Situated in the heart of the South Bronx, H.earth is a living framework for community resilience, mutual care, and cultural preservation. A large brick hearth anchors a community garden and reimagines what we should expect of urban design, addressing critical intersections of food sovereignty, climate migration, and collective well-being.

Led by Territorial Empathy and in partnership with local Oaxacan restaurant La Morada, H.earth is an architectural expression of the Bronx’s, and more specifically Mott Haven’s, socio-ecological interconnectedness.

The project reimagines the roughly 60-year old Bruckner Mott Haven Community Garden in the South Bronx as an accessible space for community and nourishment. Radiating from its focal point are gardens, greenhouses, hammocks, and spaces for communal cooking and education.

H.earth builds on the vision of La Morada and the Saavedra family, transforming the community garden they revived into a sanctuary for food production, learning, and rest, while addressing broader issues such as food insecurity and public health in the Bronx.

Zarith Pineda, the Colombian-American architectural and urban designer who founded Territorial Empathy in 2018, says, “Hopefully this little triangle in the South Bronx inspires another community or another person to do something that someone tells them can't be done. Maybe instead of giving up, they'll ask, 'Why can't we do it?'"

Territorial Empathy is the only Latina-founded and led design nonprofit in New York.

Through projects like H.earth, the collective leverages meaningful and participatory design to address urban issues that affect overlooked and marginalized communities and people.

In her essay, "A Garden on Its Way," landscape architect Melody Stein documents a conversation with Pineda on H.earth, inclusivity in architecture, and the real and metaphorical gardens we all cultivate.

"La Morada chef-owner Natalia Saavedra was telling me that a lot of kids come to the garden and they've never seen where a tomato comes from. The Bronx is a food desert, particularly this area. We have Hunts Point on the other side of the Bruckner, and it's essentially the food basket of the whole city, but people either can't afford it or don't have access to it. I started thinking about obesity, diabetes, all the different health issues our communities face.”

H.earth officially opened to the South Bronx community in October, 2024.