Durning Library Options Appraisal online - and exhibition on 'til 5 January

Durning Library Options Appraisal - help shape the future of your local library in Kennington.
Take a look and give your feedback here!
link: http://lambeth.gov.uk/consultations/durning-library-options-appraisal

Or visit the exhibition in the Library (opening times below)

Tuesday 23 December - 10am to 6pm
Wednesday 24 December - 10am to 1pm
Thursday 25 December - Closed/bank holiday
Friday 26 December - Closed/bank holiday
Saturday 27 December - 9am to 5pm
Sunday 28 December Closed
Monday 29 December - 1 to 8pm
Tuesday 30 December - 10am to 6pm
Wednesday 31 December - 10am to 5pm
Thursday 1 January 2015 Closed/bank holiday
Friday 2 January - 10am to 6pm

Thanks to all those who have taken part in the survey so far, and Season's Greetings from the team

2014 oh what a year!

A quick recap of our activities over 2014, and a thank you to all those who helped to make these projects happen.

We continue to enjoy unveiling aspects of London's hidden histories, exploring new or unknown architectural sites and opening people's eyes to the Built Environment and how they can have an impact upon how it is shaped in the future.

Revitalise Peckham Rye
- engaging local groups and consulting on plans for Peckham Rye Park & Common

My Haggerston
- a series of resources helping you to understand Haggerston and what happened to its built environment during WWII

Places of Worship
- a visit to Suleymaniye Mosque in East London and Sandys Row Synagogue with Year 8 from the Bridge Academy

Senior BEEs and Islington Heritage and Architecture Group Spring, Summer, Autumn terms

Wandle Treasure Hunt - visits to local archives with volunteers across Sutton, Merton, Croydon and Wandsworth

This is our East 20 - creating view finders with Mobile Studio, students from University of East London and Year 8 at Chobham Academy, the newest and only school on the Olympic Park site

Durning Library Options Appraisal - forging links with local institutions and individuals and assessing the needs and wants of user groups for this beautiful victorian Library. Working with Linda Florence to create a vinyl stained glass effect artwork for the windows - visit now!

Our thanks to our many collaborators and friends, volunteers and clients.

Durning Library Fun Day, Saturday 6th December 11am - 4pm

Join us on Saturday 6th December for a Fun Day at Durning Library, from 11am 'til 4pm

Come along and have your say about different design options for the Library.

See new artwork by Linda Florence, meet local artist Robin Whitmore and share your stories and facts about Kennington with him, view an exhibition by students from Year 4 of Archbishop Sumner Primary School.

Visit the upstairs flat!
Book now by calling the Library on 020 7926 8682
(viewings at 12pm and 2.30pm)

Free to all, tea and cakes a-plenty.

For more information please contact Marion Cable: MCable@lambeth.gov.uk

Why can’t we have all our lessons out here in the park

“Why can’t we have all our lessons out here in the park?”

This is what Year 8 at collectively shouted as we headed back to school after our latest East 20 workshop. A year ago, these young people were pioneering students, the first year group to enter Chobham Academy, the first school to open in the Olympic Park.   

If the aim of the project is to excite the students about the opportunities in their school’s ‘back yard’, then I think we might have already achieved it.
 

Our challenge is to support the students in a search to find ‘places’ that are meaningful to them in this huge 560 acre newly formed site.  Four teams: #FishNet, The Great Banter, Anonymous and Banterlona, went where curiosity led them, heading for high points and searching out secret spots.

These are just a few of the lesser-known facts and places they uncovered on the Olympic Park:
  

• The landscaped slopes are perfect for rolling down 

• Tumbling bay playground appeals to people of all ages; there is no upper age limit

• The rustling leaves of the surrounding trees in fact make Portland Lake the noisiest place in the park

• You can literally lose yourself in a corner of Victory park… you’ll have to go to find out how.

Start points had previously been provided by a panel of speakers intimately involved in the design and maintenance of the park and its surrounding neighbourhoods. This inspiring panel included Kathyrn Firth, Chief of Design at the LLDC, Caroline Jupp, artist in residence currently based in a moving shed, and Nick Edwards of Fundamental. Even an imaginary alien who has just taken up residence in the park also made an appearance!

The places the students came across will become sites for large-scale viewfinders to be built in the next session. Quite literally watch this space…

Calling all volunteers! Wandle Treasure Hunt - join our local heritage project

Join us to discover how you can help us in our search for the River Wandle’s lost treasure !

Volunteers for our Wandle Treasure Hunt are invited to attend one or all of the following events
- please RSVP

11am Wednesday 26 November
Wandsworth Heritage Centre, 265 Lavender Hill SW11 1JB
 
11am Wednesday 3 December
Merton Local Studies Centre, Morden Library, SM4 5DX
 
2-4pm Wednesday 10 December 
Croydon Archives, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, CR9 1ET

2-4pm Wednesday 17 December Sutton Local Studies & Archives Centre
Central Library, St Nicholas Way Sutton, Surrey SM1 1EA

If you’d like to attend one of these events please get in touch: 
mail@buildingexploratory.org.uk
Tel: 020 7608 0775

This is East 20!

Two years on from the Olympics, the Queen Elizabeth Park is being handed back to its local community, and, excitingly, to fifty local teenage cartographers.

The twelve year olds are all Year 8 students at Chobham Academy, the new school within the Athletes Village – now East 20 Village.

 

Together with The Building Exploratory, LivingMaps and LLDC, they are creating a map to share what the Olympic Park has to offer other young people, and their hopes for its future.

In this first workshop of six for this term, Phil Cohen of Living Maps broadened everyone’s horizons to the incredible scope of mapping. In return the teenagers opened our eyes to a young person’s perspective of living in this corner of London: They drew fifty maps of the local area drawn from memory. No easy feat, but what they produced is fascinatingly insightful.

A taster of the memory maps: Friends, food and fashion feature highly!

Taking in a high rise panorama of the Olympic Park from the roof of the school.

We-hey come to Apple Day this Sunday 5th October!

We will be popping up at Roots and Shoots' Apple Day this Sunday, 5th October, to ask you your views on Durning Library, its services and how it can link with local people's needs and aspirations. Come down and join in the fun, £1 for adults and free for children!

Event details:

Sunday 5th October
11am - 4pm
Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, Lambeth SE11 6DN

Art Workshop with Into University

Today we are visiting Into University, Lambeth to work with a group of their students. The work we do will inform an artwork that Linda Florence is going to produce, to act as a 'marker' for Durning Library in Kennington.

We look forward to working with the students, and seeing what beautiful commemorative tiles they create as part of the workshop today!

Our thanks to Into University for partnering with us on this project.

To find out more about our work on Durning Library, visit this earlier blog post.

Wandle treasures and walks

The Building Exploratory will be popping up at two events connected to the River Wandle this weekend, as part of our work with the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership.


SATURDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER

Come along to share your Wandle Treasures with us at Merton Abbey Mills, this Saturday 27th September from 12pm - 5pm!

We will be joined by the rest of the team, with activities for the family, and a free prize raffle. During the evening the community film, Vandalis, will have its first showing. 


SUNDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

Join us for a guided walk and discover over 2000 years of the rich and varied history of the Lower Wandle at Wandsworth. The Building Exploratory is leading a search for the lost treasures of the River Wandle as part of its Living Wandle 'Industrial Heritage Recording' project.

Walkers and project volunteers are all invited.

Timings: Meet 2 pm at Wandsworth Town Station
Contact: Dr Nicole Crockett - 07500 073 049


To book your place on the walk, please email: LivingWandle@wandsworth.gov.uk

To find out more about the Industrial Heritage Recording project please click here.

Durning Library

Since June 2014 we have been working with LB Lambeth and Dow Jones Architects to support an Options Appraisal of Durning Library in Kennington. 

Our job has been to map out local stakeholders and to engage with local estate residents, organisations and library users to establish a wish list of services and activities that could take place within the Library.

We have appointed artist Linda Florence to create a temporary artwork that draws attention to the building and begins a discussion about its future, working closely with the local community. 

We have held our first event, attending Ethelred Estate’s Fun Day on Saturday 6^th September. We met local residents and talked about their needs and how the Library could meet them: thanks to all who have taken part. 

There will be more events to follow, so watch this space!

Any thoughts?

To share your views, please email us at mail@buildingexploratory.org.uk with the Subject title: Durning.

The Building Exploratory seeks Freelance Associates

The Building Exploratory is a highly regarded learning and engagement organisation with a focus on the built environment. We believe that creatively engaging local people with architecture, heritage and planning is essential to successful neighbourhoods.

Our community engagement projects ensure that local stakeholders can celebrate their local area and inform local regeneration. We are beginning a number of new projects with communities across south and east London and we are looking for experienced freelance associates to help us. The following combination of skills and experience is required:

• Project management and administration
• Communication written and spoken
• Engagement and negotiating skills

• Experience of delivering projects in secondary schools
• Experience of recruiting and working with hard to reach groups
• Experience of overseeing digital media projects
• Experience of overseeing creative project outputs
• Experience creating and working with maps

• Knowledge of secondary school curriculum in Humanities and Arts
• A good understanding of the use and value of maps and mapping
• A good understanding of London’s heritage and built environment

If you have the necessary skills and would like to be considered for one of our roles, please send us your CV and a letter, no longer than one page of A4 please, outlining your suitability to “the Administrator” by 15 August 2014: mail@buildingexploratory.org.uk

Terms 
Hours are flexible, one to two days per week, with some weekend work required. Day rates are dependent on experience and levels of responsibility.

Peckham Rye Park & Common - proposals to be discussed at adventure playground fun day this Friday

We are working with Southwark Council to consult with local people in Peckham about the proposed changes to Peckham Rye Park & Common. 

The proposals are to:

• Build a new One O'Clock Club (now known as a play room) next to the adventure playground
• Build brand new changing rooms near to the football pitches
• Remove the existing playroom building and changing room containers to make way for a fantastic new open access play area for local children 
  

Fun Day Friday!
Come down to the Adventure Playground FUN DAY this Friday between 12pm and 4pm to discuss the plans with the project team and to share your views.

Make a tile, take a tile!
Local artist Sally Crowley will be making clay tiles with children, using natural objects found in the park.

More details and a press release from Southwark Council follow below.
Email us to let us have your views.

Building a new Peckham Rye Playroom

The Building Exploratory has been appointed by Southwark Council to speak to local people about creating a new, fit for purpose building for Peckham Rye Playroom.

 Peckham Rye Playroom last Summer when the weather was much better than it is now!

The hut in which the Playroom is based was originally one of a group of huts built during WW2. They were originally built as barracks for anti-aircraft gunners based in Southwark Park and later were used to house Italian POW's. You can find out more about the history of the park here

The Playroom is housed in the last of these huts but is sadly becoming unfit for purpose, so the intention of Southwark Council is to build a new purpose built home for the Playroom.

This week we have been speaking to lots of parents, carers and staff about what they like about the current facilities and what their priorities would be when building the new Playroom.

If you attend sessions at the Peckham Rye Playroom, we would like to hear from you about how you use the facility and about any ideas you have that could improve the new Playroom.

Keep an eye out for upcoming events where we will be speaking to more park users and local people about the new plans. We will also be providing opportunities to find out a bit more about the history of the park and get involved in some creative activities.

To let us know your thoughts or to find out more please email us

Heritage Counts: Discover Haggerston

We are delighted that our Discover Haggerston project has been included by English Heritage in their  'Heritage Counts: London' report for 2013.

You can access the report here - Heritage Counts: London

 

Our 'Discover Haggerston' page, complete with interactive map of Haggerston's listed buildings, is now up and running and can be found on our website at www.buildingexploratory.org.uk/listedhaggerston

Listed Haggerston is part of the My Haggerston project run in partnership with Discover Hackney.

Haggerston on Film

Discovering Dalston for the Barbican

On Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th June the Building Exploratory encouraged visitors to the Barbican's Dalston House, to discover the secrets of their local environment in 2 family friendly workshops.

We looked at how terraced houses like Dalston House developed, and discovered the changes in the area using historic maps.

Visitors added houses and street maps to giant drawings, and had a go at creating their own mirrored houses and backwards messages. 

These workshops were commissioned by the Barbican for the opening weekend of Dalston House by Leandro Erlich.

Dalston House is free to visit, in Ashwin Street, E8 3DL until the 4th August. Please click here for more information.

Lambeth Treasures Exhibition - Southbank Centre Festival of Neighbourhood

Lambeth Treasures is an exhibition dedicated to Lambeth, created by the Building Exploratory in collaboration with the Southbank Centre.

Through a combination of archive material, commissioned artworks, objects, films and installations, Lambeth Treasures is a multi-sensory exhibition that celebrates the Southbank Centre's local neighbourhood and what it means to live, work and love Lambeth. 

The exhibition is open now, in the Spirit Level of Royal Festival Hall, and will run till September.  

Mint Street Celebration Day

Thank you to everyone who came to see us on Saturday at the Celebration of Mint Street Adventure Playground. The day was a great success and it was wonderful to see everyone taking part in the fantastic activities and making time to add comments and thoughts to the building consultation.

  

Learning some tips on balance and movement from the Parkour experts  

 

The guys from Parkour Generations had this to say about their experience working at Mint Street on Saturday:

"Mint Street is a great place for local young people to get into sports and physical activities, and we are always happy to support excellent charitable community organisations like this one. Children should always be encouraged to move, explore, play and learn about their potential, and spaces like Mint Street enable this for so many young people living in urban environments.

Thanks to everyone who helped make today such great fun, and we look forward to seeing everyone continuing to work on their movement ;)"

 

 Your comments on what we have heard from building users so far

 

Creating models with artist Karen Logan

Celebration Day and Consultation at Mint Sreet Adventure Playground - 11th May

Panorama High Street East

Have you visited the Panorama yet?

Panorama High Street East is now live! Explore the road from Whitechapel to Bow.