In colaboration with artist Jeanne van Heeswijk we are working with young people in Anfield, Liverpool to look at the issues facing the development of their neighbourhood and explore how they can take matters into their own hands.
Over a two year period the group will develop a neighbourhood design process, a Build Camp and, ultimately, a sustainable, affordable retrofit of a community facility and local housing.
From the outset the young people will be encouraged to think about their future and their neighbourhood in tandem, while learning that if they work together as a community they can improve their surroundings and, with it, their life chances.
Taking its name from the vernacular description of the small terraced house that characterises the North of England, the project offers an imaginative, experimental
approach to dealing with empty properties and spaces in Liverpool and beyond.
For more info visit 2up2downliverpool.tumblr.com/
The design has really come along in the last month. We started making a large scale 1:20 physical model using cardboard we found in the rooms upstairs in the bakery. This has allowed the young people to develop their designs and help everyone involved visualise the design in 3D. The teams have also been using computer modelling to quickly make images of the rooms for each of the clients for the flats.
2up2down Design Work in Progress.pdf, 2up2down Working Drawing.pdf, 2up2down Eco-Retrofit.pdfWith the designs moving forward fairly fast, we have created a few overview boards for people involved in the project to comment on. This was done through the workshop with the ABCC young people and at an Expert event where Debbie Clark, NW food adviser for Sustain and member of Unicorn Grocery Cooperative in Manchester came to speak about her experience working in a coop and also pointed out some great campaigns appropriate to the project. On 31st October Marianne talking to the young people about how their designs are translated into computer drawings. The young people made comments on the drawings about how they saw the design progressing and to show what we had drawn wrong. Then it was time for some apple-dunking and ghost stories - it was Halloween after all!
On the 9th November there was an expert event about how to manage the Bakery business. Debbie presented how the Unicorn Grocery is run as a cooperative, and gave us some tips on some campaigns on making real bread. Other experts attended the session such as a bakery teacher from Liverpool Community College and a baker who used to work in the area.
Walking round the full scale model houses Part 1 from 2Up 2Down on Vimeo.
This week the young people made full scale models of terraced houses of their own designs. Building plans at full scale in cardboard helped the young people to refine their designs, since we could make changes easily as we went along (unlike when building in bricks and mortar!). It also helped to gain a greater understanding of scale, and how someone actually inhabits the spaces they had been designing. Whilst some imagination was needed to see beyond the cardboard, it was possible to set up a study room complete with desk and chair, a computer and family photographs or set a kitchen table ready for dinner.
Walking around model houses part 2 from 2Up 2Down on Vimeo.
It was just after this session that it was confirmed that the Bakery on Oakfield Road would be the site for the project - with specific plans to be developed by Christmas!
Today was the official opening of the Bakery, this will now be a hub for the project with weekly workshops happening with the young people from ABCC youth group.
Please go along to 199 Oakfield Street, L4 0UF (opposite Liverpool FC) on the following days over the next few weeks:
Monday: Bakery 12-4pm | Workshop 4-6pm
Tuesday: Bakery 12-4pm
Wednesday: Bakery 12-4pm | Workshop 4-6pm
Come along, meet the team and find out more about our plans for the bakery and 2Up 2Down in 2012.
This video shows the first expert meeting which gives a comprehensive introduction to the project.
Above: The Mitchells Bakery with comments from participants on the windows, making the project visible in the area.
Above: Artist Jeanne van Heeswijk
See Mark McNulty's short article about the opening
Over the past few weeks the young people have been making plasticine models of their designs.
Untitled from jessica Doyle on Vimeo.
In order to integrate the stages of work, as set out by RIBA with the consultation activities this project is founded on, we have come up with a corresponding workshop timetable.
The groups of young people met with the the two clients to understand their needs. Bob's home is the last house left on a row of tinned up houses which dominate Anfield, Kealey is a youth worker at the BCC youth centre and currently lives in a flat on Anfield Road. The young people came up with questions and interviewed Bob and Kealey about what kind of home they would like.
The young people discussed different images with Kealey to find which she preferred.
A design for Kealy's perfect house.
Bob met with Studentd from St Francis of Assisi
The students cam up with a series of questions to interview Bob with.
Below is short film made by Tim Brundsen specifically for 2up2down on the topic of what the client Kealey finds important to make a home
Untitled from jessica Doyle on Vimeo.
Below is short film made by Tim Brundsen specifically for 2up2down on the topic of what the client Bob finds important to make a home
Untitled from jessica Doyle on Vimeo.
The workshop at Saint Francis of Assisi today focussed on what the students would like to see happening as part of the project.
