Citizen tactics for the activation of underutilized areas: the case of the community gardens in Rio de Janeiro

• Main Author: Sansão Fontes, Adriana
• Publication Date: 2019
• Other Authors: Espósito Galarce, Fernando, Martins do Valle, Leticia, Fernandes Motta, Victor, da Silva Faria, Thais
• Format: Article
• Language: por; eng
• Source: arq.urb
• Download full: https://revistaarqurb.com.br/arqurb/article/view/45
• topic: Urbanismo Tático; Vazios Urbanos; Comuns urbanos; Agricultura urbana; Ativismo urbano; Tactical Urbanism; Urban voids; Urban commons; Urban agriculture; Urban activism

Community initiatives to transform everyday spaces in a bottom up manner have been increasingly in large cities, responding proactively to the inability of governments to deal with urgent urban challenges by means of traditional urban planning. Dialoging with the theme of insurgent urbanism and urban activism, this paper discusses citizen tactics for the activation of underutilized areas, presenting, as referential cases, the community gardens in Rio de Janeiro. The paper starts with a discussion about tactical urbanism as an approach for conversion of underutilized areas into urban commons, followed by the analysis of the cases of Parque Sitiê (Vidigal) and General Glicério (Laranjeiras) gardens, community initiatives for the appropriation and transformation of underutilized spaces into urban commons that brought social, economic, urbanistic and environmental benefits to these localities. We seek to question how these actions could be multiplied, and what would be the role of public power in this process.