COMMUNITY GARDENS DIY FENCING KIT
SELECTEDTorino Geodesign - Mobilizing the collective intelligence: 48 projects for Turin
Program Participatory design, community gardens DIY fencing kit, "Farmers Knowledge Book"
Team 2A+P Architettura (Gianfranco Bombaci, Domenico Cannistraci, Pietro Chiodi, Matteo Costanzo, Valerio Franzone)
Client "Abitare", Torino 2008 World Design Capital, Municipality of Turin
Location Falchera - Turin, Italy
Area 72 m2
Year 2008
Exhibition Palafuksas - Turin, May 23 > June 13, 2008
Catalogue Abitare n. 483 (June 2008)
Links www.torinogeodesign.net
www.torinogeodesign.net/orti-urbani
Community Gardens DIY Fencing Kit is a set of instructions to build fences from the synthetic fabric previously used for the advertisements covering the scaffoldings for the restorations of buildings' façades, a material that is thrown away once the scaffoldings are removed. About 8000 people live in Falchera, one of Turin's oldest public housing outskirts. Its allotment gardens, which border a small pond, are fenced with rusty wire bedsteads and produce a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. But the enthusiasts of the farmers the allotments have never coalesced as a community: their constant bickering and rivalry make any joint project a hazardous undertaking. However, a series of meetings recently culminated in a unanimous request for a fencing system that would also help shelter the allotment gardens against strong winds and hailstones, and that, most of all, could give a unified identity to all these different properties
The participatory process at the base of the project permitted also to produce the "Farmers Knowledge Handbook", a treasure collecting years of different experiences.