Co-Designing an Urban Community Garden

Co-Design + Community-Led Systems

Initiated and co-led a week-long international workshop bringing together local community members and permaculture experts to design and build one of Izmir’s first organic urban community gardens.

Designed the experience as a hands-on learning environment, guiding participants through co-design, co-building, and shared governance to create a space rooted in collective ownership and long-term stewardship.

Impact

• Transformed a vacant urban lot into a thriving community garden over two decades

• Created a shared space for biodiversity, seed exchange, and organic practices

• Established a model for community-led design workshops in the region

• Recognized as an example of design activism in local and national media

• Designated as a sister garden to the Karl Linn Community Gardens (City of Berkeley, 2017)