Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Participatory Design and Self-building in Shared Urban Open Spaces

Community Gardens and Casitas in New York City

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Carolin Mees

    1. Brooklyn, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • This book contains a special chapter of the lessons learned from author’s field experience in leading the participatory design and self-building process of community gardens in New York City provides readers with practical insight
  • Includes in depth information about participatory design and self-building in shared urban open spaces in New York City.
  • Includes 80 color photos and 5 black & white photos of participatory designed community gardens with self-built structures in New York City

Part of the book series: Urban Agriculture (URBA)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 1-6

  3. The Emergence of Shared Gardens and Self-Built Structures in European Cities

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 7-56

  4. The Emergence of Shared Gardens and Self-Built Structures in North American Cities

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 57-73

  5. The Emergence of Community Gardens in New York with Focus on the South Bronx

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 75-111

  6. The Impact of Stakeholders on the Development of Community Gardens in the South Bronx

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 113-151

  7. Organizing, Planning and Governing Community Gardens

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 153-196

  8. Community Gardens and Self-Built Structures as a Form of Cultural Expression

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 197-247

  9. Participatory Design of Community Gardens and Self-Built Structures: Lessons from Field Experiences

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 249-278

  10. Conclusion

    • Carolin Mees
    Pages 279-280
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

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

Authors and Affiliations

  • Brooklyn, USA

    Carolin Mees

About the author

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

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Participatory Design and Self-building in Shared Urban Open Spaces

  • Book Subtitle: Community Gardens and Casitas in New York City

  • Authors: Carolin Mees

  • Series Title: Urban Agriculture

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75514-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-75513-7Published: 20 April 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09251-1Published: 12 December 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-75514-4Published: 12 April 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2197-1730

  • Series E-ISSN: 2197-1749

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 280

  • Number of Illustrations: 28 b/w illustrations, 59 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Agriculture, Urbanism, Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation