Social inclusion - Educational hub - urban collective garden - guardians of biodiversity and ecosystems
Determine and assess benefits/impacts and trade-offs of agroecology, and identify best practices
We would like to collaborate on experimentation in the Living Lab environment to co-create solutions to share practices for resilient, productive, place-sensitive, and climate-, environment-, ecosystem-, biodiversity-, and people-friendly agricultural systems.
Orti Generali is a project of urban community gardens born from the regeneration of a park on the southern outskirts of Mirafiori in Turin: a riverside park, on the banks of the Sangone stream, abandoned and degraded for many years, now finally returned to the community.
Winner of the prestigious National Landscape Award in 2023 and representative of Italy at the Council of Europe Landscape Award, Orti Generali stands today as a model of urban regeneration. With 170 gardens covering approximately 12 hectares and the revitalization of one hectare of informal gardens transformed into an educational hub, urban farm, and collective garden, it has become a beacon of transformation. Orti Generali embodies innovation and social inclusion, welcoming all. Gardeners with limited economic resources contribute primarily with their time, becoming invaluable in sustaining the project. For vulnerable individuals, specific pathways for social and employment reintegration are developed within collective and educational gardens. But it’s also about socialization, experimentation, and outreach, always under the open sky! Orti Generali is now a place of gathering, with 20,000 square meters of green space open for socializing and sharing. At its heart lies the Kiosk, where the produce from the gardens, along with experiences and practices accumulated in the field, become nourishment for the body and mind, fostering learning, nourishment, and sociability. Through collaboration with the Departments of Agriculture, Veterinary, Biology, and Geography at the University of Turin, Orti Generali has evolved into an open-air laboratory and innovation hub for experimenting with urban agriculture within the social fabric, extending beyond spatial considerations to encompass civic engagement.