From the city of gaps to the city of wellness: The case study of DOT TO DOT© community garden in Maryhill, Glasgow

Abstract

The new urban question has been convoyed by the abrupt inequity of income distribution; environmental disasters; demographic shrinkage; inner asymmetries in urban communities; rising of informal markets; and city voids. Brownfields, abandoned buildings and vacant lands are unresolved environmental and social problems in many European cities. These ruins are the physical manifestation of our postindustrial landscape. Urban deprived areas demand urgent adaptive game plans. How can these gaps become instruments of wellness whilst open to regenerative/restorative social innovations? DOT TO DOT© www.dots.scot is a cross-disciplinary ecosystem that enables intergenerational groups from creative local community - social entrepreneurs, researchers, educators and youth- to fill and reuse ecologically empty sites on a temporary basis and to improve life of disadvantaged communities by remaking with waste through regenerative designs and live projects. It is both a real and digital live community project. DOT TO DOT© is a social innovation project funded by EU ESF Aspiring Communities programme in Glasgow, Scotland (2017-2018). It addresses up-to-date urban regeneration and health issues from local perspectives providing a vivid community-led development approach. It proposes a new conceptual framework for considering the driving and interconnected factors to tackle health and wellbeing in selected deprived areas. Its sensory dimension is an experimental site - community touchpoint- which is planned in three distinctive areas: (a) the Community Garden, an edible garden (phase 1); (b) the Remake Station (phase 2) and (c) the sensory woodland. The DOT TO DOT© methodology employs somatic learning tools; research by doing; experimentation by reusing; and collaborative design modelling methods, integrating various sources and types of data including spatial, visual, quantitative and qualitative data. It includes sensory, physical and digital engagements with urban communities in the process of creating and transferring knowledge. Furthermore, it aims at generating knowledge exchange and providing live demonstrations that is relevant to the local community development for improving integrated decision making and bottom-up governance for healthy and wellbeing outdoor environments.