Green Dreams: Regenerating Cities Through Nature

The restoration and reuse of abandoned sites undoubtedly play a vital role in regenerating the productiveness of cities. This can be achieved by adopting practices where farmland is renaturalised; permitting an increase in a site’s level of naturalness; reducing harmful emissions produced by the presence of static or dynamic polluting agents in the urban fabric; and a widespread process where environmental ‘performance’ is improved in all senses, including in terms of its administrative profile, its elements and systems, and a gradual attempt is made to restore the balance of conditions of liveability in the public urban space as a whole. The territorial approach based on urban farming models allows differences (of an urban, geomorphological, social and cultural nature) to play an active role and significantly contributes to the restoration of the dialogue between man and his environment and the improvement of the relationships between people. Wherever the urban form does not allow the assertion of, and dialogue between, different demands (whether they be ecosystem based, socio-economic or cultural), the institutionalisation of urban farming systems often results in the restoration of a sense of place and of community, restoring the network of internal morphological, historical, cultural and socio-economic relationships that clear the way for possible future communication and development within a community.