Urban Gardening in St Petersburg, Russia

Environmental activism in post-sovietRussia used to be the country’s most dynamic and effective forms of socialactivism. In contemporary Russia, however, activists face severe obstacles inpromoting green issues. The SaintPetersburg Urban Gardening Club, founded as early as 1993, is stillstruggling with the authorities’ acknowledgments of its important work.  

St Petersburg rooftop.Image source.

Philipp Brugner from the Austrian radio broadcasting dérive – Radio für Stadtforschung produced an interesting comment on the urban farming initiative in the second largest city in Russia:  Urban gardening in St Petersburg often is afight for survival. With 5 million inhabitants plus approximately anothermillion illegal inhabitants, St Petersburg is the northernmost megacity of theplanet. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, St Petersburg has been a boom townfor jobseekers mainly due to its numerous construction projects. Nowadays thecity is facing huge problems as a direct consequence to its boom. The citygovernment is focusing on its own prestige with building projects like the Othka Center instead oftackling its socials problems: half of the population is living below povertylevel, 6000 people are homeless and 1600 children are living on the streets ofthe tsar city. Furthermore the city is facing enormous ecological problems,where air pollution and insufficient garbage disposal are only the mostapparent.

This is the setting the Urban GardeningClub (UGC) has to face. The history of urban gardening in St Petersburg datesback to the late 19^th century when rural aristocrats moved to thecity maintaining their rural lifestyle. During the time of the Soviet Uniononly retired and disabled persons were allowed to fulfil agriculturaloccupation for their own use. Gradually the rules had been relaxed and at leastat the urban fringes gardens for personal use could have been maintained, adevelopment known as the Russian dachafarming. After the collapse of the USSR, cultivating land has been a directresult of the following years of crisis. Many could have only survived throughproducing their own food.

Raised-bed gardening for horticultural therapy. St. Petersburg's Prostheses Center during the summer of 1996. Source.

Rooftop garden on top of a  school in 1996. Source.

The UGC’s first project suggested using theroofs of buildings as croplands for socially deprived groups, due to the trickyclimate obviously a very challenging endeavour. The big advantage was that theroof grown fruits and vegetables were less polluted with heavy metals thancrops from the ground. Further projects involved cultivating the roofs of cityprison with involvements of the inmates, or cooperating with primary schools and the St Petersburg Prostheses Centre. 

Alla Sokol at one of the UGC's rooftop gardens against the backtrop ot the St Petersburg cityscape. Source.

Although the city government has recognizedthe value of the initiatives of the club, Alla Sokol, founder of the UGC,points out that the government frequently obstructs new rooftop gardenprojects, since it is very difficult to obtain the licence for using therooftop as farmland. Especially in Russia, rooftop gardening has a hugepotential, as many people in larger cities live in buildings with huge sturdyrooftops constructed to bear the heaviest snow load. But many apartment blocks stillbelong to the government. Moreover, in blocks with only homeowners, usually thestaircases and the roofs stay the property of the government. Therefore it isvital for the success of the movement that the government is highly involved.

Furthermore the controls of the produce andcomposting plants of the institute of hygiene hinder the proliferation of themovement. Often they attest polluted crops although, as Sokol explains, thetests the UGC has commissioned, attest that the vegetables from the roof gardensare much less polluted than those that are grown on the ground.  Within these controls, Sokol senses justanother administrative barrier.

Although low income, reduction ofpurchasing power, and high prices force people into subsistence agriculture inSt Petersburg, urban farming has not proliferated over the city yet. Many stillprefer the long way to the countryside, to cultivate their dacha. 

Russian dacha. Source.

Article and interview with Alla Sokol via dérive – Radio für Stadtforschung, an Austrianradio broadcasting.

How To Design A Thriving Community

Sustainability still is broadly examinedfrom the angle of environmental concerns. Nevertheless there is a growingawareness of social sustainability amongst urban planners and architects. The Young Foundation recentlypublished a report commissioned jointly by the Homes and Communities Agencyas part of Future Communitiesprogramme on the Design for Social Sustainability. On 55 pages, the reportprovides ‘a framework for creating thriving communities’. In the forewordBartlett Professor Peter Hallargues that under the scope of last summer’s riots in Great Britain we havefailed to create successful new communities within the existing fabric. Hefurther argues that “This study, which might have seemed peripheral andacademic, has become central and urgent. […] The lessons and the recommendations of this report are bound tohave a salience that its authors can never have imagined.” In relation to theongoing urbanization the report poses the question: how can we create newcommunities in new housing developments that will flourish and succeed longinto the future?  In Europe 32 newtowns are being created across 11 countries. Of course, the posed questionshould not be only approached by Western cities. Some estimates suggest that inChina 100 new cities with a population more than 1 million will be created inthe next three years. For example, as part of the Expo 2010 resettlementprogramme PujangNew Town in Shanghai aims to house 500,000 new residents to create One City, NineTowns. Outside Seoul the Incheon Development Area will house 200,000 peopleby 2010, while in Delhi four new satellite cities are being created to dealwith overcrowding and to cater for India’s growing middle classes. It presentsand will present huge challenges for governments to provide decent andaffordable private and social housing in communities that are economically,environmentally AND socially sustainable. But this is not a new challenge. Manyprojects have been developed to design out crime, incorporating socialinfrastructures, considering the role local greenspaces play in wellbeing andso on. However, many of them have failed. Partly because putting into practicewhat is known is difficult, claims the report. Theoretically these approacheswork out, but practically every community is different and therefore socialsustainability cannot be prescribed in the same way as standards for environmentalsustainability.  Hence, it iscrucial to incorporate the specific local conditions. However, the report arguesthat planning for social success and sustainability can prevent or at leastmitigate, the likelihood of future social problems, and in many cases,represents a fraction of the overall costs of development and long termmanagement. After arguing the undeniable, that social sustainability has a case,the report defines extensively the terminology. Subsequently the YoungFoundation tries to lift the debate out of the academic arena and developed aframework that contains four elements that are essential to build new sociallysustainable communities: amenities and social infrastructure, social andcultural life, voice and influence, can space to grow. 

What follows are the lucid diagramsdescribing the four elements of the framework (All images © by The Young Foundation)

 
Although further research is needed in therealm of social sustainability, the Young Foundations framework might be a hugestep forward on this terrain. It suggests a structured procedure which referencingfor every urban planner, designer and policy maker, as these issues will be oneof the main challenges of this century.

Related to this and the potentialpreventions of future disasters like the recent riots read Technologyand Urban Warfare in the archive.

Is Britain becoming Los Angeles?

Recently the architect RichardRogers attacked the British government’s planning reforms and warned thatBritain could 'very easily' become to resemble the ghettoes of Los Angeles with'rust belts and towns joining each other'. Cities such as Birmingham and MiltonKeynes, Bristol and Bath would also begin to merge under the current prospectof the policies and foster an enormous sprawl. Rogers argues that 'cities arethe engines of the economy, the heart of our culture and places of innovation.If the framework is not greatly improved it will lead to the breakdown andfragmentation of cities and neighbourhoods as well as the erosion of thecountryside.' Until now the fears over the plans had been limited to thecountryside. Rogers is the first person to voice concern about the effect uponmajor cities, as the Mail online article tells. Instead of uncontrolledplanning, Rogers pleads for the re-development of derelict areas and buildingsin the inner cities.  I would doubtthat Lord Rogers also had in mind the benefit cuts that result in an exodus ofinner-city working class people to the city’s fringes, as discussed in myrecent post. Maybe I do himinjustice, but I would have reasonsto believe that he is not (always) thinking of re-developments that benefitthe socially and economically disadvantaged.

WIND ENERGY REPLACES OIL FROM THE GULF

Office for Metropolitan Architecture recently has presented a masterplan for the North Sea, claiming that wind farms in the North Sea can produce as much energy as the oil from the Persian Gulf is now. The plan was inspired by Hugo Graat, who in 1609 highlited that the sea should be a binding medium between nations, enabling communicating and exchanging ideas.
via archinect, architectenweb

URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION

Benedetta Garguilo :: Fish Faming

Here are two projects of last year's AA inter3 studio. Students were asked: Can extremes of programmatic effectiveness blend with the fragility of human habitat? Can food production be integrated into the fabric of the City?
Benedetta Garguilo dealt with fish farming in central london while Soonil Kim designed the King's Vineyard London
Soonil Kim :: Vineyard


Thanks to pruned for the hint


related posts:
on urban agriculture here, here and here and on aqua-culture here and here

JUST ANOTHER HYDRO VISION

near-shore aqua-culture, Image by N.E.E.D

The winning entry from the South Street Seaport - Re-envisioning the Urban Edge competition is "an aquaculture-driven floating park, inlaid with combinational modules of public indoor programs." by N.E.E.D.
Imagesby N.E.E.D
"South Street Seaport," writes N.E.E.D., "has always been closely connected with infrastructural industry of the city. Being a port and a market for fish, it actively switched its urban structure according to development of transportation modes and storing methods of goods. To continue this historical trajectory of being a highly responsive urban district, the project proposes a fish farm(works), where the future of aquaculture actuates the next transformation phase of the area."Imagesby N.E.E.D
Thanks to pruned and Bustler for the images.

related posts:
on urban agriculture here, here and here and recently on aqua-culture

HYDRO VISONS

A project already discussed a lot a few month ago, but worth to remember: the hydro-net vison for San Francisco 2108 by IwamotoscottArchitecture. See related article on Inhabitat.
The architect's Flickr photo set also provides a deeper insight into to project.
While this project takes advantage out of natural processes by growing seaweed, algae and chanterelle mushroom the atmospheric physicist Carl Hodges believes that salicornia will be the natural resource for future energy supply.Salicornia is a crop nourished by ocean water that holds the potential to provide food and fuel to millions. See related article 'The man who farms with the sea' by LA Times

WIND OF CHANGE

Sail ships are back.
A cargo ship with wind in its sails will take to the high seas, carrying the hopes of the shipping industry for a clean and green future free from the dependency on oil.

It's no ordinary clipper replete with rigging and tons of canvas. The MV Beluga, due to sail on its maiden voyage from the German port of Bremen across the Atlantic to Venezuela, is closer to a kite-surfer on steroids. Giant sails of 160 square meters complement the Beluga's existing power plant; the more wind, the less fuel is used.

Developed by SkySail, the propulsion technology is based on a similar concept to paragliding. It consists of a towing kite with a rope, a launch and recovery system and a control system for automatic operation. With future kite sails up to 600 square meters being proposed, it will cut fuel consumption in half in the right conditions. A significant advantage of the SkySail technology is it can be retrofitted to virtually all existing cargo ships and the force it exerts is similar to that of a tug.
:: via smart planet