Architecture for Exchange Chris Trant Whilst money provides the opportunity for some fortunate people to open doors it is not a neutral and those without money as a form of exchange become exclude and opportunities closed off, becoming marginalised. Money is controlled and moved with access restricted by those who are wealthy with no restraints allowing it to move away from where the exchange was created and where it is needed. Knowle West is one of the most economically deprived areas of Bristol, however it is a rich community that has a wealth of skills and knowledge, all exchangeable assets. Looking to build upon existing traits and areas of Knowle West such as that dubbed ‘makers alley’, the project argues the promotion of the exchange and trade of skills, knowledge, craft. Introducing areas to work, create, learn, gather and connect and share as a collective into a forgotten site of Knowle West. The site is isolated, a civic island surrounded by but not connected to housing. Filwood Broadway is a civic centre that’s demise began as external retail parks started serving the communities retail needs leading to a civic centre no longer meeting that of the community. The Broadway requires rethinking, reshaping and redefining to provide a platform for the community allow the community to sell their skills, time and knowledge rather being sold to. The vision is to transform the Filwood Broadway into a centre of exchange for the community of Knowle West and to attract and bring in talent and skills from the wider city and surrounding areas.
Elliott Ballam
Knowle West Culinary Arts Centre | Cultivating a Community GROW | LEARN | MAKE | CONSUME | SELL
The face of the culinary arts world has changed. Chefs have become household names and cooking shows are taking television by storm - which has made becoming a chef, a career that was once considered undesirable, one of the fastest growing professions in the country. This facility will educate local people to grow fresh produce, teach people how to cook in community kitchens and also make own label food products to be sold into the local food chain. The building will distinguish itself in the field of culinary education by taking advantage of its suburban rural setting, to narrate a story about the process of making a meal from “field to fork”.
Roxanne Townsend
The project is based in the Eden Project’s greater estate on a site that currently is a woodland with a disused clay works on it. It is a wellness and clay research centre that is centred around achieving and teaching wellbeing and providing knowledge to the community about sustainable living.
Emily Chappelle This food and nutrition learning centre is intertwined with the existing stone buildings of Restineas Farm in the Eden Project wider estate. It is focused on the theory of inclusive and sensory design, creating an environment everyone can enjoy being emerged in. The landscape is terraced with growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and different species of plants.
Ellie Lasot
Knowle West is a large Post-War Housing estate designed with the intent to be a Garden City Suburb. This project aims to respond to the housing needs of Knowle West focussing on achieving the aspirations of the Garden City Suburb ideology, where the measure of its success is ultimately the happiness of the community living there. This proposal has developed the design of the infill-housing concept to be realised by a custom-build housing system and planning design code. The vision for this new model hopes to reach out to the entire community, allowing residents to be as involved in the construction process as they desire. This shall be accomplished with a factory where residents can be trained to build their own prefab houses within the factory. The proposal includes an associated ‘showroom’, where the local residents have the opportunity to discuss their ideas with design consultants and see a wealth of options and ideas for their new homes. The showroom shall be supported by a website, where residents can use online house configuration tools to begin exploring ideas for their new home prior to visiting.
Encounter Platform - Abhishek Alexander Chacko
LIVE_WORK_INNOVATE
Encounter Platform seeks to engage the community to embrace sustainable thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship. A platform for new ideas, start-ups and networking to act a catalyst for innovative sustainable solutions through collaboration. As a community led initiative the centre will facilitate co-learning, co-housing and connectedness among entrepreneurs in order to bridge social, environmental and economic boundaries across Knowle West.
As a measure to tackle the objectives set out in the Neighbourhood Plan this project envisions a space to encourage collaboration, co-working and sharing of ideas to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how employees interact but also how and where they work. There is an increasing potential for people to embark on new opportunities and ventures that could develop into start-ups. The drawback to this culture is accessing the required facilities and equipment to test ideas and nurture the business model. For a venture to pick up it needs to be tested and tailored to its specific need. Encounter Platform will provide an ecosystem for entrepreneurs to live work and innovate.
Knowle West Exhibition
Leading up to the Knowle West Exhibition Macro - Midi - Micro
Following our analysis of Knowle West and our meeting with the Knowle West Media Centre, collectively we developed the brief, it became clear that this project had three scales to it. Because of this, as a unit we have broken down into 3 the three scales: Macro - Midi - Micro, with the ambition to produce a set of ideas at each scale for an exhibition. The exhibition will aim to generate of set of concepts and ideas that the community can consider and possibly take forward in developing a community led plan for the future.
Macro
At the macro scale the focus is on the bigger picture. The group have been working on strategies to increase development in Knowle West using and increasing the value of resident’s assets. This consists of a two-fold process:
Land Strategy
Identifying potential areas of land for community build residential development in Knowle West across different site scales, including; medium, small and infill sites to increase housing and population to strengthen Knowle West’s economic outlook.
Economic Strategy
Developing an alternative Economic Model/strategies that will allow the community to take control of housing development in the Knowle West area via co-operative housing schemes. This will allow for increased affordability, provide much needed homes, and higher saving returns than traditional methods by residents investing within the cooperative.
Lazer cutting Knowle West & 3D printing the negative sites.
Midi
Currently, the midi team are working on a series of designs for a flexible modular system. This provides a frame structure to later be filled with a choice from a menu of different houses. This means that the larger sites that have been earmarked for development by the council can be unlocked and developed by the community in a way that is tailored to the needs of the people looking to construct / buy the houses. Any of the series of houses can be inserted into the frame structure meaning the community can decide upon the housing mix according to their personal needs. The houses have the potential for extension in the future, which will enable the development to accommodate changing family dynamics and the changing needs of the residents, meaning that they will not have to move away from the neighbourhood. In addition, there are a series of ‘pocket’ sites that have the potential to construct a smaller number of houses on them. We have been looking at layouts and house designs for these sites, to give an indication of the possibilities that these sites hold. We have also explored how infill sites (between existing terraces) can be utilised to form an entirely new house or to form extensions to the existing houses each side.
Micro:
At the micro level the focus is on the detail. This group have been working on a Bristol Made House. The idea behind the Bristol Made House is that all materials should be sourced locally, and that the house can be built by the local community.
1:1 Wall Study
For the first test piece the Micro group has gathered waste and reclaimed materials from around Bristol. The materials were then used to develop a wall panel that could be simply replicated. The panel explores what could be used instead of typical building materials. The approach is largely conceptual, but forms a platform for discussion and for what could be achieved, and also acts as a catalyst for the development of alternative approaches for a Bristol Built Home.
Wall Panel Maquette
Here the Micro group are exploring some design options for a modular wall system. Following the success of the - Eagle House Pop-Up Furniture Factory - a decision was made that that the modular wall panels could be constructed in a similar way. They Community have access to a CNC machine, the machine allows the community the opportunity to construct housing in a similar fashion to the Wiki House concept.