URBAN VOIDS: CONTRIBUTION OF AGROECOLOGY IN USE OF SPACES
Urban agriculture. Vegetable gardens. Laws. Urbanism. Vacant.
The present research proposes to analyze the forgotten spaces of the city: The urban
voids, their territorial occupations, and how agroecology is used in urban garden law
projects that focus on sustainability. Any use of fragmented territory, voids in the urban
fabric, generates impacts on the landscape, on the well-being and quality of life of
citizens, these residual spaces have varied potential for uses, which can add to the
economy, and urban food security. There are some public policies and urban planning
that encourage the production of more sustainable spaces in vacant lots, and laws that
help popular claims that demand better planning of the territory with effective
management in cities to become more equitable. Faced with the conflicts between
different agents, in the neoliberal and capitalist context in relation to disputes over urban
territory, there is resilience of the voids in the territory. What are the conditions to resignify
the urban landscape? How to take advantage of the potential of free areas as green
“breaths” for gray and dense cities? Through these reflections, and a case study of similar
law projects for urban gardens in the cities of Varginha and Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais,
their executions, motivations, local impacts and urban structures of both cities will be
analyzed and compared with the transformation of landscapes. greener urban spaces for
sustainable temporary uses in urban land. In addition to debating on the implementation
of urban garden law projects in vacant lots, this research has an informative almanac that
was prepared by me to accompany this dissertation as a result of the practice of this
research, which aims to help the dissemination by serving as material for the
agroecological training offered by the technical assistance of Emater de Varginha in the
Pró Horta program in the same city located in the south of the state of Minas Gerais and
hopes to serve as a basis for future research on the themes related to urbanism, urban
voids, territorial occupations, and community gardens urban ones in cities that intend to
have public policies similar to those presented here.