RETRACTED ARTICLE: Placemaking as an approach for innovative urban renewal practices: community gardens in Berlin

Abstract

This study examines the creation and use of meaningful public spaces in community gardens through activities focusing on 'placemaking', a multifaceted approach to the design of urban spaces. As a process of adding value and meaning to the public sphere through community based revitalization projects, placemaking aims at creating an innovative vision around the spaces that people consider as important to their daily life and experience. The need for 'making better places for people' calls for a strong involvement of local communities and implies the rethinking of disciplinary paradigms, a critical reflection on the role of urban planning and the experimentation of innovative place-based approaches. The results from an investigation of two community gardens in Berlin outline how they help build cohesion and vitality in a community, contributing to the generation of bonding, bridging social capital. Community gardens and the involved placemaking processes, as the research in Berlin confirms, seem to have a potential for social urban development in practice and the creation of urban place quality.

Community gardens as third places

“…The eight characteristics which make up a third place are described fully in the literature review and again as the framework of the research method. Twenty-nine interviews were conducted on site in six community gardens between 2014 to 2019 5 . The gardens were chosen in a range of ways including internet search, personal familiarity and through a research grant conducted in Denmark.…”

“…Many interviewees appreciate the knowledge they acquire about gardening and access to 'dirt', but also appreciate the sense of community they developed with fellow gardeners and local residents. The placemaking aspect of the community gardens will explored more fully in the next chapter (5) in relation to how they can contribute to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.7 by providing inclusive green spaces for the community. Chapters 5 will also discuss how the act of placemaking works to address some social challenges arising from population mobility as people work together to create and maintain their community garden, or watch the garden's progress and interact with members.…”

Rethinking third places and community building

“…Third places are important because they act as 'mediation between the individual and the larger society' and increase neighbourhood sense of belonging and community (Oldenburg 1999 p. xxix). Numerous social researchers suggest that everyday incidental interactions of third places improve relationships between neighbours; decrease loneliness and isolation; improve the perception of safety; build social capital and create a sense of place (Oldenburg 1999;Thompson and Maggin 2012;Galdini 2016;Vincent et al 2016).…”

A Growing Movement: Motivations for Joining Community Gardens

“…There is a great deal of literature on the benefits which individuals and society receive from community gardens, which include: providing food to impoverished residents; crime prevention; beautifying an area; enacting 'Local Agenda 21' (LA21); exercise; civic engagement; enjoyment; access to fresh organic food; increased social capital; improved nutrition and wellbeing; educational opportunities (nutrition, work skills); and community building [2], [3], [5], [9], [10]. The literature generally shows that community gardens bring positive outcomes for individuals and their community.…”

“…They provide a public venue that improves social interactions between local residents [2], [3] and are particularly important where traditional links between neighbours have been weakened by population mobility and isolation [4], [5].…”