Changes at "Font Baliarda - From No-Place to Common Ground"
Body (English)
-Summary of the challenge- +Summary of the challenge
- +Font Baliarda is a small, neglected urban plot beside Barcelona’s Ronda de Dalt highway—an example of the many “no-places” in our cities that lie unused, disconnected, and ecologically degraded. This project seeks to transform it into a community-managed urban tree farm and living commons, activating local residents, cooperatives, and institutions through a public–cooperative–community alliance. What’s at stake is not just the future of this particular space, but the broader question of how cities value and govern marginal land: will it remain overlooked, or become a model for democratic regeneration and soil stewardship? Those directly affected include local neighbors, grassroots foundations, and actors in the Social and Solidarity Economy, but the project also speaks to wider urban contexts facing similar territorial and ecological challenges. Font Baliarda offers a chance to prototype new ways of relating to land—through care, commons, and collective governance.
- +Detailed description
- +Font Baliarda is a small, seemingly insignificant urban plot wedged beside the Ronda de Dalt highway in northern Barcelona. For decades, it has been treated as a marginal leftover of city planning—an undefined space, a "no-place" where nothing happens and no one belongs. But like many neglected urban pockets, Font Baliarda is not empty—it is full of possibility. This project seeks to reclaim Font Baliarda as a living urban commons, transforming it into a productive, community-managed tree farm rooted in the principles of democratic regeneration, care for soil, and social economy. Still in its construction phase, the project’s first goal is to activate a community of care—residents, local actors, cooperatives, and institutions—who will collectively define the site’s identity and co-create its future through participatory prototyping, soil literacy practices, and long-term stewardship. Context and Relevance: Barcelona, like many European cities, faces a paradox: while urban land becomes ever more privatized and contested, many small sites—particularly along infrastructural edges like highways—remain unclaimed, degraded, or unrecognized by local communities. These spaces, although physically marginal, are ecologically and socially strategic. They can serve as laboratories for rethinking land use, land ownership, and collective stewardship in the 21st century. Font Baliarda embodies this paradox. Located at the edge of a vibrant district and pressed against a transit artery, it suffers from disconnection, neglect, and invisibility. But it also borders neighborhoods with a strong tradition of community organizing and a dense ecosystem of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) actors. The question is not whether this land has value, but how that value can be activated through collective care and democratic governance. A Public–Cooperative–Community Alliance: One of the defining features of this project is its multi-actor governance model, which we call a public–cooperative–community alliance. It brings together: The Parks and Recreation Department of the Barcelona City Council, which manages the land and supports the greening and infrastructural aspects. A grassroots foundation deeply embedded in the district, serving as a connector between institutions and local knowledge. A local university research group, contributing participatory methodologies and tools for soil literacy and democratic prototyping. A vibrant network of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) projects and cooperatives, providing capacity, stewardship frameworks, and long-term engagement potential. This alliance is not a simple partnership but an experiment in distributed governance and shared responsibility over land. It aims to model new forms of collaboration between public institutions, academic bodies, cooperative actors, and civil society—all framed through the lens of the commons. What We Propose At its heart, this project is a community-driven process of reimagining land. Our objectives include: Ecological Transformation Reforest the site through a community-managed tree farm, using native and climate-resilient species. Restore and improve soil health through observational practices, mycorrhizal inoculation, and low-impact design. Create green infrastructure that buffers highway impact and improves microclimate and biodiversity. Participatory Prototyping Engage neighbors, students, SSE members, and institutional actors in design charrettes, soil walks, and prototyping labs to co-create the space. Develop collaborative land-use models based on care, rotation, agroforestry, and commons logic. Implement low-tech infrastructure (pathways, water systems, shading, signage) built through collective action. Soil as a Pedagogical Agent Use soil literacy workshops, neighborhood soil mapping, and storytelling to build emotional, ecological, and political connections to soil. Frame the soil not just as substrate but as a medium of interdependence—between humans, nonhumans, history, and the urban metabolism. Commons-Based Stewardship Develop a lightweight, community-first stewardship model that redistributes responsibility between institutions, cooperatives, and community actors. Pilot methods for collective land governance that are transparent, inclusive, and adaptable, in conversation with existing municipal policy frameworks. Document the process openly, contributing tools and insights for replication elsewhere in the city or in other European contexts. Why This Matters This project speaks directly to SoilTribes’ call for territorial justice and democratic soil regeneration. Font Baliarda is not only a site—it is a situation. It reflects the tensions of modern urban life: between infrastructure and ecology, between abandonment and opportunity, between control and commoning. By transforming a "no-place" into a "common ground", we hope to challenge dominant narratives around land value, ownership, and productivity. We ask: What does it mean to cultivate soil as a civic act? Can tree farming in the city be a form of commoning, not commodification? How can public–cooperative–community alliances govern land more equitably than public-private partnerships? We see this project as a micro-political intervention—small in scale, but rich in implication. It combines ecological restoration with governance innovation, rooted in place but resonant across many urban contexts in Europe. Timeline (Indicative) Summer 2025: Community activation, participatory mapping, soil literacy activities Autumn 2025: Design and co-creation of the tree farm plan, prototype sessions Winter 2025–Spring 2026: Implementation of first interventions (tree planting, signage, care structures) Spring 2026 onward: Long-term governance and commons stewardship plan, documentation and dissemination
- +Which SoilTribes priority area(s) does your challenge address?
- +Soil Democracy
- +Territorial Justice
- +Commons Stewardship
- +Regenerative Transitions
- +How does your challenge respond to the selected SoilTribes priority area(s)?
- +Our challenge directly responds to several of SoilTribes’ priority areas, particularly democratic soil regeneration, territorial justice, and the commons as infrastructure. By reclaiming Font Baliarda—a neglected urban plot treated as a “no-place”—we are confronting the uneven distribution of ecological resources and care in the city. This site becomes a testing ground for soil as both a material and political agent, reconnecting people to land through hands-on restoration, participatory design, and long-term stewardship. The project promotes soil literacy as a collective practice, not only through ecological regeneration (via a tree farm) but also through co-learning spaces, storytelling, and community activation. Our governance model—a public–cooperative–community alliance—embodies SoilTribes' vision of the commons as a living, situated infrastructure, redistributing responsibilities and rights across diverse actors. In doing so, we propose an inclusive, replicable model for transforming residual city spaces into productive and democratic landscapes rooted in care, equity, and ecological transition.
- +Which EU Soil Mission goal(s) does your challenge contribute to?
- +Reduce soil sealing / reuse urban soils
- +Conserve soil organic carbon
- +Enhance soil biodiversity
- +Challenge typology
- +Seeds (small, replicable initiatives)
- +Expected outputs / actions
- +Awareness-raising / communications
- +Creative or cultural events
- +Participatory processes
- +Who is involved or affected by the challenge?
- +This project is led by a public–cooperative–community alliance composed of: The Parks and Recreation Department of Barcelona City Council, providing institutional support and land management. Fundació Privada Pare Manel, a grassroots foundation rooted in Nou Barris that facilitates community engagement and coordination, including the Xarxa de Dones Cosidores, a local women’s network promoting social inclusion and empowerment. The Comunalitat Urbana de Nou Barris, a coalition of organizations within the district focused on cooperative and social economy initiatives. The broader Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) ecosystem and ecological projects active in Nou Barris, such as Economat Social de Roquetes, Som del Barri, and other neighborhood-based sustainable initiatives. The Institut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques (IGOP), a public policy research center affiliated with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, offering research expertise, participatory methods, and evaluation tools. The Green for Good project by Fundació Ferrer, supporting sustainable and socially responsible initiatives. Local residents and neighborhood groups who actively engage in co-design, care, and long-term stewardship of Font Baliarda. Together, these diverse actors form a collaborative ecosystem integrating public governance, grassroots activism, academic research, SSE networks, and community empowerment, united in the shared goal of reclaiming and co-managing Font Baliarda as a vibrant urban commons.
- +Where is your challenge located?
- +Nou Barris neighborhoods, Barcelona, Spain
- +Which SoilTribes pillar(s) are you connected to?
- +Public Sector
- +Academia, Education & Research
- +Civil Society
- +Business: Social Economy & Cooperative Sector
- +What public policies or institutional frameworks does your challenge engage with or seek to change?
- +As a project in its early stages, we are positioning Font Baliarda as a living lab to explore new ways of reclaiming urban land for ecological and social benefit. While we are still developing our full policy engagement strategy, our aim is to contribute positively to public policies related to sustainable food systems, urban agriculture, and community-led land management. By prototyping a community-managed tree farm and commons-based governance, we hope to inspire and inform similar initiatives across Barcelona, gradually influencing institutional frameworks around urban sustainability, food sovereignty, and participatory land use. Our project seeks to open dialogue with local authorities and policy makers to support more inclusive and regenerative urban development models in the future.
- +How do you imagine the Bootcamp will benefit your initiative — and others?
- +A translocal dialogue with other soil stewards and commons builders across Europe New methods, case studies, and tools for participatory ecological prototyping Support in refining our governance and care models Shared reflection on soil as a relational and political agent in urban regeneration Ultimately, this is a call to reimagine not just what cities look like, but how they relate to soil, to land, and to each other.
- +
Share