Allotment gardens in Warsaw, Poland – from fruit and veg to designed huts

Wiejak-Roy, Grazyna; Mazur, Rafal

Abstract

Allotment gardens are a well-established phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe. Their users, predominantly in towns, through cultivation of land and care for the green space, create green oases in now busy urban areas. As such these locations now are of growing relevance as they generate positive externalities such the effectively private management of public green space. Over the last few years, especially during and post the Covid lockdown, popularity of allotment gardens has increased as an alternative to travel and a safe place to be in. In this research we considered legal, political, social and environmental perspectives to understand recent use changes. This allowed us to focus on two underexplored domains - economic and technological. We explored them using Warsaw as the largest and most dynamic allotment garden market in Poland. From the economic perspective, we explored the allotment garden trading market to conclude with a rich picture of its peculiarities and highlighted its weaknesses. Understanding the changing market dynamics informed our analysis of modern allotment garden designs including new architectural styles applied in development of something completely new - namely “designer huts”. We expect that our observations will inform policy makers and local authorities in developing long-term strategies to effectively support urban green spaces.

• Presentation Conference Type: Keynote
• Conference Name: Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society - 2023 Conference
• Start Date: Aug 29, 2023
• End Date: Aug 31, 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 22, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 24, 2023
• Keywords: allotment garden, family garden, Poland, Warsaw, grey market, design, hut
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11390366