role of urban gardening in processes of place making and alternative uses of
space. Contact details: dunnapucela@hotmail.com
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xix
Contributors xix
Annette Voigt is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Geography

and Regional Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Her research
interests are in the perception, valuation and use of urban nature and, more
generally, in social and cultural backgrounds of landscape planning, nature
conservation and urban management. Contact: net.voigt@gmx.de
Malou Weirich is Secretary General of the Office International du Coin de Terre
et des Jardins Familiaux a.s.b.l in Luxembourg. Her research interest is finding
best practice in order to determine the best ways of sustainably developing allot-
ments as green facilities in urban areas. Contact: office-international
@jardins-familiaux.org
Krista Willman is a PhD student of Environmental Policy at the University of
Tampere, Finland. Her research interests are different forms of urban gardening
and their relationships with urban governance. Contact details: krista.willman
@uta.fi
Antoine Zammit is Lecturer in Spatial Planning and Urban Design at the
Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, University of Malta and
Founding architect and Urban designer at the Malta-based practice Studjurban.
His research and practice interests lie at the intersection of urban design quality,
green urbanism, urban governance and the planning process. Contact:
antoine.zammit@um.edu.mt
Andis Zilans is a Researcher at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Geography
and Earth Sciences, Riga. His present research is focused on urban sustainabil-
ity assessment methods and the role of innovative governance in fostering
sustainable European cities. Contact details: azilans@hotmail.com
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xx
Preface
I have visited numerous community gardens, allotments, Kleingärten, petits jardins

and other similarly named places across Europe. Each has its own distinctive char-
acter; each shares traditions, aspirations, attitudes, social relationships and
friendships, competition and hard work. Their histories vary but all have similar
backgrounds: poverty and want of good, fresh food and loss of land (enclosures,
urbanisation).
Individuals create their own landscapes, physically and metaphorically; the limits
imposed by rules are softened in the practice of cultivation. Culture is also shaped
by this cultivation and emerges from it, shaping the land and individuals’ and
communities’ lives in the process. Allotment ‘holding’ means being close to the
ground and its fascinations. People create; they contribute to a green and sustain-
able world. To cultivate the ground extends way beyond the important proficiency
of cultivation itself.
In the UK’s government enquiry into the future of allotments, my evidence
focused on the health, humane and social character, production of food of known
provenance and care, and environmental value of these activities and the spaces in
which they take place (HMSO, 1998). This helped to ensure that the government
of the day, and for another decade, realized the multiple values of allotments to the
environment, society, food production for health and the exercise it renders.
Policies were changed and local councils, the main owners and managers of these
sites, were required to demonstrate the promotion of available plots before there
was a chance of losing a site. In the chapters of this enlightening book the values
and powers of those in part responsible for the future of urban places are alerted to
the potential offered by these gardens.
This collection of research projects brings the narrative of allotments across the
continent into focus. This is timely because, in diverse situations across our coun-
tries these vital and beloved spaces are under threat and easily fall prey to
developers; they are enjoyed by less powerful people. An everyday and sustained
gentle type of local politics is needed to ensure that these vital sites and activities
are sustained for the good of urban spaces, neighbourhoods and life, and the wider
values that they embody.
David Crouch
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xxi
Foreword
The title of this book awakens my curiosity in a period of crisis, uncertainty and
fear of the future, in a time where ‘everybody knows the price of everything and
the value of nothing’ (Oscar Wilde).
‘The soil gives strength to the whole world, and blesses the one who touches it’,
wrote Peter Rosegger (Austria).
‘If a home does not have a garden and an old tree, I cannot see from where life’s
pleasures and joy should come’, added Agneta Nyholm Winquist (Sweden).
Allotments, garden plots used for non-commercial cultivation and relaxation
situated on an allotment site, have existed in various forms since the Middle Ages
and developed considerably at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the
twentieth century. The reasons for their creation were human and social needs.
They aimed to give additional food to poor working families and enable them to
relax in the fresh air after a day’s monotonous work.
Right from the beginning these working families formed an important part of
society in towns and cities and so allotments had to play an immediate role in these
urban communities.
Gardens and allotments are part of our history, but they are not set once and for
all in stone, unchangeable.
New forms have appeared under different names: community gardens, guerrilla
gardens, intercultural gardens, ecological gardening plots, to name only a few.
However, all of them have an impact on urban planning and have an undeniable
value for urban development, exceeding by far the economic value of the grounds
they are created on, mainly due to their social and ecological functions.
• Allotments break the density and the monotony of housing areas.

• They reduce the noise, filter the air.
• They are shelters for fauna and flora in towns.
• They are places to feel and learn about nature.
• They are places for fellowship among members and neighbours.
• They are a natural medicine for moral and physical health.
They are a source of happiness and self-realization.

This book aims to look into the historical evolution of allotments and to make,
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page xxii
xxii Foreword
on the basis of a wide-ranging number of case-studies, an evaluation of the contri-

butions of allotments and the new forms of gardening to people, society and nature,
in order to make proposals to the urban authorities as well as to inform the media
and the public on the necessity of safeguarding and developing urban gardening for
the coming generations as a keystone of a lively town or city.
The rule to be followed should be, as it is written on a fountain in the Via delle
Quattro Fontane in Rome:
Nova erigere, vetera servare, utrisque in se convenientibus. [(To) create new things,
(to) keep the old well-tried things (that proved to be good) so that both can
merge harmoniously.]
I hope that these words have made you curious to read this book and find out
about the current as well as the future necessary role of urban gardening in town
planning.
Malou Weirich
Secretary General of the International Office
du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux a.s.b.l.
6244 T&F Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe.qxp_Royal_A 18/12/2015 15:14 Page 35
2 The idea of allotment gardens

and the role of spatial and
urban planning
Matthias Drilling, Renata Giedych and Lidia Poniży
Sophia Meeres, Patrick Oehler, Roberta Štěpánková, Nicola Thomas,

Contributing authors Mary Benson, Mária Bihunova, Duarte Mata,
Malou Weirich
Introduction
While the history of allotment gardens dates back more than a hundred years (see
Chapter 1), it is not clear when they started becoming meaningful as elements in
spatial and urban planning. One possibility is that their significance emerged
during industrialization when gardens featured in the broader visions about the
place of nature in cities then being proposed. Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities of
To-morrow (Howard, 1902), is a well-known example of how a new breed of urban
planners hoped to alleviate poverty. Howard’s model represented both a spatial and
a social utopia, where gardens are intermediate spaces between urban and nature
and which meet the need for human beings to maintain a connection to nature.
This urban-nature-garden vision was very common in the early decades of the
twentieth century. Frank Lloyd Wright stressed in Broadacre City that ‘features of
true democratic ground-freedom would rise naturally from topography; which
means that buildings would all take on the nature and character of the ground on
which the endless variety they stand and be component of ’ (Wright, 1945, cited in
Fishman, 1990, 53). In Broadacre City, everyone would have an acre (= 0.4 ha) of
land – for cultivation, recreation, or leisure. Le Corbusier’s plan of the
‘Contemporary City’, which has often been contrasted to Wright’s ‘Broadacre’
because of its thoroughly centralized plan, argues from a different angle but in simi-
lar ways: ‘The town of today can increase in density at the expense of the open
spaces which are the lungs of a city. We must increase open spaces and diminish
the distances to be converted’ (Le Corbusier, 1924, cited in Le Gates and Stout,
2011, 338). In other words, Le Corbusier legitimatized the vertical expansion of the
city with a strategy of intensification and corresponding protection of green spaces.
In the ‘Contemporary City Plan’ he pointed out that between 48 and 85 per cent
of the urban land should be used for gardens and sports grounds.
These planning ideals and visions embedding nature in the urban tissue were
disseminated via numerous conferences. The first town planning conferences in
London and Berlin took place in 1910 as well as the first town planning exhibi-
tion in Berlin (Simões, undated) and spread to Eastern Europe and Russia. Under
36 Drilling, Giedych and Poniży
the influence of the Russian architecture congress in 1911, new emerging or grow-
ing towns like Tallin, St Petersburg and Riga started their own green space
development schemes (Hallas-Murula, 2005).
After 1945, when Europe divided into East and West, planners in the West (espe-
cially in the pioneer countries) lost interest in allotment gardens (as did gardeners
themselves – see Chapter 1), as in the times of strong urban growth and economic
development any debates on gardening and their environmental and social role
subsided. Conversely, in the countries under Soviet occupation like Estonia or
Latvia, or in the new Soviet bloc, such as Poland, where urban agriculture was
included into the USSR Food Programme, allotment garden areas were founded
when people were at risk of starvation. In accordance with new urban spatial plans,
land was mostly set aside by the new state industrial enterprises for their workers
to grow food and to be productively occupied outside working hours.
After 1989 and the transformation of Europe which followed, issues surround-
ing the social aims and means of spatial and urban planning intensified and allotment
gardens as a land-use category started to attract increasing attention. As a result we
can observe a fundamental conceptual shift: allotment gardens were no longer seen
as an intrinsic element of urban nature but as one option among many for using
green space. This also shifted the responsibility for allotment garden strategies from
the national to the local scale. As present, in metropolitan areas and larger cities
facing population growth and where paradigms such as densification and a compet-
itive, private sector-dominated approaches to urban development are fashionable,
forms of land use such as allotment gardens appear less economically valuable while
demand for them has been increasing. Conversely, in shrinking cities such as can be
found in Eastern Europe a declining demand and a partial vacancy of allotment
gardens can be found while there is low competition for land. With the pressures
caused by national financial crises in countries such as Spain or Greece allotment
gardens have recently emerged as a new spatial planning strategy to upgrade peri-
and inner-urban areas which have lost their attraction for investors.
This chapter aims to draw out the essential ideas as to how urban allotment
gardens are or could be embedded in spatial development visions (or more often
pragmatic approaches) and concepts. Using empirical data and examples from a
number of European countries the reasons for the variety of forms of forms and
types of allotment gardens will be explained. From our research this can often be seen
as a consequence of a lack of a national political framework: allotment gardens are
often a kind of spatial planning anomaly which emerge in the absence of any theo-
retical planning framework and they vanish when other spatial planning visions arise.
The lack of national laws or acts specifically including or providing for allot-
ment gardens as a defined category make planners’ decisions and the circumstances
in which they are negotiated important. A theoretical concept through which to
investigate such frameworks is that of regimes. According to Krasner (1983) a
regime is a set of explicit or implicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making
procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given issue-area. A later
section of the chapter refers to this approach and shows how procedures and rules
have an impact on urban allotment gardens. On moving beyond regimes we are led
Role of spatial and urban planning 37
to the question of how planners at a municipal level deal with allotment gardens.
Case studies from Switzerland, Poland and Portugal demonstrate how the different
motives of various local governance regimes affect the persistence or non-persis-
tence of urban allotment gardens.
The national formal basis of allotment garden

development
As mentioned above, allotment gardens have not been a favoured subject of think-
ing in spatial planning theory. We can apply that statement to the same extent to
national spatial planning practice. Figure 2.1 (first column) shows that in the past,
specific national-level legislation for allotment gardens was passed in only eight
European countries.
ALLOTMENT LAND USE and AGRICULTURE and ENVIRONMENTAL

GARDENS LAWS PLANNING LAWS GARDENING LAWS LAWS
AUSTRIA DENMARK FRANCE GERMANY

• Federal Laws on the • The Planning Act • Rural Code (1999) • Federal Nature
Regulation of (2007) POLAND Conservation Act
Allotment Gardening FINLAND • Agricultural and (2009)
(1958) • Land Use and Forest Land POLAND
DENMARK Building Act (1999 Protection Act (1995) • Ordinance on Soil
• Allotment Gardens with amendments) SERBIA Quality Standards
Act (2001) FRANCE • The Law on (2002)
GERMANY • Urbanism Code Agricultural Soil (2006 SERBIA
• Federal Act of Small (2008) with amendments) • Law on the
Gardens (1983) GERMANY Environmental
IRELAND • Federal Building Code Protection (2004 with
• The Acquisitions of (1960) amendments)
Land (Allotments) Act LUXEMBURG
(1926) • Law on Communal
LITHUANIA Planning and Urban
• Gardeners Development (2011)
Association Act (2003) NORWAY
POLAND • Planning and Building
• Family Allotment Act (1985)
Gardens Act (2013) POLAND
SLOVAKIA • Building Act (1994
• Law on the Use of with amendments)
Plots of Land in SWEDEN
Allotment Gardens • Planning and Building
and Arrangements as Act (1987)
Regards their UK
Ownership Governs • National Planning
the Use of Land Policy Framework
within Allotment (2012)
Gardens and the
Transfer of Ownership
Rights in Respect of
Such Land (1997)
UK
• Small Holdings and
Allotments Act (1908)
• Allotment Act (1922,
1925, 1950)
• Localism Act (2012)
Figure 2.1 The different type of legal frameworks affecting allotment gardens for each
country
Source: The authors.
With reference to national reports and documents it can be argued that in those
countries with national allotment garden laws, the associated spatial strategies were
accompanied by political ideas on how to improve the living standards of the
population. This stresses the necessity of spatial planning to be a political actor, a
role compared in three different countries in the next section. In Ireland, for exam-
ple (see Insight Ireland below), urban gardening was a spatial planning vision to
mitigate poverty. Supported by political engagement among activists the Vacant
Land Cultivation Society was established and in 1926 the Acquisition of Land
(Allotments) Act was passed (see also Chapter 1). While the allotment garden
movements in Ireland were clearly motivated by city dwellers we cannot identify
similar centres of allotment gardens in countries like Poland (see Insight Poland
below). According to research it might have been initiated by the mass of people
who did gardening following which the state reacted to protect that activity. Finally
in Slovakia, although they date back to the 1960s, the current form of allotment
gardens are a very new phenomenon, arising from the political transformation
process after 1989. Recently laws were passed to secure the people’s ability to carry
out allotment gardening.
Insights Ireland: fighting for formal recognition

Allotments (plots of land leased cheaply, or even freely to tenants for personal food
production) have existed in Irish towns for about a century (Benson, 2012) and
their history can be traced back to Joseph Fels and the Vacant Land Cultivation
Society, an American charity that provided for the poor of Philadelphia (see
Chapter 1 and Forrest, 2011). In June 1909, Fels delivered a public speech entitled
‘Vacant Land Cultivation as a Cure for Unemployment’ at the invitation of the
Dublin Unemployment Committee. The following year, the Irish Vacant Land
Cultivation Society (VLCS) was formed in Dublin (see Chapter 1).
The First World War led to further food shortages and regulations implemented
by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) encouraged
local authorities all over Ireland to acquire unused land in and near towns for culti-
vation. Such land was prepared and fenced, growing guides issued to plot holders
and award schemes created to recognize the best produce. The plots were success-
ful and popular but there was no security of tenure. As a result of concerns that
allotment land would be relinquished for housing once hostilities ceased, plot-
holders unions formed (Forrest, 2011). In 1917 a national association was created
to better defend plot-holders’ rights; it was rapidly politicized.
With the end of the First World War allotment land in Dublin was returned, as
feared, to the city for housing and plot-holders were evicted. In 1919, the Irish
Plot-holders Union began calling for legislation to secure tenure, as well as new
plots, and public money to buy them. The lobby was eventually successful and in
1926 (by which time the Irish Free State had been established) the Acquisition of
Land (Allotments) Act was passed, allowinging local authorities to acquire land and
set up allotments schemes in response to demand. The number of allotments
declined nevertheless after the First World War, but the Second World War changed
attitudes again. According to Forrest (2011) numbers rose from 5,356 in 1939 to
35,684 in 1942, when 81 out of 88 local authorities in the Irish State ran allotment
schemes and the total value of produce was estimated at £400,000.
The end of the Second World War (in which Ireland was neutral) once more
saw local authorities repossessing cultivated land and a reduction in demand for and
numbers of allotments. Great efforts were made to modernize the Irish town over
the next half century and, as centrally located allotments made way for public infra-
structure and new houses with gardens were provided for the working classes, the
popularity of the allotment fell such that, by 1950, in Dublin, supply outstripped
demand.
As Benson (2012) wrote, by the end of the twentieth century the allotment had
virtually disappeared, its quasi-annihilation assured by private development during
the Celtic Tiger years (1995–2005). The Local Government (Planning and
Development) Act 2001 provided for local authorities to set up new allotments, but
there seems to have been little demand before the global economic crisis of 2008,
when a new trend began. In 2009 the Minister for State and Food launched a
campaign called ‘Get Ireland Growing’, and in a very short time a revival of allot-
ments occurred. Their contribution to society has also been recognized once more,
notably at the famous Royal Dublin Show where the Allotment Awards acknowl-
edge excellence in site management as well as personal, community and
environmental engagement.
The revival of local authority allotments as well as their provision by private
landowners and not-for-profit organizations has meant that allotments are once again
present in Irish towns, and particularly in the Greater Dublin area. The South Dublin
Allotments Association (2014) states on its website that wherever they exist, there are
waiting lists for official allotments as local authorities struggle to keep pace with
demand. Many, but not all local authorities provide sites and it should be noted that
there are relatively few convenient allotments in city centres. Anecdotal evidence
indicates that sites are often located on the peripheries of towns, requiring journeys
to reach them. There are many local grass roots and community led associations, but
there is no longer a national association of allotment growers in Ireland.
Current legislation, as set out in the Planning and Development (Amendment)
Act, 2010, allows local authorities to indicate in a development plan an intention
to reserve land for allotment use. However,
despite legislation and the recent development plan by the City Council to
support the provision of community gardens & allotments on land for tempo-
rary use or as regular features of the urban and suburban landscape, only two
councils (in the Greater Dublin area) actively promote allotments, with only
one actively developing an allotment strategy to date.
(Kettle and Corcoran, 2013)
There is relatively little published research on the subject in Ireland and currently
little or no verifiable statistical information concerning the growth of different
types of urban gardening, vegetable production, or indeed allotments.
Figure 2.2 Friarstown allotment gardens, Dublin, Ireland

Source: Mary Corcoran.
Insight Poland: changing laws and changing visions for allotment gardens
The history of allotment gardening in Poland dates back to the end of nineteenth
century (see Chapter 1). At present there are almost 5,000 allotment garden sites
with approximately 1,000,000 single plots. It is estimated that the total area of allot-
ment gardens exceeds 44,000 hectares. Almost 90 per cent of Polish allotment
gardens are situated in urban areas.
Before the Second World War there was no specific law on allotment gardens.
However since 1928 the Ministry of Labour and Social Care regulated their devel-
opment. In 1946 the first act on allotment gardens (Decree on Allotment Gardens)
was enforced. It defined types of permanent and temporary allotment gardens and
in 1949 a Workers Allotment Act followed. The act transferred the responsibility
from garden associations to the Central Management of Trade Unions and that
marked the beginning of a new understanding: since then allotment gardens have
been regarded as public utilities.
At the beginning of the 1980s in the context of the tense political situation
(workers’ strikes, the formation of the independent Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ and
finally the introduction of martial law) all Trade Unions were de-legalized. In 1981
a new Workers Allotment Act was enforced. In accordance with the act, allotment
gardens were established and maintained exclusively by the Polish Allotment
Gardens Federation. In 1982 the governmental programme of allotment gardens

expansion was developed which estimated an increase of about 30,000 ha of allot-
ment sites. Regional governors and presidents of regional capitals were obliged to
provide free land for allotment garden development. Social and economic func-
tions were still attributed to allotment gardens.
The new Family Allotment Act of 2005 shifted the discourse on allotment
gardens away from food production towards leisure, recreation and environmental
amelioration, thus recognizing for the first time the environmental functions of
allotment gardens. Despite the political transformation, the new law did not abol-
ish the monopoly of the Polish Allotment Gardens Federation on the establishment
and management of allotment gardens. The Polish Tribunal Court abolished the
monopoly in 2012.
In January 2014, the new Family Allotment Gardens Act 2013 came into force,
which regulates the management of allotment gardens. The act has as its primary
goal the protection and development of allotment gardens in Poland. The 2013 Act
guarantees that allotment garden associations can apply for financial support to
local authorities. This subsidy may be used for the construction and moderniza-
tion of garden infrastructure, if it will improve the conditions for the use of
allotments by gardeners, or increase the accessibility of the local community to the
Figure 2.3 A view in a typical Polish allotment garden, Poznan

garden. Under the provision of the 2013 Act the lengthy list of objectives of Family
Allotment Gardens is as follows: to meet the needs of leisure and recreation by
allowing the cultivation of plants, to improve the social conditions of the local
community, to help families and individuals in difficult situations and to equalize
their opportunities, the integration of multigenerational families, raising children in
healthy conditions, maintenance of pensioners’ activity, social integration of retired
people and people with disabilities, restoring community and nature degraded
areas, protection of the environment and nature, creating a healthy human envi-
ronment and creating conditions for providing green spaces for local communities.
Insight Slovakia: transition from socialist to post-socialist conditions

Allotment gardens or ‘garden colonies’ as they are called in Slovakia – are a partic-
ular characteristic of cities and urban environments. They date back to the 1960s
when people who were not allowed to travel abroad during the socialist era spent
their holidays in the countryside. Originally, the spatial planning vision was to set
up allotment gardens in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants but several years
later small cities and villages also established allotment gardens. The Slovak
Association of Gardeners and Fruiters approved the first guidelines for allotment
gardens in 1957. Between the 1979 and 1984 a second launch of allotment gardens
took place. In this period 109,000 new gardeners appeared and after ten years the
number of members increased to 220,000, with a total area of 55 km² of garden.
In response to this fact, the aesthetic and planting regulations for allotment
gardens were established. In 1977, a second revision of the regulations was
published. A detailed list of 24 types of garden cottage were identified: those for
lowlands, uplands and mountainous regions; vegetable type, vegetable type with
greenhouse, multifunctional garden in the lowlands, multifunctional garden in the
uplands, fruit type, vineyard type, garden in the suburb in uplands, garden in the
suburb near the water streams – recreational garden, garden for animal breeding,
private garden in lowlands, private garden in uplands. Political and social changes
since 1989 have also influenced land owners and gardeners. The original owners
of the land came into legal conflict with gardeners who were cultivating ‘their’ plot
of lands. In 1991, the Act No. 229 /1991 was passed and adjusted the original
owners’ rights to the land and other agricultural properties.
Functions and uses of allotment gardens in the legal framework

In the majority of European countries allotment gardens are embedded in more
than one national law (e.g. Land Use Planning Laws, Agriculture and Gardening
Laws or Environmental Laws, see Figure 2.1 second to fourth columns); these laws
address allotment gardens but their scope is directed more to the political dimen-
sion of land use, nature and environment.
In Denmark for example, protection against land-use change depends on the status
of the allotment gardens. Since 2007 the Allotment Gardens Planning Act ensures that
the majority of Denmark’s allotment gardens (mainly state-owned) are permanent.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.4 (a) A contemporary mixture of the uses in allotment gardens plots in Slovakia.
Most of them still produce function fruit, vegetables and flowers and some are
transforming into leisure gardens with pergola, grill, lawn, flower beds, a few
trees or some vines. (Source: Roberta Štěpánková). (b) An example of the
proposed design of allotment garden plots from 1977. Left: production plot;
Right: combination of production and recreational plot
Allotment gardens can only be dismantled if it is of substantial importance to the

welfare of society, and in this case users are entitled to a replacement garden. In
Finland, in accordance with the Land Use and Building Act (1999), a local detailed
plan should be drawn up so as to create the preconditions for a healthy, safe and pleas-
ant living environment. Sufficient parks or other areas suitable for local recreation in
the area covered by the plan or in its vicinity (it also refers to allotment gardens) must
be provided. Under the provision of the French Urbanism Code (2008) local author-
ities and bodies for intercommunal cooperation have the pre-emptive right to acquire
grounds to create allotments. In Luxembourg the law concerning communal planning
and urban development (2004) enables the authorities to create allotment garden
zones assigned for gardening cultivation and recreation.
Where allotment gardens are embedded in a broader national legislative frame-
work the argument to foster gardening is one of functions (see Table 2.1). On the
one hand, by arguing from different angles (land use, agricultural or environmen-
tal tasks) these strengthen the position of allotment gardens, while on the other
hand they compete with other functional uses like parks or recreation areas. This
change from specific forms of use towards a variety of possible forms and users is
currently typical for European countries. In other words, where allotment gardens
are not safeguarded by a specific law, interest groups have to negotiate in favour of
the specific function, the legal framework under which gardening is possible and
its conditions of space and time.
Furthermore, where different laws compete with one another, allotment gardens
face several planning standards such as size, facilities and accessibility. Even though
Europe has a common history of allotment garden movements (see Chapter 1) the
specific national standards differ significantly. In Germany and Poland national
legislation defines the minimal size of allotment gardens (500 m2 in Poland and 400
m2 in Germany) and the maximum size of sheds (24 m2 in Germany and 35 m2 in
Poland). In Austria it differs according to regional legislation, such the Vienna
Garden Act set size of plot at 250 m2. Many regulations concerning the spatial
structure and the size of allotment gardens or share of recreational areas are
dependent on internal regulations (by-laws).
To sum up the situation of national spatial politics towards allotment gardens we
can state that there exists a great variety of regulations which impose different mech-
anisms to implement them. This reflects a broad spectrum of scenarios for their
future development and highlights the general attitude of different stakeholders
towards allotment gardens. It should be stressed that the long tradition of allotment
gardening in particular countries does not guarantee their future existence.
Allotment gardens as a subject of municipal policy

As was noted above the support of urban allotment gardens in European countries
through legal regulations, especially at the national level, is weak, which can make
their position within the city structure unstable and threatened. In order to forecast
future scenarios of allotment gardens in European cities we should speak more
about allotment garden regimes following Krasner as noted earlier. This specific
Table 2.1 Functions attributed to allotment gardens by national planning framework

Country Functions attributed to allotment gardens Specific instruments for AG development /
and types of land use that they belongs to Protection against land use change
Denmark • Recreational • ‘Permanent gardens’ which means
(The Planning Act 2007) that only in very special cases may
• Mainly productive the gardens be closed down – and if
(Allotment Gardens Act 2001) so only in exchange for a similar
area. The new garden has to be
ready for take over at least one
month before clearing of the ‘old’
garden begins
(Allotment Gardens Act 2001)
France • Horticultural for personal use • Right of pre-emption to acquire
(commercial use prohibited) grounds to create
• Recreational allotments
(Rural Code 1999) (Urbanism Code 2008)
• The grounds to terminate a lease
are fixed in the code
• Compensation for added value to
the ground at the end of the lease.
• In case of expropriation: putting at
disposal equivalent grounds in size
and equipment. Also financial
compensation for new installation
costs
(Rural Code 1999)
Germany • Non-commercial horticultural use • Permanent small gardens are areas
• Recreation which are protected through their
• Food production designation in zoning and binding
(Federal Act on Small Gardens 1983) land-use plans on the long-term
(Federal Act on Small Gardens
1983; Federal Building Code 1960)
Poland • Economic • Allotment gardens are protected
• Social against land use change by local
• Recreational spatial law – local development
• Environmental plan
(Family Allotment Gardens Act 2013) (Family Allotment Gardens Act 2013)
• Arable land
(Agricultural and Forest Land
Protection Act 1995)
UK • Register as asset of community • Permission to dispose from
value: Secretary of State
• social • Councils can build on allotment
• economic land if they provide alternative sites
• recreational (Allotments Act 1925)
• environmental
• health
(Localism Act 2011)
• Open space
(National Planning Policy
Framework 2012)
approach is a suitable one because it takes different actors and their norms into
account and analyses the process of negotiation.
The analysis of case studies presented in this section produces ambiguous results.
Case studies from Poland, Switzerland and Portugal demonstrate different models
of allotment garden planning and urban governance regimes, which derive not
only from legislation but also from diverse, often conflicting attitudes towards allot-
ment gardens development and power imbalances between the main stakeholders.
The example of four cities (Poznan, Warsaw, Basel and Lisbon) and their munici-
pal policy makers’ attitudes show that local authorities hold great power over spatial
planning and, irrespective of the diagnosed model of governance regimes, they
either are or are not willing to support the presence of allotment gardens within
the urban fabric (Table 2.2).
Table 2.2 Attitudes towards allotment gardens development in four contrasting cities
City Poznan Warsaw Basel Lisbon
Legislation on national national municipal none
allotment gardens
Main problem Urban pressure Urban pressure Urban Poor quality of
of allotment densification existing sites
garden development
Allotment gardens Relic of Relic of Conservative, Winning idea
in public discourse socialist era socialist era rule driven,
inflexible
Main stakeholders Allotment Allotment Citizens Local
willing to maintain gardeners gardeners authorities
and develop of
allotment gardens
Planning tools to Environmental Environmental Spatial plan Green Plan
support allotment and spatial and spatial
garden policy policy
development
Position of Marginal Marginal Strong Very strong
allotment gardens
in planning strategy
Main functions Recreational Recreational Recreational Multifunctional
attributed to agricultural environmental
allotment gardens
Areas of allotment Shifted to the None Shifted to the Close to
garden development periphery periphery potential users
Main directions of Maintenance Transformation Provision of Development
allotment garden of existing into public new recreational of allotment
development areas parks structures, parks as a part
allotment garden of urban green
uses and values infrastructure
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Poznan, Warsaw, Basel and Lisbon case studies.
The Polish case study presents a comparison of the documents of spatial and
environmental policies of two large Polish cities, Poznan and Warsaw. It shows the
differences in the perception of allotment gardens by the local authorities, even if
these policies were created under the same legal conditions. It follows that the legal
framework provides opportunities to treat allotment gardens differently, depending
on the development policy of the city authorities. This vulnerable situation repre-
sents a historical heritage. In Poland, since the political transformation in 1989,
allotment gardens are perceived as a substandard relic of the socialist era. In the
public debate a deep-seated aversion to allotment gardens can be observed due to
their limited access (in fact only to gardeners). City authorities do not perceive
them as planning objectives, rather as land to be developed when necessary
(Giedych and Poniży, 2013; Szulczewska et al., 2012). Urban allotment gardens are
also not favoured by the law because of the relaxation of the act on allotment
gardens. In Poland there is relatively little research on the benefits of allotment
gardens and their contribution to sustainable urban development. The lack of
political and institutional support results in an underestimation of allotment
gardens benefits, leading in turn to their gradual loss (Figure 2.5).
The case study of Basel in Switzerland is an interesting example of the new,
often contradictory, interest given to allotment gardens by spatial and urban plan-
ners. On the one hand the numbers of allotment gardens in Basel are being
reduced to make way for new building projects, on the other hand the ecological
and social benefits of gardens are recognized and new gardening forms are
developed.
5300
5200
5100
5000
4900
4800
4700
4600
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Figure 2.5 Changes in the number of allotment gardens in Poland between 2003 and
2014
Since the late 1990s the municipality of Basel has been experiencing an increase
in population so that new housing had to be constructed within the already dense
city borders. In the search for new land suitable for development, allotment garden
areas were targeted. In fact, in 2005, the business-friendly metro report (Hicklin,
2005) identified allotment gardens as one of the main growth challenges in Basel,
arguing that they would prevent the necessary development of the city and reduce
its growth potential. This pressure on allotment gardens is not a recent develop-
ment. Post-war suburbanization processes pushed them to the periphery or even
further out from the centre. While in 1954, 44 per cent of all allotment gardens
managed by the municipality of Basel were on city land, by 1980 this figure had
dropped to 30 per cent (Zentralverband der Familiengärtnervereine, 1996).
Nowadays, no allotment gardens sites can be found in close proximity to the city
centre. Thus, when city planners had the idea to replace three allotment gardens
with development Basel citizens protested, forcing city authorities to create new a
local law on allotment gardens.
The example of the new allotment garden law in Basel illustrates how new
visions are being developed and pushed forward through new planning and legal
frameworks that do not necessarily reflect the actual, well-functioning practices in
the gardens themselves. While the visions are described as ways to open up the
garden sites and enable new activities and attract new users, what is being over-
looked is how or whether these new visions are compatible with the existing uses
and users.
The Polish and the Swiss examples show the kind of attention given to allot-
ment gardens by policy makers in their planning visions. They are treated as areas
for development by the construction sector or for public green space to meet the
needs of the more affluent parts of society. In both examples city authorities are
aware of the high ecological value of allotment gardens but this is not reflected in
planning documents, which push them to the city’s outskirts and do not perceive
this type of land use as part of the green infrastructure.
In contrast to the above case studies, the example of Lisbon shows a different
approach to the issue of allotment gardens. There are different legal conditions for
any kind of institutional framework related to allotment gardens in Portugal. In
Lisbon urban allotment gardens always existed, although not organized or planned.
The Lisbon idea of allotment parks is a very good example of a municipal strategy
towards future development. It shows that despite the lack of legal regulations related
to allotment gardens, the city authorities can implement their multi-functionality and
obtain benefits not only for plot users but also for local communities and the city as
a whole, and appreciate them as an integral part of the green infrastructure.
Urban allotment gardens in sectorial policies of Warsaw and Poznan, Poland

In Poland local governments have extensive powers over space management.
Therefore, they may determine the position of allotment gardens in the spatial
structure of the city. Issues related to that type of land use are regulated by two basic
sectorial policies:
• Spatial policy – Municipal Study of Spatial Preconditions and Directions of

Development (MSSPDD).
• Environmental policy – the Environment Protection Programme (EPP).
Both documents are mandatory and are drawn up by the municipality, although
they do not constitute a local law; both have a significant influence on human well-
being: the MSSPDD by creating conditions for the development of particular
functions and defining appropriate principles of the land use and the EPP by defin-
ing environmental objectives and priorities.
A comparative study of both documents for Warsaw (MSSPDD, 2010; EPP,
2010) and Poznan (MSSPDD, 2008; EPP, 2009) shows the differences in attitude
towards allotment garden development by large municipalities in Poland. These
differences result from the identification of quantity and area and the functions
which are attributed to allotment gardens as well as the directions of their devel-
opment.
Allotment gardens in Warsaw (Figure 2.6) and Poznan (Figure 2.7) have many
years’ tradition and are permanently etched into the urban landscape. In Warsaw
they occupy an area of 1,170 hectares, which represents approximately 2.3 per cent
of the total city area. In Poznan they occupy a smaller area (804 ha) than in Warsaw.
However, they have a more significant percentage share (3.1 per cent) in the area
of the city. In both cities allotment gardens constitute a considerable share in urban
green areas, which makes them an important element of cities’ natural and recre-
ational system. As shown in Table 2.3 it is hard to determine the proper number
and area of allotment gardens, particularly in Warsaw. The reason lies in the fact that
data on the allotments are not systematically collected.
Regarding the functions of allotment gardens stipulated in both documents
prepared for Warsaw, recreational and ecological functions are present. In both
documents, it is stressed that the allotment gardens are an important element of the
urban green infrastructure, especially a refuge for animals (mainly birds), thus
contributing to the increase of biodiversity. In the EPP (2010), according to the
Table 2.3 Allotment gardens in numbers

WARSAW
MSSPDD 2010 EPP 2010
• Number of allotment garden colonies – • Number of allotment garden colonies –
277 176
• Total area of allotment gardens – 17 km2 • Total area of allotment gardens – 11.7 km2
POZNAN
• Number of allotment garden colonies – • Number of allotment garden colonies –
90 (approx. 20,000 plots) 90
• Total area of allotment gardens – 8 km2 • Total area of allotment gardens – no data
Figure 2.6 Allotment gardens in Warsaw green areas structure as at 2015

Source: Study based on addresses database of the Polish Allotment Gardeners Association, District
Board Warsaw and Warsaw Municipal Study of Spatial Preconditions and Directions of
Development. Authors of figure Renata Giedych and Kacper Tyszkiewicz.
recreational function, it is stressed that allotment gardens are areas for leisure but
with limited access (only for some of the inhabitants of Warsaw) and they may be
regarded as a potential recreation base for Warsaw. In the same document allotment
gardens are also treated as agricultural land, so a production function can be recog-
nized (Table 2.4).
Both MSSPDD (2008) and EPP (2009) for Poznan indicate the importance of
allotment gardens as places for recreation and leisure and in meeting the food needs
of the urban dwellers. However the MSSPDD emphasizes that the nature of their
functions depends largely on the garden users themselves. These documents also
Figure 2.7 Allotment gardens in Poznan, Poland

Source: Data of Polish Allotment Gardeners Association, District Board Poznan. Basemap –
License (CC-BY-SA), graphic – Lidia Poniży.

OpenStreetMap (c) OpenStreetMap and contributors, Creative Commons-Share Alike
Table 2.4 Allotment gardens’ functions

WARSAW
• Recreational • Recreational
• Environmental • Environmental
• Agricultural
POZNAN
• Recreational • Recreational
• Agricultural • Agricultural
• Environmental – not directly mentioned
indirectly point out the ecological function, stating that allotment gardens are areas
of special purposes for urban green, in addition to being an important element of
the Poznan specific wedge-ring green infrastructure system (Table 2.5).
Analysis of sectorial policies allows the identification of possible directions of
development and transformation of allotment gardens. In Warsaw as a result of
implementation of spatial and environmental policies the number of allotment
gardens is going to be reduced. Poznan city authorities are going to maintain about
90 per cent of allotment gardens within city limits, but the remainder of them, like
in as in Warsaw, is going to be transformed into public parks or to be a reserve for
municipal infrastructure. However, simultaneously, it is planned to develop two
new allotment garden sites to make amends for the closed ones. However, they
have been pushed from the densely built-up city centre to the periphery.
Allotment gardens under urban entrepreneurial city planning regime: Basel,

Switzerland
In 2009, plans by the city planners to develop three large allotment garden sites in
the north-western, southern and north-eastern border of Basel into housing proj-
ects were made public and caused a city-wide protest and a coalition of a
heterogeneous group of people to fight against them (see the case study in Chapter
3 for more information on the protest). This resulted in city-wide election in May
2011, which led to a slight majority voting against the original development plans
and in favour instead of introducing a new allotment garden law to protect the
promised 80 per cent of allotment gardens to be within the borders of Basel city
municipality (Figure 2.8).
Table 2.5 Possible directions of development of allotment gardens

WARSAW
• Possible transformation of allotment • Transformation of allotment gardens
gardens into public parks located in Warsaw Natural System into
• Decrease in the number of allotment public parks
gardens due to technical and social
infrastructure development
POZNAN
• Maintain 82 allotment gardens • Promote the maintenance of allotment
• Transformation of allotment gardens gardens or transform them into public
into public parks green areas
• Use for development of infrastructure
• Development of new allotment gardens
on the outskirts of the city
Figure 2.8 The Landhof community garden in Basel, an example of a new form of
allotment garden
Source: Nicola Thomas.
The new use and spatial visions that are part of the new law and the possible
consequences this might have for the existing gardens will now be described in
greater detail. According to Spitthöver (2010), new forms of urban communal
gardening projects are becoming increasingly popular with new user types, which,
she argues, reflects the growing pluralization and individualization in society. The
new visions presented in the new allotment garden law in Basel point in the same
direction, as they support the pluralization and individualization of the allotment
gardens through three planning strategies:
1. by creating new spatial structures within allotment gardens themselves and

within the allotment garden sites;
2. by creating new possibilities of use;
3. by changing the values associated with allotment gardens.
The creation of new spatial structures within allotment gardens themselves and within the
allotment garden sites: according to the new law, publicly accessible and publicly non-
accessible gardens are distinguished from each other. The publicly accessible garden
sites will contain new public paths and new leisure uses open to the general public.
In order to establish these new leisure uses, selected allotment gardens will have to
be amalgamated, which will result in the traditional strict grid order becoming
fragmented and more heterogeneous. The new spatial order in the publicly acces-
sible garden areas brings along a new distribution of spatial management
responsibilities. Whereas in the traditional gardens the allotment garden associa-
tions were responsible for management and upkeep of the communal paths and
spaces, in the new accessible gardens the city authorities will be responsible for the
newly created paths and public spaces, thereby an area that was formerly being
controlled by a civil-society organization will be controlled by public bodies in the
future.
The creation of new possibilities of use: in the new public spaces within the allot-
ment garden sites new uses are planned, though the law only makes suggestions as
to what these could be. Gastronomy, sports facilities, play facilities and work-
shops/studios are listed as possibilities, which will be funded through the ‘extensive’
profit generated by the development of selected allotment garden areas into hous-
ing projects (Regierungsrat Kanton Basel-Stadt, 2012). Whereas traditionally each
user had his or her own garden (cultivating it, in most cases, together with their
families) with clearly marked boundaries, the new public garden spaces would no
longer have these clear-cut boundaries but instead provide a common, shared space
for different activities, such as new playgrounds and cafés. This represents an inten-
sification of uses on a single, enlarged piece of land, with different activities and
user groups sharing the garden land. This way of using the space differs greatly
from the previously strict separation of users (with each renter being a single entity
entitled to appropriate the space according to his or her wishes) and also indicates
a shift from food production purposes towards more leisure-oriented purposes.
The changing of values associated with allotment gardens: the new allotment garden
law provides the foundation for new spatial practices (more heterogeneous garden
sizes and layout) and new activities (and through this, also new user groups) to
establish themselves on the allotment garden sites. Next to these nascent spatial and
social transformations a cultural transformation is also taking place. In the main-
stream public discourse, allotment gardens in Basel have the image of being
conservative, rule driven and inflexible. This negative picture is not reflected in
Swiss studies on allotment gardens, which instead stress the multiple social, ecolog-
ical and financial benefits allotment gardens have for their users (see e.g
Schwerzmann, 2013; Gallati and Schiller, 2011; Frauenfelder and Delay, 2011).
However, the new law also aims to help change the image and value associated
with allotment gardens, which is done through a linguistic intervention. Allotment
gardens in Basel were traditionally called ‘family gardens’; with the new law the
term was changed to ‘leisure gardens’, thereby moving away from the economic
reasons for keeping an allotment garden associated with the traditional term
towards a stronger leisure purpose. With this shift a transformation of desired user
groups is also implied – from the lower income groups to the more affluent new
urbanites, who are looking for spaces for leisure and relaxation in the city. The
report by the building and spatial planning commission (Regierungsrat des
Kantons Basel-Stadt, 2012) that first proposed the new term ‘leisure garden’ admits
that the term is not representative of the large group of allotment gardeners who
still use their garden for economic reasons, yet nonetheless recommends the
change.
Allotment gardens, social class and the Lisbon Green Plan: Lisbon, Portugal
For centuries, Lisbon was a city with strong links to its countryside where agri-
culture was always the main economic activity. Since the middle of the last century,
fast urbanization took over large areas of the territory beyond the historic consol-
idated areas, including spreading out from the geographic limits of the city into
very large suburbs, first to the north, and after 1966 with the construction of the
first bridge, to the south of the river. From the 1980s to the beginnings of the
twenty-first century, the rate of urban development has been so fast that only a few
areas of traditional agriculture are left, including some urban allotment gardens
located mainly on derelict municipal properties. In the 1980s some informal allot-
ment gardens started appearing in the remaining inner city areas as well as on the
outskirts, including some plots located next to the highways.
The development of a green infrastructure in the city, including urban allotment
gardens, was actively promoted since the 1960s by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, one of
the most important landscape architects in Portugal and a particularly outstanding
public figure in Lisbon. In fact, only in 1994 was the Green Plan partially adopted
in the Master Plan but it was not effectively implemented until 2008, when special
ecological measures were adopted in order to allow the new 2012 Master Plan to
include them. Until 2008, green infrastructure mainly included some isolated new
parks and gardens but not urban allotment gardens.
In 2008, politicians decided that, when compared to the built surface area, green
spaces in Lisbon were insufficient. This perception was shared by a large proportion
of the citizens. With the revision of the Master Plan after 2008 and the inclusion
of urban allotment gardens, a new concept of green infrastructure was attempted,
based on the ecological continuity between diverse green areas and underpinned
by a new model of multifunctional space. This enabled the provision of urban
allotment gardens to be included by 2011. This was the first time that the munic-
ipality was planning and delivering allotment gardens. A typology of allotments was
identified based on defined criteria and a regular plot with a fence, a shed for stor-
age and a water irrigation system. Social and recreational classes were defined and
land and potable water prices were identified, with a cost reduction for low-
income groups. At the same time, public tenders were launched based on the
criteria of the proximity of home to the garden. The large demand for allotments
showed that gardening was a very popular activity. The aim of the municipality is
to develop organized urban allotment parks, thus only in these equipped sites is a
price reduction applied and water, fences or shelters provided.
Lisbon Municipality based its programme on the implementation of organized
allotment gardens within new green areas or the renovation of existing sites. At the
same time, it was decided to keep several informal allotment gardens as long as their
users kept them clean and tidy. Whenever these requirements were not met, a
renovation process was required, in line with the objective of the implementation
of a high quality green infrastructure. In a few cases, renovations occurred as a result
of local communities’ complaints, generally focusing on the poor visual appearance
or lack of tidiness (Figure 2.9). The municipality created specific norms for the
users, with a permanent inspection team controlling their enforcement, and regu-
larly provides training in organic farming, composting and seed conservation.
Figure 2.9 Shows an untidy unplanned allotment garden at Marvila, Lisbon before
restoration. A programme of tidying up was carried out together with the
allotment tenants
Source: Duarte Mata.
Today, urban allotment gardens form a system that is connected with other
networks within the wider green infrastructure, such as the 60km cycle path
network linking several of these areas. Other elements of the infrastructure include
five bicycle-pedestrian bridges, coffee points with terraces in each park and open
gym equipment or children’s playgrounds. Since 2011, 11 urban allotment gardens
have been opened in the city. Today, more than 400 families have access to these
plots. Lisbon is now working to open a further seven areas by 2015, and three more
in the following years.
Today, urban allotment gardens in Lisbon are largely accepted by the local
communities and considered a central feature for the consolidation of an environ-
mentally sustainable city. As a planning strategy, urban allotment gardens are strong
tools for the development of new green infrastructure (Figure 2.10), allowing the
creation of large areas at low cost, with low maintenance and a strong potential to
Figure 2.10 A map showing the main elements of the Green Plan strategy for Lisbon,
Portugal
Source: Lisbon Municipality.
attract people and visitors. Today, urban allotment gardens are embedded within
the strategic documents of the municipality outlining the future development of
the city (Figure 2.11). The City Plan 2012–2022 monitors areas of urban allotment
gardens which is also a strong tool for the Biodiversity Strategy Lisbon 2020.
The integration of productive green areas within the city’s modern urban land-
scape will be taken forward through the implementation of a few hectares of a crop
field in the middle of a central greenway, as well as the installation of biodiverse
meadows as alternatives to intensive lawns, and a three-hectare vineyard park.
Urban allotment gardens are the most important part of a broader strategy for
urban climate adaptation in order to strengthen the resilience of the city.
Conclusions
This chapter has contributed to the debate about the connectivity between allot-
ment gardens and spatial planning in theory as well as in practice. Despite a greater
or lesser absence of scientific literature on the topic there are some facts which
might be relevant for further discussion:
In the contemporary European landscape, the planning of allotment gardens
faces a somewhat contradictory situation. Where national spatial planning is
confronted with scenarios of urban growth, paradigms such as densification and a
Figure 2.11 A map showing the location of allotment gardens in Lisbon, Portugal
Source: Lisbon Municipality.
competitive approach to urban development make forms of land use like allotment
gardens less valuable in an economic sense. Conversely, in shrinking scenarios a
declining demand and partial vacancy of allotment garden sites can be seen.
Furthermore, motivated by the urban residents themselves, there is a strong move-
ment to create new modes of production and regulation of land use which are
independent of local authority allocation processes. Urban gardening, neighbour-
hood gardening or even guerrilla gardening are attractive ways of expressing ideas
of communal working with few barriers to alternative methods of land use and
therefore squatter space (see Chapter 3). According to these new trends, lifestyles
and expectations and in the context of a participative and communicative
approach, planning theory has changed several times in recent decades. Currently
there is no leading spatial planning strategy towards allotment gardens and no
European national thinking or standards exist. Allotment gardens are more-or-less
temporarily used pieces of land – until other ideas of spatial planning arise.
Sketching out future scenarios for allotment gardens in Europe is mostly the
responsibility of urban development planning. This brings intentions and decisions
of different actors, such as the administration, civil-society associations, interest
groups, and the gardeners themselves to the fore. Most cities still need policies or
other legislative measures to secure the status of allotment gardens as part of the
public green space. This can be achieved through identifying the allotment gardens
in development plans or through other forms of securing the long-term use of
garden sites (Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux, 2011).
In countries where there are economic crises allotment gardens can become a
strong element in a food security chain; spatial planning should continuously take
that into account. Therefore, urban planners and city management should be aware
of the value of allotment gardens as part of the urban fabric.
For proper management and a stable position of allotment gardens or more
appropriate forms of gardening in the spatial structure of the city, a public debate
and the participation of different social groups in the planning process is needed.
It will help to work out a compromise, so that all stakeholders, plot users, city
inhabitants, city authorities and developers benefit from their functions.
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Chapter · March 2016

Matthias Drilling Renata Giedych

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Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe

Simon Bell is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of

Runrid Fox-Kämper is an architect and Head of the research group ‘Built

Nazila Keshavarz is a landscape architect and a research fellow at ILS Research

Mary Benson is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth

Silvio Caputo is Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, University of

Susan Noori is a social research consultant and an affiliated researcher with

Annette Voigt is Visiting Professor in the Department of Geography and Regional

Urban Allotment Gardens

First published 2016

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 Simon Bell, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Nazila Keshavarz, Mary Benson,

The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

ISBN: 978-1-138-92109-2 (hbk)

List of boxes viii

1 A history of urban gardens in Europe 8

3 Grassroots gardening movements: towards cooperative forms of green

4 Political-economic urban restructuring: urban allotment gardens in the

5 Ecosystem services from urban gardens 115

6 Environmental pressures on and the status of urban allotments 142

7 Lessons learned: indicators and good practice for an environmentally-

9 Emergent approaches to urban gardening 229

10 Allotment gardens as a challenge for an urban designer 254

11 Urban allotment garden: a case for place-making 291

12 Motivations behind urban gardening: ‘here I feel alive’ 320

13 Building trust and social skills in urban allotment gardens 342

Concluding remarks 364

3.1 Agros in Hellinikon, Greater Athens area, Greece 67

8.2 Lucavsala allotment garden in Riga, Latvia 205

Kristine Abolina is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at the

Simon Bell is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of

Chiara Certomà is a Research Fellow in Environmental Governance and

Mart Külvik is a Professor of Biodiversity and Environmental Planning at the

Tarmo Pikner is a Research Fellow in Human Geography at the Centre for

Roberta Štěpánková is Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at the

Annette Voigt is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Geography

I have visited numerous community gardens, allotments, Kleingärten, petits jardins

• Allotments break the density and the monotony of housing areas.

They are a source of happiness and self-realization.

on the basis of a wide-ranging number of case-studies, an evaluation of the contri-

2 The idea of allotment gardens

Sophia Meeres, Patrick Oehler, Roberta Štěpánková, Nicola Thomas,

36 Drilling, Giedych and Poniży

Role of spatial and urban planning 37

The national formal basis of allotment garden

ALLOTMENT LAND USE and AGRICULTURE and ENVIRONMENTAL

AUSTRIA DENMARK FRANCE GERMANY

38 Drilling, Giedych and Poniży

Insights Ireland: fighting for formal recognition

Role of spatial and urban planning 39

40 Drilling, Giedych and Poniży

Figure 2.2 Friarstown allotment gardens, Dublin, Ireland