ORERI

“Idyllic Islands” tells the story of Berlin’s street gardens and street ecologies. It brings to light acts of care, commitment, and community that unfold along sidewalks, among Baumscheiben, flowerbeds, traffic islands, and front gardens. The book gives voice to individuals and initiatives whose everyday gardening, practiced in front of homes and shops, expresses a culture deeply rooted in the city, yet still insufficiently recognized in urban planning policies and development strategies. Through interviews, essays, and photographs, Elena Ferrari investigates projects, personal motivations, everyday challenges, and the socio-environmental value of these small caring gestures. Street gardens constitute an emerging typology of liminal urban landscapes, situated in the tension between the domestic and public spheres. Within these spaces, new design cultures take shape: practices through which people redefine the relationship between humans and nature and transform the street into a place of coexistence, and shared responsibility, opening up alternative ways of inhabiting and governing urban space.