HADRIAN'S COMMUNITY GARDENS

Project

268058

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

HADRIAN'S COMMUNITY GARDENS

Full concept/idea title

Description

Hadrian's Aqueduct remains an invisible, huge in size and monumental value, underground aqueduct that still transfers water from Mount Parnitha to the center of Athens. Very few people are aware of its existence and nobody uses its water! At the same time, people are getting alienated from culture, nature and participatory structures. We want to preserve and showcase Hadrian's Aqueduct, use its water to irrigate community gardens and culturally and environnmentally engage people.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

The strategy and planning methodology for Hadrian's  Aqueduct revival was derived by the effort to address the needs and deficiencies of the urban environment in Athens. The idea is to create Community Gardens in the city of Athens, irrigated by the Aqueduct's water. Each garden is designed to include garden plots with the Garden Beds technique, as so to  alleviate  soil problems, to facilitate cultivation, to serve people with disabilities and all kinds of users. The gardens will also include a warehouse for tools and equipment and a rest area. There will be a mixing of materials and fertilizer area, a compost area, waste bins and, of course, informational signs about Hadrian's Aqueduct and the community gardens project. Signs will be accompanied by a QR CODE, which users and visitors will be able to scan by application (QR Code Reader) on their mobile phones and be informed about the monument and its use.The first community garden has been selected in the Olympic Village, and specifically in the Square of Reconciliation. The perimeter sites will be used to create gardens, while the middle sections will be reshaped to contain rest-picnic areas, collective cooking infrastracture and to host various cultural and artistic events.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

The city of Athens has been suffering from phenomena such as urbanization, rising temperatures, air pollution, and high unemployment levels in the last few decades. At the same time, the need to highlight cultural heritage and to involve the public in its use is an immediate necessity for all of us. The sustainability and resilience of cities is becoming a key factor in the development, strengthening and survival of urban centers.To cover these needs and to make Athens more sustainable, resilient and green, the plan is to create community gardens, in different parts of the city, following Hadrian's aqueduct's underground trail and irrigate them by its water. The gardens will be created on untapped land that is over the ground and remains public and unused. The needs to be met through the creation of the gardens include, among other things, the  use of water, the lack of green spaces and the lack of environmental ethics. Meanwhile, the indirect emergence of the monument through the creation of the gardens will make its value clearer, both as a water resource and as a vector of the country's cultural and archeological heritage. 

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

Hadrian's Community Gardens project and design covers many values and dynamic aspects of  a monument to be brought out and to be used in multiple different ways.  In a plan to be displayed below, it appears that both the aesthetic value and the multifaceted uses of the chosen site of the Reconciliation Square in the Olympic Village have been taken into account.  The side parts of the square, six in total, three on each side, will be transformed into six different Community Gardens and the central bigger parts will be made into rest and fun spaces to be used not only by the cultivators but by all. Water, trees and picnic areas will provide an overall hig- quality experience to the visitor of the Olympic Village and will improve the face of the obsolete,abandoned and only central square of an overall obsolete community, strengthen the relations of the local people and host not only environmental but also cultural events.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

In addition to the indirect emergency of the existing monument, one of the main priority objectives is active citizen's participation both in Communtiy Gardens program and in the cultural activities carried out that will frame the transformed monument area. Following participatory civil consultation techniques and creating partnership and cooperative relationships with the community in the Olympic Village, the target of this project is not only the monument but its people. All groups of citizens will be the users of the new reformed Square and its Community Gardens. Different plot sizes and designs for different users have been taken into account  (plots are set at either 6 m2 (2x3m) or 9 m2 (3x3m), school and family in 15 m2 (5x3m) and specially designed ones for people with diabilities or difficulty in movement). At the same time, cultural informational material will be placed in the gardens and around the square, giving details about the Aqueduct's use  and  directions for participation in this project both in written, Braille and Qr codes form. As is clear, the participation and acceptance of citizens is a key factor in the sustainable development of this project, which is why participatory consultation, and hence decision-making by the citizens and residents of the region, leads to results that meet the needs of the citizens and serve at the same time the objectives of the project. The inclusion is also relevant to the interdisciplinary nature of the project, as  for the procedures of irrigation, planting fruit and vegetables, designing the site and its conservation, call for cooperation with institutions, universities and public bodies such as E.Y.D.A.P. ( the national Greek water supplying company), the Agricultural Univeristy of Athens, the municipality of Acharnes (in which the Olympic Village belongs) and the Ministry of Culture.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

The innovation in this proposal lies in the fact that various actions will be carried out at the same time to serve and contribute in turn to both changing the face of the city and changing the people themselves in this regard. The development of an ideal green lane, starting the project initially from the Olympic village, consisting of community gardens throughout Hadrian's Aqueduct, is a process that will cover untapped land in the center of the city and turn it into green zones. Moreover, it will contribute to the reduction of temperatures, will nurture environmental ethics among citizens, will contribute to the change the city and its conversion into a greener one and cause the indirect emergence of a forgotten monument and its memory bodies. This indirect emergence, in itself, is an innovative measure, since it is not just about the emergence and management of the monument as a residue, but above all it is about water flowing through it and being soaked by the same source for so many years. Another innovation factor of this program is that actions will be carried out simultaneously, with the participation of citizens, which will help to change the face of the Olympic village itself. It is an area which is unexploited and left to its own devices, without infrastructure and with huge unexploited land. Τhe creation of the first gardens there, will be able to renew the life of the site, generate profits for the community, and be the starting force for a sustainable and resilient city based on participation and sustainability.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

  As part of the implementation of the program for the creation of community gardens and the indirect emergence of the Hadrian's Aqueduct, the aim is to create a green lane that follows the underground movement of the Aqueduct and delimites its course throughout the city. This proposal is based on the short-term plan of creating community gardens in the Reconciliation Square of the Olympic Village as the first pilot Hadrian's Community Garden. In addition to the gardens to be located on the external sides of the square, it is within the Square that, after participatory consultation, it is intended to decide and create infrastructure serving various cultural events and activities, infrastructure which will help to strengthen people's personal relations and contribute to socialization and direct contact with other citizens, residents and neighbors. By May 2022 and in the Olympic VIllage, the first 6 Community Gardens and the above-mentioned infrastructure are to be constructed in the intermediate area. On the other hand, the long-term plan involves the creation of ten or more such gardens per year, throughout the entire length of the aqueduct, in any areas that may irrigate it in accordance with the needs and deficiencies of citizens and municipalities. At the same time, some larger, unutilized areas of public law may be selected for organic farming and the supply of the products, in accommodation structures and food distribution in areas of socially and economically vulnerable groups.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.