Gardening to appropriate the streetscape: The example of Bordeaux’s garden street

Abstract

The garden street (rue-jardin) project was carried out by the City of Bordeaux as part of France’s Programme National de Requalification des Quartiers Anciens Dégradés (PNRQAD, 2009-2017), and illustrates an experiment in the development of public spaces suitable for users. To transform streets into spaces of sociability and collective life, the municipality is seeking to make them into gardens for residents, who are invited to be their gardeners. This article seeks to analyse to what extent gardening may be a vector for appropriating street life. It looks at how the municipality’s intentions actually translate into the public space design, as well as into measures to develop gardening practices. The article also aims to compare and contrast municipal objectives with the way in which residents take the opportunity of intervening in the development of public spaces. It shows that designing changes to streets is not in itself sufficient to bring about change. Gardening may in fact lead to varied and antagonistic ways of appropriating streets. It can contribute to the collective upkeep and the embellishment of public spaces, but also to expressions of individualism and the extension of private domestic spaces. Nevertheless, in a time when we are mainly considering technical solutions, such as planting vegetation or reducing the urban soil sealing to adapt cities to climate change, the garden street project shows the need to think about the ecological transition of cities in terms of its social and landscape dimensions.

Keywords:

• Urban landscape
• Planting of public spaces
• Street gardening
• Citizen participation
• Street practices and uses

Notes

1 Directorate-General of Development, Les rencontres Bordeaux (Re)Centers II - Kléber: la rue autrement (Bordeaux: City of Bordeaux, 2012).

2 The National Programme for the Reclassification of Old Degraded Neighbourhoods (PNRQAD) was included in France’s Law of Mobilization for Housing and the Fight against Exclusion (Loi de mobilisation pour le logement et la lutte contre l’exclusion). The Programme was officially launched on May 13, 2009 with calls for applications from cities or Public Establishments for Intermunicipal Cooperation (EPCI). It is funded mostly by France’s central government (l’Etat), the National Urban Renewal Agency (ANRU, Agence nationale de renouvellement urbain) and the National Housing Agency (Anah, Agence nationale de l’habitat). Forty projects were selected under the PNRQAD, including the City of Bordeaux for its old centre. Bordeaux was the first city to sign the protocol for the preparation of the partnership agreement for the implementation of the PNRQAD, on June 17, 2010.

3 Eric Charmes, Le retour à la rue: entre paysages et usages, rue des Cascades et rue de l’Ermitage, Belleville, Paris (Champssur-Marne: ARDU, Laboratoire CNRS Theorie des mutations urbaines, 2003); Remi Koltirine, Règlements et formes urbaines, études comparatives (Paris: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme-APORE-Etude urbaines, 2003).

4 Jane Jacobs, Déclin et survie des grandes villes américaines (Liege: Pierre Mardaga Editeur, 1991); Andre Guillerme, La rue n’est pas une route (Paris: Colloque europeen du laboratoire Theorie des mutations urbaines, 1987).

5 Herve Brunon and Monique Mosser, ‘L’enclos comme parcelle et totalite du monde: pour une approche holistique de l’art des jardins, Ligea. Dossier sur l’art 73–76 (2007).

6 Franck Debie, Jardins de capitales: une géographie des parcs et jardins publics de Paris, Londres, Vienne et Berlin (Paris: Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1992); Luisa Limido, L’art des jardins sous le Second Empire: Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, 1824-1873 (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2002); Pierre Sansot, Jardins publics (Paris: Payot, 1995).

7 Its zones de rencontre (or meeting areas) are equivalent to the woonerf in the Netherlands or home areas in Britain. For France, see Article 110-2 of the Highway Code (Code de la route).

8 Jacques Levy et Michel Lussault (eds.), Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés (Paris: Belin, 2003); Paul Cassia, ‘Le droit de la rue’, Pouvoirs 116/1 (2006), 65–85; Thierry Paquot, L’espace public (Paris: la Decouverte, 2015).

9 Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, Commun: Essai sur la révolution au XXIe siècle (Paris: La Decouverte, 2014), 273.

10 The results of this survey are part of the materials used to present my PhD in December 2021, with the title ‘Faire jardiner sans jardin. Mecanismes et limites des dispositifs municipaux de jardinage tactique dans la rue’, supervised by Martine Bouchier, LAVUE, Universite Paris-Nanterre.

11 Nicolas Soulier, Reconquérir les rues: exemples à travers le monde et pistes d’actions: pour des villes où l’on aimerait habiter (Paris: Ulmer, 2012).

12 Jean-Pierre Wieczorek, ‘Reflet de la memoire du monde rural’, 14th ICOMOS General Assembly and International Symposium: Place, memory, meaning: preserving intangible values in monuments and sites, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe (2003).

13 Bernard Lassus, Les habitants-paysagistes (Paris: Les Presses de la Connaissance, 1977).

14 Sylvie Brosseau, ‘Hachiue, les plantes en pot’, in: Philippe Bonnin, Vocabulaire de la spatialité japonaise (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2014); Cyrille Marlin, L’expérience ordinaire: fabrication d’un énoncé de jardin, PhD dissertation EHESS, Paris (2008).

15 Aurelien Ramos, ‘Le jardinage dans l’espace public: paradoxes, ruses et perspectives’, Projet de paysage 19 (2018).

16 Rene Audet, Ian Segers and Mathilde Manon, ‘Experimenter la transition ecologique dans les ruelles de Montreal: le cas du projet: Nos milieux de vie!’, Lien social et Politiques 82 (2019), 224–245.

17 ‘Du bitume aux fleurs’, Sud Ouest (26 May 2010), available online at sudouest.fr/gironde/bordeaux/du-bitume-aux-fleurs-10061249.php.

18 Direction generale de l’amenagement, Les rencontres Bordeaux, op. cit. (note 1), 51.

19 Mike Lydon, Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Longterm Change (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015); Emily Talen, ‘Do-it-Yourself Urbanism: A History’, Journal of Planning History 14/2 (2015), 135–148; Henri Lefebvre, Le droit à la ville (Paris: Anthropos, 1968); Efrat Eizenberg, ‘Actually Existing Commons: Three Moments of Space of Community Gardens in New York City’, Antipode 44/3 (2012), 764–782.

20 Nicolas Douay and Maryvonne Prevot, ‘Circulation d’un modele urbain ‘alternatif ’? Le cas de l’urbanisme tactique et de sa reception a Paris’, EchoGéo 36 (2016).

21 Richard Reynolds, La guérilla jardinière, (Gap: Yves Michel, 2010); David Tracey, Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2007); Jennifer Aird, Incredible Edible Todmorden: Demonstrating our impact (London: Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, 2011); Pam Warhurst and Joanna Dobson, Les incroyables comestibles (Arles: Actes Sud, 2015).

22 Michel de Certeau, L’invention du quotidien: I, Arts de faire (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), 60.

23 Eleonora Diamanti, ‘Ruse et triche dans l’espace urbain: formes de resistance urbaine ou le pouvoir des tacticiens’, in: Charles Perraton and Maude Bonenfant (eds.), La ruse: entre la règle et la triche (Quebec: Presses de l’Universite du Quebec, 2011) 169–190.

24 Laurent Devisme, Marc Dumont and Elise Roy, ‘Le jeu des “bonnes pratiques” dans les operations urbaines, entre normes et fabrique locale’, Espaces et sociétés 131 (2007), 15–31.

25 Directorate-General for Planning, Les rencontres Bordeaux, op. cit. (note 1), 70.

26 Loic Blondiaux, ‘La democratie participative, sous conditions et malgre tout’, Mouvements 50, (2007), 118–129; Marie-Helene Bacque, Henri Rey and Yves Sintomer (eds.), Gestion de proximité et démocratie participative: une perspective comparative (Paris: la Decouverte, 2005).

27 Marion Ernwein, ‘Du jardinage collectif au paysagisme benevole: Trois figures de la participation corporelle a la fabrique de la ville’, Géographie et cultures 103 (2017), 63–86.

28 For the three years of his mission, the street gardener completed 64 three-hour calls, and ten two-hour calls; he also completed six half-day seasonal workshops.

29 Nicolas Soulier, Reconquérir les rues: exemples à travers le monde et pistes d’actions: pour des villes où l’on aimerait habiter (Paris: Ulmer, 2012).

30 Directorate-General for Planning, Les rencontres Bordeaux, op. cit. (note 1), 62.

31 John Paull, ‘“Please Pick Me”: How Incredible Edible Todmorden Is Repurposing the Commons for Open-source Food and Agricultural Biodiversity’, in: Diversifying Food and Diets: Using Agricultural Biodiversity to Improve Nutrition and Health (London: Routledge, 2013).

32 Martine Bergues, ‘Dire avec des fleurs; manieres de jardins et modeles de cultures’, in: Veronique Nahoum-Grappe and Odile Vincent (eds.), Le goût des belles choses: Ethnologie de la relation esthétique (Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2016), 67–81.

33 Michel Conan and Juliette Favaron, ‘Comment les villages devinrent des paysages’, Les Annales de la Recherche Urbaine 74/1 (1997), 48–58.

34 Martine Bergues, En son jardin: une ethnologie du fleurissement (Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 2011).

35 Here we adopt the term used by resident-gardeners during the gardening workshops of the first three years of the project (March 2014 to September 2016).

36 Frederick Guyon, ‘Les jardins familiaux aujourd’hui: des espaces socialement modules’, Espaces et sociétés 134/3, (2008), 131–147; Florence Weber, L’honneur des jardiniers: les potagers dans la France du XXe siècle (Paris: Belin, 1998).

37 Laurence Baudelet, Frederique Basset and Alice Le Roy, Jardins partagés: utopie, écologie, conseils pratiques (Mens: Terre vivante, 2008).

38 Gaelle Aggeri, La nature sauvage et champêtre dans les villes: Origine et construction de la gestion différenciée des espaces verts publics et urbains. Le cas de la ville de Montpellier, PhD dissertation (ENGREF, Paris, 2004); Yves-Marie Allain, ‘La ville: un territoire nouveau pour la nature? La gestion differenciee en Europe’, Journal d’agriculture traditionnelle et de botanique appliquée 39/2 (1997), 199–217.

39 Bernadette Lizet, ‘Naturalistes, herbes folles et terrains vagues’, Ethnologie française 19/3, (1989), 253–272; Francoise Dubost et Bernadette Lizet, ‘La nature dans la cite. De l’hygienisme au developpement durable’, Communications 74/1 (2003), 5–18.

40 Marine Legrand, ‘Un decor comestible’, Géographie et cultures 101 (2017), 97–117.

41 Ganivelles are fences made of vertical chestnut wood staves, assembled using galvanized wire. The permeability of these fences means they are efficient for protecting and/or reconstructing coastal dunes. They are frequently used by the unit managing parks and gardens in Bordeaux as temporary fences, as a system for protecting young plants, for example, or as a way to fence off spaces with differentiated management.

42 Jean-Loup Gourdon, ‘La rue comme forme’, in: Jeanne Brody (ed.), La rue (Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi, 2020), 21–31.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aurélien Ramos

Aurélien Ramos is a landscape architect and university lecturer in planning and urban development. His work focuses on the management of urban design and biodiversity practices in urban public spaces. He is interested in everyday forms of interaction between urban residents and nature through urban gardening, outdoor play and maintenance practices. He seeks to analyse how practices can contribute to informing, enriching and transforming the design of public spaces in view of the ecological transition.