The Rise and Fall of Public Urban Gardens: Four Cases from in and around Copenhagen

This chapter presents four cases of urban garden projects in and around Copenhagen, Denmark, started between 2011 and 2013: Prags Have, Byhaven 2200, Byhaven Sundholm, and Havnehaverne. All four urban gardens were community-based and public, yet they varied widely in their organisation, management, funding, and status of the sites they occupied. While two of the gardens were started by cultural activists, the others were the initiative of the municipality and a private land developer. All of them shared a vision of not only growing produce but also integrating spaces for social inclusion and community gatherings. Looking into their underlying value system and organisational structure allows us to compare how the different typologies of urban gardens would impact their ability to thrive and flourish. The authors were particularly interested in the agendas pursued by the communities who managed them, how these agendas related to the specific site and context, and how the communities negotiated public access requirements with creating an enduring gardening community. As both bottom-up projects closed after 4 to 6 years, it is relevant to look into what resources were needed to run them and what led to their ultimate closure.