Shoe-box Hackney

In August the building Exploratory has been working with photographers and artists Laura Braun and Jane Maxwell-Hyslop to deliver workshops at summer play-schemes in and around Hackney. 

During the workshops participants created their own Hackney shoe-boxes using photos of local buildings and landmarks and pictures of themselves to collage onto and into shoe-boxes transforming them into buildings with windows and doors to look into.

 

Exploring Adventure: Kilburn Grange Adventure Playground

To help realise the best possible design for Kilburn Grange Park Adventure Playground in Camden, the Building Exploratory has worked with erect architecture to devise an ambitious engagement and learning programme to involve the local community. 

Following the completion of this pioneering project in Kilburn Grange Park, work has begun on developing a learning resource for local play workers. Over the summer the design and engagement processes followed will be reproduced in a digital resource to be hosted on our website. The legacy will present the creative processes that informed the final design of this unique play space and aims to celebrate and promote the engagement of communities in the redevelopment of public spaces. The resource will consist of a series of creative adventures for play workers and teachers to use with young people and a “Manifesto for Adventure”.

Please see the photo stream on the right hand side for pictures of the new playground.

The Senior Building Explorers at Cubitt

With the support of Arts Council England’s Arts and Older People Development Fund, the Senior Bees have been taking part in a project designed to develop their creative skills. The project takes the form of a collaboration between the Building Exploratory and Cubitt, a gallery and studios based at the Angel in Islington. 

Inspired by Cubitt’s approach to encouraging older people to take part in participatory arts we have worked together to develop sessions that nurture the creative skills and confidence of the Senior Bees. The Senior Bees have visited Cubitt and taken part in a session which introduced them to the idea of using creative media such as photography, sketching, poetry and so on, as a way of expressing and capturing thoughts, feelings, perceptions and observations of the world around them.

The project has been designed as a skills exchange, so the next phase will see Cubitt’s older people’s art group, Inside Art, taking part in Senior Bee inspired explorations of the built environment. We plan to go on a walking tour around Finsbury to inspire them to open their eyes to the significant buildings and architecture of the area.

  

If you would like to learn more about the Building Exploratory's work with older people, keep and eye out for our new publication which will be launched in September to celebrate and promote our work with the Senior Bee's.

TBE at the summer festivals

This summer we have been out and about delivering free activities at our local festivals. On the 10th July, we enjoyed the best of the summer sunshine at the De Beuavoir Party in the Park, where we helped party goers make paper trees for a miniature De Beauvoir Square.

At the Shoreditch Festival on the 17th July we spilled out of the Discover Hackney Marquee to help children (and enthusiastic adults) build an impressive trapezium based structure from rolled newspaper.

At both festivals we were delighted to meet lots of enthusiastic families and adults and look forward to seeing them again at future events. If you would like to hear more about forthcoming events or be added to our events mailing list please drop us a line via our website.

Lord Mayors Show 2009

The Building Exploratory, Sebright Primary School, Heatherwick Studios and City Bridge Trust, braved gales and rain storms to take part in the Lord Mayor’s Show this year. Our float, a scale model of a 100 metre long opening bridge designed by one of the UK’s leading designers, Thomas Heatherwick, was part of the parade that travelled through the City of London.  Made from a laser-cut aluminium and timber, the float consisted of 40 moving segments which rolled and unrolled dozens of times during the procession, and which celebrated the 800th anniversary of the first stone crossing over the Thames.  Wearing themed T-shirts, we performed a routine echoing the movement of the bridge choreographed by contemporary dance company Candoco.  A great time was had by all despite the drizzle!

The Changing Face of Hackney

The Building Exploratory held its first ‘Pecha Kucha’ style evening on 26th November to the delight of all. The session was fully booked within hours, participants being attracted to the format and the impressive range of speakers. Seven local artists, designers and architects explored the theme “The Changing Face of Hackney” using 20 images, each of which were shown for 20 seconds. Speakers including Brownsierra, Aranzazu Fernandez Rangel, Andrew Merritt, Alison Barnes, Fugitive Images and Waugh Thistleton embraced the format with enthusiasm, adapting in their own way to the restrictions it creates. Following the presentations, a lively discussion focused on the rapid transformation of Dalston, the growing demand for housing and alternative proposals for derelict sites and public spaces. Small Fry Films were present to capture the event for a documentary on East London commissioned by Transport for London. Similar evenings in partnership with Architecture Centre Network will take place early in 2010 - “Artists Working in Regeneration” in February and “Temporary Use of Building Space” in March.

Arts Council England

The Building Exploratory is delighted to have received one of seven awards made by Arts Council England, London, for developing work with older people. In partnership with Cubitt Gallery and Studios, the Building Exploratory will undertake an action research project to facilitate a skills exchange to benefit our older audiences. The Building Exploratory's established group of over 55s, the Senior Bees (Building Exploratory Explorers), currently participate in an active programme focussing on the local built environment, its heritage, architecture and public spaces. The funding from Arts Council England will allow the Building Exploratory to develop the participation of the group more actively in arts activities, building upon their current interest in the arts as observers and audience members. The project will take place during 2010 across both venues and out in the the local built environment of Hackney and Islington.