14. The Role of Urban Gardening in Global Cities: Three Case Studies in Berlin, Rome and Tokyo

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness in cities of the importance of a healthy lifestyle through food. In Tokyo, urban gardening using the rooftops of live venues and other buildings has emerged in the city center, and new public spaces have been established. In Berlin and Rome, many urban gardens have been established in the 2010s as a temporary use of vacant and unused land, and a new food space has been formed in a way that is related to the urban lifestyle. These new urban gardening projects are managed from the bottom up, and they have the potential to become an effective tool for shaping lifestyle and food spaces in cities. This study reconsiders the role of “new urban gardening”, which has gained prominence in the wake of COVID-19. For this purpose, this paper gives a brief historical overview of urban gardening in Germany, Italy and Japan and then describes three case studies of new urban gardens in Berlin (Prinzessinnengarten), Rome (Hortus Urbis) and Tokyo (Jūsangatsu Farm). The paper concludes that the role of urban gardens in global cities around the world as public spaces for citizens’ well-being, for food production, as meeting places and as places of learning has become more pronounced in recent years and even more so during the corona pandemic.