This thesis explores the act of community gardening within the metropolitan landscape, using the Vredestuin community garden in Rotterdam as a case study. It investigates how community gardens function as complex spaces that touch upon multiple fields of study.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the research draws from the fields of Landscape Architecture, Phenomenology, Philosophy and Social Geography, engaging with the works of Edward Relph, Saskia de Wit, Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, and Edward Soja. It contrasts the concept of place, as explored through the lens of Landscape Architecture, with the social production of space, examined through the lens of Philosophy ans Social Geography.

By participating in its daily activities of the Vredesruin, the thesis uncovers the lived reality of this space: its inclusivity, challenges, and the networks it fosters.

Ultimately, this research advocates for an assertive spatial approach. It calls upon Landscape Architects and designers to move beyond disciplinary boundaries and to mediate between the municipality and the community; to embrace multiple viewpoints. Community gardens, it argues, are not just sites of cultivation and gardening pleasure, but active, social, and political spaces that hold transformative potential for shaping more just and inclusive metropolitan landscapes.