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The Gardenhaus, for now, makes it possible to avoid the
use of prefabricated, standardized garden sheds, and
allows self-built casita-type structures to remain a part of
the urban landscape of New York City. Like José Manuel
‘Chema’ Soto, former resident of Rio Piedras in Puerto
Rico and builder of several casitas in the South Bronx,
explains, “[casitas are] a symbol of poverty, of what we
went through.” [Fig. 5] (Sciorra, 1996: 76)
Fig. 4: Design of the Gardenhaus by mees weis architects on behalf
of GreenThumb, 2008
either a rain barrel or nearby spigot. Electricity may be
illegally tapped from a nearby lamppost, or in other cases
an agreement is worked out with the superintendant of a
neighboring apartment building, to whom casita members
pay a monthly fee for the use of electricity. An adaptation
to New York’s potentially harsh winters is the installation
of electric heaters, wall installation, and in one case, a
working fireplace.” (Sciorra, 1996: 72)
New guidelines for construction of garden structures
specifically prohibit nearly all of the uses listed above. In
addition, a guidebook produced in part by the authors of
this paper to instruct gardeners how to build acceptable
structures refers to the buildings as “garden house”, or
Gardenhaus, in order to avoid the word “casita”, which is
stigmatized by city officials due to the previously common
uses described above [16].
The new wooden shed or “Gardenhaus” is designed
according to the new guidelines, but to allow a maximum
adaptation to various sites and individualization
by the gardeners [Fig. 4]. The building typology of the
Gardenhaus is based on the structural traditions found
in New York City’s community gardens and reveals the
cultural background of community gardeners: casitas are
usually to be found in community gardens with a Puerto
Rican or Caribbean gardening group – i.e. mainly in lowincome
neighborhoods like the South Bronx [17]. “These
‘little houses’ are usually raised off the ground like their
counterparts in Puerto Rico which often were often
constructed on posts for protection from seasonal inundations.
The balcón, or veranda, a dominant feature of
Caribbean popular housing, is the most recurring element
of New York casitas.” (Sciorra, 1996: 70, 71) Other building
typologies incorporated into the Gardenhaus’ design
are the stage and the gazebo, which are both common
elements in a community gardens’ public landscape.
Conclusions
The way, New York City has been dealing with community
gardens in general and with casitas specifically, reveals
the effort to gradually transform these gardens from
privately used, public grassroots-landscapes into more
formally used public open spaces. The current effort to
preserve community gardens is part of the city’s strategy
in public open space development.
At the same time it begins to classify community
gardens as a unique and specific form of land use – a volunteer
constructed and managed yet municipally owned
open space; a place for urban residents to meet, express
and organize themselves, outside and at no cost.
Nevertheless, because the conflict between open
space use and construction on inner city land continues,
community gardens need to be included into comprehensive
zoning plans. Because of the unique benefits provided
by community managed open space as opposed to
traditional parkland, neighborhood community gardens
need to be legally defined as exactly this form of open
space use, particularly important for economic, social
and democratic reasons, in urban low-income districts
[18].
Fig 5: Organization is needed to sustain economic pressures, El
Batey Community Garden South Bronx, Photo by Carolin Mees 2005
Papers