The Portable Urban Garden as an integrative solution to the lack of space for cultivation in large metropolises

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.9734152421112

• Palavras-chave: huertos urbanos, seguridad alimentaria, desarrollo socioeconómico, huertos escolares, impacto ambiental, huertos portables

• Keywords: urban orchards, food safety, socio-economic development, school orchards, environmental impact, movable orchards

• Abstract:

  To speak of urban gardens is to speak of the welfare of society in terms of health, and although this initially refers to the body, in reality it is sought to benefit the whole being in its integrity. The natural healthy coexistence of participation in the work of urban community gardens will foster the promotion of love for others, which will be manifested in all dimensions of being, but also, and above all, in the spiritual, in every moment of interaction with neighbors, family members, and students of a community, for example.
  We know, unfortunately, of the great impact of disinterest in healthy eating, which companies have caused in society, through the conceptualization of advertising, which promotes the consumption of industrialized products in large percentage. 
  It is therefore of great importance to promote new strategies that encourage the consumption of food of organic origin, and grown by urban and peri-urban consumers themselves [1]. In large cities, such as the CDMX, there are extensive urban areas where there is no land or space for the cultivation of urban gardens (CHU), including: schools, houses, housing units, etc., i.e., they are spaces that were not designed for urban or peri-urban agriculture.
  An innovative solution proposed here to the problem of the lack of cultivable space in the megacities is the portable urban garden (HUP), since the HUP can be placed in strategic points, both for lack of space and for being a site of great human activity, to provoke and expedite citizen participation, both theoretically and practically in its implementation, care, maintenance, monitoring, and during the whole process of cultivation that they want and need to do. Since this HUP can be placed in all spaces, and according to the specific needs of the users of the space, they will determine the type of crops appropriate for each social group, where the HUP is implemented.  
  Here are presented the calculations for the construction of a HUP, with a certain type of materials, and a budget of the materials, and their approximate costs, on the date this research was carried out in the CDMX, as well as several schemes of its assembly step by step, until obtaining its final finish.