Designing the guidelines for shared urban community gardens

A comparison of the various projects implemented in Milan’s zone, nine district (Orto per Nove, Catone Nursery school, Maffucci middle school) produced a set of guidelines to help local government encourage the dissemination of shared farming practices, guided by an approach based on design thinking in other zones of Milan and outside the city. These guidelines cover three main areas: – Definitions and rules. This part started with the documents and the recommenda- tions of the municipality of Milan. – The design of spaces and therefore the design of the spatial context in which the community garden is to be created, as well as the materials and solutions to be adopted for every kind of physical requirement connected with cultivation. – Workshops, the central themes of which are community building, the rules under- pinning shared activities, activities for co-designing and co-creating the growing spaces themselves and their shared areas, and finally, the acquisition of greater awareness of the process implemented and the goals attained.