Nature and the landscape of informal spaces. A new urban paradigm?

Over the last years, in metropolis all over the world, the upsurge of new types of public spaces, created in vacant lots, has been revealing the tendency for the search of a closer connection of urbanites to nature and rurality. The success of the High Line in New York or the growing of urban farming are just two examples of multiple phenomena happening in urban areas, related to the context of economic and social crisis and to a change of paradigm concerning the concept of "urban living." A significant number of these new nature-related spaces are generated by local communities committed to create useful and meaningful collective spaces, open to all. Very often, they start as informal spaces. Sometimes, they involve the collaboration of external participants, such as artists, architects, research groups or universities. In other cases, they are adopted by public bodies and become institutionalised. Some of these spaces are ephemeral; others endure for a long time. Which motivations, dynamics and interests lay behind these phenomena? Is there somehow, over time, a loss of the social meaning which generated the initial transformation of the space? How are the principles of public participation – enunciated by the European Landscape Convention (ELC) -, present in these processes? Based on the study of Lisbon’s case, we will try to understand these complex processes and the place of landscape in the informal creation of public green spaces, for a new urban paradigm in the Portuguese context.