Convivial Greenstreets

EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FROM THE FIELD

ecology+horticulture+street counter-culture, Altstadt neighborhood, Bonn, Germany

Overview

I've been intrigued by verdant European streetscapes since the mid-1990s. After years of scouting, rambling and observation (flânerie!), I chose 'convivial greenstreet' as an umbrella term for the informal and improvisational streetside gardening that has been emerging in dense, yardless urban cores.

In certain city precincts plants and their accoutrements—nestled in niches between facade and street—are serving multiples purposes: creative, recreational, restorative, productive, discursive, ecological, even subversive.

Most essentially, our research suggests that this particular kind of interstitial gardening engages along the street as lingua franca: a prelude to, and context for, an inclusive and quotidian conviviality that builds communities of planterly practice.

These plants and their containers mostly squat on public rights-of-way. Such transgressions are usually tolerated by civic authorities. In fact, many Dutch cities support residents' removal of streetside pavers and subsequent planting to create geveltuinen ('facade gardens') and boomspiegels ('tree mirrors').

The convivial greenstreet may trace its lineage to contested urban spaces of the past. New York City's Green Guerrillas of the early 1970s and anti-war street activism in 1960s come to mind. In fact, Hensel & Hensel (2010) make a case for ancient settlement patterns defined by 'smooth spaces' that defy conventional figure-ground theory and rigid modernist ideas on who owns what in the city. This contribution to the insurgent public space movement seems consistent with broader trends in makeshift urbanism (as distinct from the formal civic streetscape).

The mingling of plants, soils, gardener, passersby, street canyon and persistent ecological processes all coalesce as mini socio-ecological systems that may be antidotal to problems in the urban realm. We invite further research on the roles that convivial greenstreets may be playing, from the socio-psychological to offsetting climate change impacts and biodiversity decline.

Cities Studied

Belgium: Brussels | Ghent | Bruges

Denmark and Sweden: Copenhagen | Roskilde | Lund

France: Paris

Spain: Barcelona | Madrid | Tarragona | Toledo | Olot

Czech Republic: Prague | Karlštejn

Hungary: Budapest | Szentendre

Puerto Rico: San Juan | Ponce

Ireland: Dublin | Limerick | Galway

Scotland: Edinburgh | Dundee

Iceland: Reykjavik

USA: Philadelphia | Pittsburgh

Norway: Oslo | Bergen

Austria: Vienna | Salzburg | Innsbruck

Switzerland: Zurich | Lucerne

Funding and Support

Astorino Fellowship, Astorino Companies Endowment
College of Arts and Architecture Professorship
Dept. of Landscape Architecture Faculty Research Fund
AiB International Education Bonn
Barcelona Architecture Center

Publications & Conference Papers:

Convivial Greenstreet Motivations and Values: A Philadelphia Case Study (PDF)
Spatial Indices for Convivial Greenstreets (PDF)
Progress on Convivial Greenstreets Research in the Contemporary City
Convivial Greenstreets: A Concept for Climate-Responsive Urban Design (PDF)
The Value of a Street-side Garden: Convivial Greenstreets in Two Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Green Infrastructure in Liminal Streetside Spaces: Cases from European City Cores (PDF)
Developing Community through Makeshift Green Urbanism on the Street
Informal Green Infrastructure Along the Street: Typology and Urban Design Implications (PDF)
Convivial Greenstreets as Force and Context for Urban Sustainability (PDF)
Convivial Greenstreets in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands
Green Innovations in Western European City Streets and Public Spaces