A project for a documentary about community gardens in Milan and Berlin

Starting from the "Giardino degli Aromi" (literally: Garden of Fragrances), the largest community garden in Milan, the team of Paola Longo, Salvatore Laforgia, Guido Larcher, Inge Pett journalist from Berlin, performs a comparative research on collaborative community gardens in the two cities.
The study aims to identify both the formal and structural aspects of the gardens as well as the methodologies that were applied between citizens and authorities in each city. Differences or similarities in the management of town's empty urban spaces are a proxy to understand whether the differences are purely administrative-technical, or perhaps of a more deeply cultural nature.
In every urban metropolis there are urban spaces suitable for construction yet abandoned for decades. These projects attract investors but also inspires the imagination of designers, creating brain teasers for planners as well as concerns for residents keen to greenery. Gaps may remain unused but not necessarily useless. A participatory community garden can regenerate brownfield sites and rehabilitate places as spots of social interaction.
One trend is particularly evident: "space" gaps were often busy and planted by the pioneers of greenery. [...]

Down there there is a gate
by Salvatore Laforgia and Paola Longo
 

Social relations, environment, historical memory and identity of a place, together give a basis for the participation of people to create a strong protection project for a place.
It is in this spirit that we have collected images and narratives about the agricultural area adjacent to the Paolo Pini hospital in Affori neighborhood in Milan. The history of the place in the 50s and 60s is generously narrated by the protagonists Vittorio Giacomel, Vito Bricolo, Gianfranco and Carlo Soldo. 

The research highlights, in both countries that local projects find their strength in the enhancement of historical memory and not only concerned with the use of local resources. The underlying social network cooperates significantly with the adaptability of global projects and innovative to the reality of the place. The documentary comes into this world not only based on projects and experts, but also, and above all, on human experiences, lifestyles and meetings.
The film is in being made and will be finished by summer 2014 when the issue of urban green spaces, will concerning Expo 2015, will be a more and more discussed as a subject of citizenship.

READ THE FULL VERSION IN ITALIAN HERE!  
READ THE FULL VERSION IN GERMAN HERE!