This experience aims to recover a space of historical irrigated gardens located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. From understanding the traditional water management as cultural heritage, the project has a double goal: on the one hand, to promote sustainable urban design and, on the other hand, to boost a new community consciousness connected to the territory. Through several phases, the project solves a double environmental conflict linked to the irrigation system: on one side, the lack of enough water availability and, on the other side, the health risk due to the spill of urban polluted waters in the main irrigation canal of this space. Consequently, the main proposal is based on the gathering of thermal clean water surplus of spas and public washing places -that are not reused in the gardens presently- to provide enough quality water for the irrigation. By means of an action-research process it’s possible to recover the active ability of urban citizens as producer agents, as well as the quotidian practices related to water selfmanagement as the imaginary of place identity, that is to say, the intangible heritage of the water management as a reference model towards the sustainability.