3.4 SUMMARY

CHAPTER 3.4

SUMMARY

As we covered in the aforementioned research, community gardens are successful, crucial spaces allowing biophilic communities to bond together through their love of nature and agriculture. In turn, this strong connection formed a strong alliance and a projection of voices during the turmoil that Dalston Eastern Curve Garden and Daubeney Garden encountered against the council to keep these gardens untouched, which was fortunately successful with the Dalston Eastern Curve. Furthermore, the Edible Bus Stop Garden proves that regardless of unfavourable locations and external factors, community gardens can still prosper through the commoners’ teamwork and appreciation of biophilia and gardening, therefore theorising that Daubeney Garden can also flourish in their new location, reminiscent to the Edible Bus Stop Garden.

Stavrides states that these spaces will either force the community to come into fruition or produce spatial boundar-

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ies, thus these community gardens must break through the current enclosed threshold to expand and reach out to the extended communities in the hope to bring more voices towards the sanctuaries. It is imperative to build up a community of active participants to encourage biophilia in the city so that the legacy of a green future will be continued for centuries to come, and successful common spaces such as these community gardens will emerge through shared spatiality rather than a container which will shape a wished-for community68 .

The main observation to take away from community gardens are the successful interactions between its users which encourage the new formation of social life. Moreover, the organisations evidently nurture their local community, for example Dalston Eastern Curve Garden run activities that directly link to one’s mental health and physical well-being, whilst the Edible Bus Stop Garden grows free vegetables for the locals. Finally, being surrounded by nature subconsciously promotes composure between the commoners and thus producing a tranquil, relaxing environment to escape from the busy urban life juxtaposing the opposing threshold. These social factors are important to translate onto roof gardens to introduce a peaceful environment where plants and wildlife can thrive with the help of biophilic individuals.

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RE-IMAGINING CHARING CROSS (ORIGINAL IMAGE BY MILSTEIN, N.D., EDITED BY AUTHOR)