"Comake" inspiration from the Festival Village

The Remakery's first 'picnic' at Myatt's Fields Park on Sunday (29th July) had to retreat to the local pub, the Prince of Wales on Denmark Road, due to rain (which of course stopped as soon as we'd settled down with our pints). But there was a great atmosphere, with a mix of long-term members from the Steering Group and new people looking to find out more and get involved. And we even got free cups of delicious spicy seafood soup from the pub (left-overs from a birthday party)!

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Picnickers gathered around the laptop for the Festival Village show-and-tell

The focus of the afternoon was a show-and-tell from architect Andrew Lock of Lyn Atelier, the man behind the South Bank Centre's Festival Village space which opened in May after a very full-on couple of months of what they called Comake: a design and build process involving hundreds of designers, artists and other volunteers.

The design process kicked off in January. Among the first steps were some participatory design days focusing on three questions: who will be using the space, why are they there, and what do they want to get out of it? A variety of “days in the lives” were generated, describing the experiences of different users in order to understand what the space needed to provide for them.

Packages of work were created focusing on different zones of the space, and each package started to develop with a mood-board of images on Pinterest.

The core team included two designers (one of whom, Andrew, was also responsible for everything from finances to social media and in his words, “nearly died” in the process!), plus one organiser and support from two Southbank Centre project managers. 

The length of the preparatory stages outweighed the build: Planning, Building Control, health and safety, method statements, risk assessments and so on were all essential precursors to getting their hands dirty on site.

But once the Comake process got underway, it was rapid-fire. Each Wednesday they held a design night focused on one zone of the space; on Thursday and Friday there was a rush to find or buy the materials needed for that zone, and on Saturday, they built it! (In practice, zones often took longer so they ended up overlapping; but having one package of work as the main focus each time helped to keep the process clear.) Up to 40 volunteers – mostly architects, designers and artists – came to each session, with hundreds contributing over the course of the project.

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Views of the Festival Village

Re-use, though not the main focus, was a feature of the build and contributed to the aesthetic of the space. But partly because of the fast pace of the project, “harvesting” of re-used materials only worked if it was on an industrial scale: 3 tonnes of bricks from Freecycle, or large quantities of high quality timber and board left over from exhibitions at the British Library and museums. Many times people contacted the team offering a few scraps of wood in a skip, but the time required to respond to such opportunities outweighed the value of the materials. Re-purposed items such as whisks made into lampshades, and wheelbarrows as chairs add to the “upcycled” look of the space, but for practical reasons they were bought new.

Andrew commented that “localising” tasks meant they got done more effectively: once a small team took the lead on a particular zone, they felt responsible to each other and became a self-managed unit. All they needed was basic health and safety training at the start, and they were away! However, volunteers learning unfamiliar skills were sometimes “painfully slow” and “didn’t have a builder’s head on”, so as the time pressure mounted professionals were increasingly brought in to instruct and supervise teams.

Tools “got a pounding” so Andrew’s advice was to invest in good quality ones – cheap imitations got destroyed!

The creation of the Festival Village provides an inspiring model for planning the Remakery’s own process of interior design, fit-out and furnishing. The main stages were:

1. Briefing – understanding the users of the space and the functions it will serve

2. Imagining – generating a rough picture of what each zone could look like

3. Looking for materials – gathering the elements needed to make it

4. Designing with more precision, and building, using the materials you’ve got (which are probably not exactly what you imagined!)

The construction underway over the next few months at the Remakery is preparing the basic “shell” of our building – demolishing walls, levelling the floor and insulating parts of the walls and ceiling, installing electrical and water supplies, heating and ventilation, glazing the front. (At the Festival Village, most of these things were either already in place or weren't needed because it's a temporary space.)

Once the Remakery's shell is complete (autumn for the front zone, early 2013 for the rest of the space) we will be co-designing and fitting out the interior following a similar process to the Festival Village. It’s exciting to see an example of how this co-creative process worked in practice.

There are also many specific features of the Village that we can learn from: flexible use of the space is key, as it will be at the Remakery, so the way they've employed mobile and fold-away furniture and floor markings to indicate different uses of the space has got us thinking about how we can apply design to make optimum use of our space at different times...

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Mobile screens and furniture in action at the Festival Village

Materials harvest underway!

We are very pleased to announce our first two donations of materials from local businesses for the development of the Remakery site.

Thanks so much to our first two donors:

  • Pearl Pharmacy, 310 Clapham Rd, London who donated plasterboard, metal frames, plinths and building timber.
  • Kingsbury Construction, Brixton Rd, London, who donated plasterboard, plinths, mineral wool and kooltherm insulation board.

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Materials wishlist

We have a long wishlist of materials that we need for the redevelopment and fit-out of our old garage site. Check it out if you think you have anything we might need.

The more materials we can 'harvest' and re-use the better: both in terms of keeping the costs of the build low and ensuring that in the building of the site we are saving as many materials as possible from landfill.

 

 

Remakery ready for redevelopment!

Over the last few days the Remakery site has been cleared of everything that was stored there by member groups while awaiting planning permission. Hundreds of bikes, tonnes of wood, furniture and bric-a-brac has been shifted!

The space is now almost ready for the next steps: demolishing some of the internal walls to create larger spaces, and giving it all a good jet-clean to remove the sooty grime left over from its days as a garage. After that the real construction work will start...

We're just awaiting the official go-ahead from the planning department (we've been told to expect good news but of course we need to have it in writing, and confirm what the conditions are before we can actually start building).

Watch this space for opportunities to get involved - volunteers and trainees will play a big role in the construction and fit-out.

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View of the interior with the last few items waiting to be moved

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Empty garage units ready for work to begin!

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Hannah in the room we'll be using as the site office

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Yesterday's site meeting with the construction team and architects on the grass outside

Remade Social - tasters of future Remakery workshops

Our Remade Social workshops took place on Saturdays throughout March at the Transition centre - offering tasters of some of the activities that will be on offer at the Remakery in future.

Comments from participants included:

“Great to learn by watching and doing.”

“Lovely to work in a traditional way and go away with something.”

“Working wood is pleasant, active and relaxing at the same time.”

“Free resources, great instruction and wonderful skill building.”

“Lovely people, lovely teacher, a sense of community, a non-judgmental relaxed atmosphere.”

Here are some pictures to whet your appetite...

DIY Solar Panel Making, Sat 3rd March
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Newspaper Basket Making, Sat 10th March
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Experimental Printworkshop, Sat 10th March
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Creative Cardboard Construction, Sat 17th March
with Linda Ecalle of Kafoutch

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Green Woodworking, Sat 24th March

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Kite Making, Sat 31st March
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The Remade Social was funded by the GLA and the Reuben Foundation as part of the Team London volunteering programme: www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon

Remakery Public Consultation Events and Exhibition

The Remakery and Architecture for Humanity London (our project architects, a built environment charity), submitted our planning application for the Remakery site, a 1000 sq m garage block in Paulet Road, back in January.

Following on from our community engagement events in spring last year, attended by 60 local residents, we are now holding two drop-in public events in advance of the official Planning consultation period.

These events are primarily aimed at local residents from the neighbourhood around Paulet Road, but everybody interested in the Remakery is welcome. Come and find out more about the project and the difference it will make to the area, meet the architects and Remakery steering group members, discuss your ideas and concerns, and discover ways to get involved.

The drop-in events will be held at Minet Library, 52 Knatchbull Road, SE5 9QY on:

 Saturday 3rd March 2012, 1-4pm

Monday 5th March 2012, 5-8pm

The exhibition, including the Remakery's full Planning Report, will remain on display in the library foyer from 3rd – 19th March.

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Above: Proposed South elevation (Lilford Road end), from the Remakery Planning Report

Flyer for Remakery Consultation events:

Click here to download:
Remakery_consultation_flyer_FINAL.pdf (3.37 MB)
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Remakery Planning Report available to download

Our Planning Report and Appendix, prepared by Architecture for Humanity on behalf of the Remakery and submitted to Lambeth's planning department on 12 January 2012, are available to download here.

Click here to download:
AfH_4018_PLANNING_REPORT.pdf (4.41 MB)
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Click here to download:
AfH_4018_PLANNING_REPORT_appendix.pdf (4.48 MB)
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The Remakery gets out and about

In the last few weeks I've been spreading the word about the Remakery in a variety of settings, both close to home and around London. Here are a few pictures and links from my adventures (starting with the most recent...)

 

London Transition Groups Gathering, 1 December at City Hall:

Where I told this large circle (the photo shows less than a quarter) of people representing no less than 24 different Transition initiatives from all over London, about the Remakery. (Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition Network, was there too talking about his new book the Transition Companion).

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I also re-met Jenny from Tooting (who came to a Design Day at the Remakery site back in the spring), who just happened to have with her this very impressive giant chilli remade from crisp packets:

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Remakery stall at the Brixton Experience, 26 November:

Publicising the Remakery membership scheme, exhibiting Linda Ecalle's wonderful cardboard furniture, Velo-Re's bike tyre belts and other remarkable remakes, and showing passers-by on Brixton Station Road how to make tetrapak wallets...

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Transition Hackney gathering, 15 November at Passing Clouds in Dalston:

Where after a lovely shared meal, myself and Chris Hardy of UpCycle both gave talks about our projects and their different approaches to creative upcycling (see my presentation here: Remaking it Together) with about 30 people in attendance, followed by a sewing session where people shared skills on fixing holes in jeans and jumpers.

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Changemakers' Fayre, 27-28 October at Hub Westminster:

An extravaganza of "civic entrepreneurship, impact venturing and change making", where I offered a workshop about Urban Permaculture (having recently done my Permaculture Design Course), and a presentation about the Remakery – attracting a fascinating cluster of folks including an Egyptian designer who'd previously developed a textile upcycling project in Cairo, and a fellow Transitioner (Paul Mackay from Transition Belsize) whose work with online databases suggests some exciting potentials for skill-sharing and stuff-sharing (see his amazing Skills Base and Sharing Base...)

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Not just a business model... a value system

A few weeks ago I attended the University Project event at Hub Westminster – led by curiosity about how the Remakery might fit into the "giant wave of 'new learning' spaces... co-working spaces, accelerators and incubators" described by John Geraci (referenced in Dougald Hine's TEDx talk about the University Project). Geraci predicts that such spaces will radically disrupt the world of higher education, and while the Remakery is primarily a workspace it is also going to be an educational one in many ways – through formal training courses, self-directed learning by members, and partnerships with academic institutions – so it was good to get different perspectives on what that might look like.

I also made some great contacts at the event – one being John Parman, a professional fundraiser setting up a project called Activation Institution, who has subsequently volunteered to run a 7-week fundraising training course for the Remakery's emerging Development & Funding Team.

It was also a great pleasure to meet Habib Lesevic and Benedikt Foit of vicventures, a pair of "pirate venturers" (their words) whose approach to "avant-garde venture philosophy" caught my attention when Habib told the story of a jazz bar in a less than swinging area of Berlin, whose business suddenly took off when they stopped charging an Eintritt (entry fee) and substituted an optional Austritt (exit fee). The local population, with little knowledge of or interest in jazz, were enticed inside by the free entry – but having heard the quality of the music, most were happy to pay the Austritt, and sometimes even a bit extra.

I chatted with Habib about the Remakery and he liked the project enough to want to come down to Brixton and check it out! He and Ben kindly offered a couple of hours of their time to help me think through what they call the Remakery's "value system", which means a kind of expanded version of a business model. While a business model typically focuses on financial transactions only – modelling income and expenditure in monetary terms – a value system is a map of all the different types of value that an enterprise creates, with the inputs and outputs including money but also (for example) workspace, materials, other people's work, support, experience, access to networks, opportunities... Basically, whatever forms of value the participants recognise as valuable, which motivates them to participate in the system.

This idea is interesting to me, partly because for most of us participating in the creation of the Remakery, the primary motivation is not financial. Two of us were paid as part-time project managers earlier this year (and thankfully, I've recently secured a second round of project management funding which will see me through until the Remakery opens); but I've also done several months on a voluntary basis, and the Steering Group all attend meetings, design sessions and occasional volunteer days (when we cleaned out the garages, for example) with no payment. While this is partly because they see the Remakery as an opportunity that will help them to establish or grow their businesses (reaping longer-term financial benefits), most are not purely profit-driven companies but social enterprises – focused on reducing waste and cultivating skills and opportunities in the local community.

While it is clear that in order to sustain themselves as businesses, they need to make enough money to cover their costs and have some in reserve, there are also many other types of value that they stand to gain by being involved in the Remakery – the value of participating in a community, accessing networks of expertise, innovating through collaboration, gaining a track record, being appreciated by others, making a difference. To design our "system" wisely, it seems to me that in the same way as we are designing our business model to be financially sustainable, it makes sense to account for these other types of value and make sure we can keep sustaining them over the long term too.

With that in mind, I diligently carried out the homework set by Habib and Ben – to map the "value system" of the Remakery with all the "sub-systems" it's made up of, and for each sub-system to answer 3 questions:

  • Who is participating?
  • What value is being created for them?
  • How can we make sure that the value created is appreciated? (traditionally speaking, this would mean some form of financial payment – but in a value system, appreciation can take a much wider variety of forms)

In the interests of being transparent and inviting the possibility of some open-source contributions, I've decided to upload this document here. It's in tabular form with brief bullet points, and was written mainly for my own use, so please excuse if some of the notes are too brief to be understandable! Most should be quite clear. If you have experience or interest in either traditional business planning or this broader framework of "value", and are interested in getting involved with designing the Remakery's value system, please do have a read and get in touch.

Click here to download:
Remakery_Value_System_–_Overview_for_Web.pdf (178 KB)
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This exercise has already helped to shape the emerging team structure of the Remakery – if you'd like to know more check out the page Co-Creators Wanted.

Video: Remakery branding day with Good For Nothing

A great little video (under 2 mins) documenting our Brand Day on the 15th September. With many thanks to film maker (and Remakery steering group member) Mark Ovenden, and to all involved with the creative process on the day from Good For Nothing, Innocent and our own steering group.

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We've been branded! BRC becomes the Remakery...

On 15th September, Piano House in Brixton was the setting for an unusual creative event that's never been tried in quite the same way before! 

Brixton Reuse Centre was lucky enough to bag a day of time from the team of a dozen graphic designers and other creatives who are responsible for the witty, playful style of Innocent DrinksThis was organised thanks to an innovative project called Good for Nothing, who make connections between creative professionals looking to do some "good for nothing" (i.e. free!), and organisations who can benefit from their skills.

I'd heard about the great atmosphere and results generated by Good for Nothing's previous turbo-charged creative blitzes and thought BRC's branding could do with a bit of that, so contacted them to ask if they could help us.

We were delighted to hear they had got the Innocent team on board! This was slightly different from Good for Nothing's usual format, where they bring together a large group of creatives from lots of different companies for a 48-hour challenge. We had only 8 hours – but with a team who already know each other and work together daily, perhaps making the process a bit smoother.

We owe a big thanks to all involved  – it was fantastic to watch so many creative ideas emerging in such a short space of time.

The Name Issue!

Being given this opportunity prompted us to reconsider BRC's name. We realised that, with only one day to develop the visual brand, the designers needed to be given the right name to work with! So a couple of days beforehand, the BRC steering group met for a lively debate about re-naming ourselves.

The name Brixton Reuse Centre has been a good "working title" – attracting people to the project who are interested in reuse and see themselves as local to Brixton. But there were some important arguments for choosing a different name:
  • What if we want to replicate the BRC model in other places? This won't work if Brixton is a key part of the name! We want a name that can be used with different locations.
  • The name "Reuse Centre" is used for lots of other reuse projects that aren't like BRC. What is unique about us is the co-operative structure and co-working space – several reuse organisations and projects under one roof. There's also an emphasis on repairing and remaking things, not just reusing them as they are. We want a name that reflects those things.
  • Are we really in Brixton anyway? Some residents see the site as closer to Camberwell. Maybe Brixton should be less emphasised in the name.
We came up with a "long list" (yep, a really long list – which will remain secret!) of name options, but in the end we managed to narrow it down to two: Remakery, or Remade in Brixton.

Remade in Brixton has been used for 3 years as the name of Transition Town Brixton’s working group on waste prevention, www.remadeinbrixton.org. But BRC has now become Remade in Brixton’s main project, so it could make sense to merge the two "brands".

Then again, the point was made that Remade in Brixton might work well as a "label" on products... On the other hand if you are talking about the working space, Remakery fits better. Bakers work in a bakery, remakers work in a Remakery!

So, Remakery stuck and the designers focused on developing a visual identity around that name.

The Creative Process
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Above: Checking out other logos, colour books, and the architects' research... Debating and sketching... Presenting Round 1! 

The first part of the day was quite competitive – with 3 teams working rapidly to generate a variety of early options. Everyone voted with ticks for their favourite concepts, resulting in 3 winners and the teams re-arranged to take those ideas forward.

So by the time the BRC (or Remakery!) Steering Group arrived at lunchtime, 3 different design directions had been developed for us to vote on:
  • Stencil Shapes – a pick'n'mix of shapes that can be formed into letters and pictures, sort of like "remade" objects being put together into something new.
  • Chaos to Order – a squiggle or scribble, drawn out into a decisive straight line!
  • Lots of Dots – dots clustering together to form letters or shapes, evoking both the materials and the community gathering together at the Remakery.  

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Above: sketches and the different teams presenting their ideas to us; a well earned pizza break!

We voted again and elected the Dots!

Several further variations on the theme were generated, and the group split again into Logo, Web, and Interior teams who all presented their outputs at the end of the day.
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Above: dots in development; the last minute rush; illustrator Pam Williams sketches the designers at work.
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Above: final presentations of the logo, interior colours, and web layouts.

I was very happy with the logo, which expresses what the Remakery is about in a simple, spot-on way. Dots gravitate in at one end, like the materials being drawn into the Remakery... then they radiate out at the other end, like the transformed final products going out into the world! It also feels a bit like a community coming together to make something bigger than the sum of its parts.

There might be a few tweaks to the logo as it stands... possibly making the ends more rounded rather than bracket-shaped... Watch this space and we'll unveil the final version soon!

The proposed use of dots and colours in the interior space was very effective and versatile and will integrate well with the architects' designs. The web layout work was also great – some really clear thinking about what is needed for the website to showcase the Remakery and its member companies effectively.

Much appreciation to the Innocent team for their hard work and sensitive approach to interpreting the brand. It was a great opportunity for us to have such a big team of professionals giving us a full day of their attention and we are really chuffed with the results.