Urban gardens, green infrastructure and urbanism: a historical relationship with a renewing capacity

Abstract

Urban planning is an operational discipline (Samonà, 1978), not a scientific one, and an indispensable field of knowledge for renewing the configuration of the urban. Urban gardens, with a long tradition, have been assumed for decades as another revulsive in the face of the climate crisis and, therefore, as a valuable resource that endorses the postulates of sustainable urban development with attributes not only of environmental necessity, but also of social cohesion, food security, health and economic incentives. The evolution of rural-urban relations in urban culture acquires a new challenge to rethink and redirect with urban gardens. Although there is no doubt about the benefits that crops brought when they formed part of everyday relations with the urban environment, it is necessary to look again at the disciplinary path travelled in order to clarify, if possible, their potential in the face of new forms of urban planning and management.