From ground to design

Our lab has invited Huiying Ng to deliver a lecture on community gardening in Singapore. The lecture is a part of Theory of Urban and Local Culture and Community Development Seminar courses.

우리 연구실은 Huiying Ng 연구원을 초빙해 싱가포르의 커뮤니티 가드닝 가꾸기 대한 강의를 듣고자 합니다. 이 강의는 도시·지역문화론과 커뮤니티개발세미나 수업의 일부로서 기획된 것입니다.

Huiying is a doctoral researcher at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, Germany, and associate faculty at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. She writes, teaches and explores knowledge co-production with approaches from action research and visual methodologies. Huiying is a founding member of the Foodscape Collective and TANAH, and collaborates with soft/WALL/studs. She is also engage in the Soil Regeneration Project, a community-led action research process in Singapore.

Her lecture ‘From ground to design: community gardens as a “time niche” for sustainable agriculture’ will take place online on Friday, June 16th, 2023 (16:00-18:00). Following is the lecture’s summary:

How can people in the city learn to share public spaces with one another—especially edible food spaces? How can urban space be an “active moment” that shocks, surprises or introduces people to different relations with the human and more-than-human world? And how can urban spaces also be “time niches” that scaffold learning, and expand opportunities for care time, to enable socio-technical transitions towards more sustainable futures? This talk looks at two groups’ works in Singapore between 2015-2020: the Foodscape Collective’s work in Singapore from 2015-2020, as it began following community gardens and building a learning network around, and with them, and the community bonding and energy that grew from this activity of learning, researching, writing and sharing about gardens and their fruits. It also looks at TANAH, an urban spatial intervention group, between 2016/2017-2020/2021. Learnings from international groups (Hong Kong, Latin America, Italy, Taiwan) will be discussed.

Making compost on Bukit Gombak community garden in Singapore (Photo: Chingwei Chen)

Community gardening in Seongdong-gu

A year has passed, and it is time for urban gardening fieldwork with our students. This year, the focus is on urban gardening in Seongdong-gu. We have visited 성동 무지개텃밭, a public allotment garden, and 송정동 서울가드닝클럽 공유정원, which is a private rooftop garden.

어느덧 일 년이 흘렀고, 학생들과 함께하는 도심 텃밭 견학 시간이 되었다. 올해는 성동구의 도심 텃밭을 집중적으로 살펴보았다. 성동구에서 운영하는 공공 텃밭인 무지개텃밭과 서울가드닝클럽이라는 민간 업체에서 운영 중인 옥상 공유정원에 방문했다.

Seongdong-gu District Government manages the public garden. Participation is affordable although limited in practice because of the garden’s huge popularity. There were over 3,000 applicants this year, competing for about three hundred plots that are available on the 무지개텃밭. In contrast, Seoul Gardening Club is a private business that manages the rooftop garden and curates community gardening experience for which it charges a membership fee. About twenty participants are taking part in the 송정동 서울가드닝클럽 공유정원 this season.

Seongdong-gu district government provides urban gardening support and basic education, while Seoul Gardening Club offers a comprehensive experience that goes beyond basic education and includes in-depth gardening programme, cooking classes, yoga sessions, beekeeping experience, etc.

Seongdong-gu District Government and Seoul Gardening Club also aim to build stronger neighbourhood communities beyond urban gardening. However, the students found out that these efforts had a limited success so far. Stronger collaboration between public and private sector may be needed to overcome current limitations of public and private community building efforts, create synergy between both, and in this way expand community gardening in Seongdong-gu.

성동 무지개텃밭 (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2023)
송정동 서울가드닝클럽 공유정원 (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2023)

Community gardening fieldwork

Community gardening fieldwork is in full swing. The fieldwork is a part of Community Development Seminar and Theory of Urban and Local Culture courses and took place for the first time after the pandemic.

Last Saturday, we visited 이음텃밭 in Songdo, Incheon (yes, Songdo is ‘the famous’ Korean smart city). 이음텃밭 was established in 2021 and has already became a successful case of community development through urban gardening. 전국도시농업시민협의회 is managing the garden. Thanks to their president and community members we have learned a lot about urban agriculture and community gardening, and spent a very hot but pleasant day in Songdo. 🥵

Earlier in April, we also visited 무지개텃밭 in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, which is a giant allotment garden, managed by the Seongdong-gu District Office. Unlike 이음텃밭, 무지개텃밭 seems to be less successful in terms of community development. It was great, though, to meet many enthusiastic gardeners there…

우리 대학원생들과의 현장실사가 2년간의 팬데믹 휴식기를 마치고 본격화되고 있다. 전국도시농업시민협의회와 성동구청, 감사합니다.

인천 송도 이음텃밭 (Photo; Blaž Križnik, 2022)
서울 성동구 무지개텃밭 (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2022)