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This idea leaves behind some previous initiatives, such as ones designed by civic collectives, in order to create an urban orchards space or just a place dedicated to natural history. In 2014, for example, Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic,<\/em> and a dozen organizations more, presented the Hort urb\u00e0 Bot\u00e0nic-Jesu\u00eftes project. In 2018, the Universitat de Val\u00e9ncia also proposed to convert the solar into a complementary garden of the Bot\u00e0nic, dedicated to flora representation and to protected habitats of the Comunitat Valenciana, as well as to a large forest formation presence. Different approaches have been debated since 23 July 2013, when the Ajuntament de Val\u00e8ncia obtained the solar de Jesu\u00eftes cession. After a swap with a hotel promoter \u2013the Mestre family of Expogrupo Catalan chain\u2013 for another space in Aragon avenue, the municipal offices were, finally, demolished in November 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justo Herrera<\/strong>, the vice-rector of Economia i Infraestructures de la Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia (UV), has been a commission member to decide the solar de Jesu\u00eftes future on behalf of the leadership team chaired by Mavi Mestre<\/strong>, as well as of the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic director, Jaime G\u00fcemes. Herrera highlights \u201cthe high-level commitment of both institutions in order to reach the optimal solution through full collaboration, avoiding any appropriations or notorieties. In fact, the commission dynamic has been totally fluid and respectful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Herrera\u2019s opinion, the solar de Jesu\u00eftes agreement shows a \u201cclarifying path\u201d highlighting \u201cthe historical responsibility of the Universitat toward society. In this regard, giving to the citizenship, not just a conventional park, but a space of cultural and social development with some scientific, informative, and educational relevance it’s considered necessary, in line with the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deputy Mayor and general coordinator of Ecolog\u00eda Urbana<\/em>, Emergencia Clim\u00e1tica<\/em> y Transici\u00f3n Energ\u00e9tica<\/em>, Sergi Campillo, who is a member of the joint committee, recognizes this agreement result to be \u201ca pilot test for a new relationship between public administrations. Here, knowledge and outreach, citizen and academy\u2019s participation could converge in order to promote the knowledge transfer toward society. While improving, at the same time, citizens\u2019 health thresholds thanks to green spaces expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe solar de Jesu\u00eftes will be dedicated to the agriculture biodiversity focused on the orchard. It will stress the botany importance for traditional cultivation while recovering the city forests\u2019 tradition.\u201d In the words of the councilor, \u201cIt will always go hand in hand with the academic institution since the main idea is to co-designate this neighborhood struggle referent space, where the Salvem<\/em> movements were born\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic<\/em> mobilizations, with some artists\u2019 involvement. Picture from the \u2018Bot\u00e0nic-Jesu\u00eftes. Un paisatge compartit\u2019 exhibition catalogue, promoted from the Vicerrectorado de Cultura de la Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia in 2008.<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Mayor of Val\u00e8ncia, Joan Rib\u00f3, states that with this agreement \u201cwe will solve a frozen problem of the city, loaded with citizen struggle’s symbolism. Which is an indicator of the social movements\u2019 vitality that has been working in order to dignify our municipality in cases such as El Saler per al poble<\/em> or El riu \u00e9s nostre i el volem verd<\/em>\u201d. In agreement with Herrera, Rib\u00f3 highlights the joint work of the commission and the very positive accordance in order to realize a natural and scientific space in a such symbolic solar. That\u2019s despite complications and the challenge of obtaining economic resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The future theme garden in the solar de Jesu\u00eftes dedicated to the orchard and biodiversity will show \u2013according to the mayor\u2013 the links between biodiversity and nature protection with the orchard. It will also allow us to reflect on the natural world’s importance for agriculture, food model, and health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, by the way, we already have verified its relevance\u201d. Rib\u00f3 concludes: \u201cit will be a space connecting with the Centro Mundial de Val\u00e8ncia para la Alimentaci\u00f3n Urbana Sostenible (CEMAS) work\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Campillo insists on the importance of having unlocked the solar de Jesu\u00eftes’ future, \u201cdoing it hand by hand with the academy and the Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia since it is municipal ownership and management space, integrated into the municipal gardens network. Even so, it will enjoy the advantage of a scientific vision and the close link with the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic. This collaboration will also help \u201cto unite the future green space with the Jard\u00ed de las Herp\u00e8rides, the Tur\u00eda urban forest and the monumental triangle formed by the Gran V\u00eda with the tree-lined boulevard, the BIC’s heritage, and the Bot\u00e0nic\u201d, said the Deputy Mayor and municipal head of Ecolog\u00eda Urbana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic’s director of the UV, Jaime G\u00fcemes<\/strong>, this agreement\u2019s result constitutes \u201cthe seed for the new Jard\u00ed de Jesu\u00eftes becoming an integrated transformation spark of the entire block, currently very deteriorated. And, at the same time, this space would be an inspiration for the green transition of Val\u00e8ncia city\u201d. G\u00fcemes believes that, in this way, \u201can old dream, emerged in the eighteenth century, is fulfilled. The one aspiring to integrate natural sciences and urban space, besides favoring ecological corridors, that is, green connectivity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new solar de Jesu\u00eftes project represents, from G\u00fcemes\u2019 point of view, \u201ca great opportunity in order to transfer the research, teaching, outreach and communication experience acquired by the team of people who have worked at the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic during the last 30 years \u2013since the restoration led by Professor Manuel Costa<\/strong>, between 1989 and 1991\u2013 to a new garden, also born with the aim of training, informing and raising awareness among the public about the importance of biodiversity conservation and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his part, the architect Carles<\/strong> Dol\u00e7<\/strong>, founding member of the defunct platform Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic<\/em> \u2013dissolved after having managed to stop the solar urbanization, in 2017\u2013 argues that the solar de Jesu\u00eftes agreement is \u201cvery positive and the logical way involving the close collaboration between two public institutions of the city: Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia and Ajuntament\u201d. Furthermore, \u201cthe initial proposal of creating a mixed space, both botanical and agrarian, was successful since the solar de Jesu\u00eftes was saved from construction, precisely for such reasons as the preservation of the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic’s historical trajectory. The city never has plenty of green spaces and gardens, as the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic\u2019s members<\/em>, and other representative people \u2013such as the Modern History professor at the Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia Isabel Morant<\/strong>, or the architect and professor at the Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Val\u00e8ncia(UPV) Carmen Jord\u00e0<\/strong>\u2013 have claimed the architect and professor of the UPV Trini Sim\u00f3 <\/strong>for naming the <\/strong>solar de Jesu\u00eftes \u2013highlighting the trajectory of this pioneering urban activist in Val\u00e9ncia, integrated into various citizen, environmental and democratic movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From a personal perspective, some Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic<\/em>\u2019s members warn of the delay in the solar de Jesu\u00eftes’s recovery for citizenship. In the same vein, the botanical and adjacent neighborhoods’ Col\u00b7lectiuapplauds the signing of the agreement. Even so, it expresses concern, since in addition to approving the planning, \u201cit is essential to economically provide the maintenance of the future garden in order to avoid problems, such as the people\u2019s settlements in the Hesp\u00e8rides\u2019 environment. It is essential to recover this space for neighbors. This is a great opportunity\u201d, argues the association\u2019s president, Eugenio Pavetti<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The architect David Estal<\/strong>, advisor of the Alcald\u00eda del Ajuntament de Val\u00e8ncia in urban planning and commission representative, points out that the most remarkable part of the agreement is \u201cto recover the Col\u00b7legi dels Jesu\u00eftes’s garden memory, remembering the extramural agricultural part with its orchards. Let\u2019s travel to the past to make a present and future project\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The solar de Jesu\u00eftes represents about 6,000 square meters of challenge and \u201cfood will be the landscape protagonist, an agricultural area in the historic center, in a representative and monumental space, also dialoguing with the Petxina, the Hesp\u00e8rides, and the Col\u00b7legi dels Jesu\u00eftes church, right now in rehabilitation\u201d, says Estal, who also recalls: \u201cWe have not started from scratch, we have incorporated previous works such as the document Idees per a una oportunitat<\/em>, de Salvem el Bot\u00e0nic<\/em> (1999) or Hort urb\u00e0 Bot\u00e0nic-Jesu\u00eftes<\/em>, where Alfons \u00c0lvarez coordinated in a great way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Estal stresses that the Jard\u00ed de Jesu\u00eftes will be experimental, it will show a new urban ecology trend, where sciences, botany, food, and even climatic emergency will converge, from both the cultivation and theoretical point of view of research and reflection. Furthermore, it will have to be in harmony with the master plan developed by the Special Plan of the cultural interest assets’ surroundings of the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic de la Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia, the San Miguel and San Sebasti\u00e1n parish church, Porta de Quart, and its protections\u2019 catalog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this regard, the architect In\u00e9s Esteve<\/strong> \u2013who was part of the Special Plan writing team approved in 2019\u2013 explains how they regulate \u201cthe buildings and free spaces\u2019 conditions of an area through a singular urban structure, the result of its bordering situation with the historic city, where the plot of the Ciutat Vella and the old suburb of Quart is interwoven with the new order of the 19th-century widening, drawing the urban development around the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic at the dawn of the twentieth century\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the city walls were demolished in 1865, the urban extensions adopted frames based on regular grids. According to Esteve, the Bot\u00e0nic\u2019s expansion it\u2019s been quite difficult implantation. Despite having an important area of vacant floor provided by disentailed convents such as San Felipe and its orchards \u2013the Tramaiores\u2019 one, for example\u2013, the architect indicates that important preexistences remain \u201cas the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic himself, or historical paths in the case of Quart. Integrating these elements causes the new grid\u2019s orthogonality loss. Thus, they remain fossilized in the neighborhood structure until this day, enriching it with its history\u2019s witnesses\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In tune with In\u00e9s Esteve, the architect Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Tom\u00e1s Llavador<\/strong> explains that the very relevant architectural ensemble of the Companyia de Jes\u00fas is also recovering. \u201cThe school building, dedicated to social uses, has already been rehabilitated, while the neo-byzantine church\u2019s rehabilitation is underway, the entire whole will be very enriching\u201d she argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom\u00e1s Llavador \u2013the architect responsible for the Col\u00b7legi Mayor Llu\u00eds Vives\u2019 rehabilitation at the UV\u2013 values the signing of the agreement between the Universitat and the Ajuntament de Val\u00e8ncia \u201cthrough the recovery of a so much social burden area and neighborhood movement. And also because this space can be definitively opened to the city through a coordinated intervention with the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic, taking into account the current perspective, but without forgetting its basic role in the Valencian medical school\u201d. This area \u201chas a great value for Val\u00e8ncia: Bot\u00e0nic is a jewel to be extended, it should colonize spaces and provide wisdom to complete and unites the neighborhood in 21st century today\u2019s environment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\u00e9s Esteve recalls the Special Plan\u2019s objectives to enhance heritage, environmental, landscape, cultural, and natural values, taking into account their uniqueness. She also believes that the solar de Jesu\u00eftes future would have to generate a link, as Estal already pointed out, with the streets, free spaces, and garden plots surrounding it \u2013such as the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic himself, the Col\u00b7legi dels Jesu\u00eftes\u2019 garden or the farmhouse space of Beato Gaspar Bono street. Valuing an area where the predominance of gardens and free space constitutes an environmental and historical value. Furthermore, \u201cthe intervention would enhance the patrimonial value of Beato Gaspar Bono historic street, improving the visibility of the Col\u00b7legi dels Jesu\u00eftes church\u2019s facade, and providing the necessary urban quality to the free space articulated by Gran V\u00eda and Passeig de la Petxina\u201d, in the architect\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The agreement\u2019s signing between the Universitat and the Ajuntament de Val\u00e8ncia constitutes a valuable first stone in order to begin building and co-designing a space that, after almost three decades, will leave its status as a disputed object of economic, political, and civic struggle. And thus, it would become a green space open to enjoyment and dialogue with citizens, dedicated to the orchard\u2019s biodiversity, research, and outreach. In this way, a new stage begins, the one of the Jard\u00ed de Jesu\u00eftes. It\u2019s a new era to develop the desired shared landscape in the natural sciences block of Val\u00e8ncia Verde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The singular garden will be complementary to the collections already exhibited at both the Jard\u00ed Bot\u00e0nic de la Universitat de Val\u00e8ncia and the Jard\u00ed de les Hesp\u00e8rides. The main reason will be Valencian crops and urban agriculture<\/strong>, without this entailing a transfer of the municipal space to third parties.<\/p><\/li>A cultural, social and scientifically relevant space<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Recovering the city forests’ tradition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Links with the orchard, biodiversity, and food model<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Promoting green corridors and connectivity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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“Let\u2019s travel to the past to make a present and future project”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Five agreement\u2019s key points for the Jard\u00ed de Jesu\u00eftes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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