RADICAL RE-USE

In this project, I have explored how West Kentish Town, an area of social housing communities and green spaces that have been the centre of grassroots community action and architectural ideas since the 1950s, and the northern, industrial end of Camley street could be used to re-green this part of London, rather than vanishing unde high density urban redevelopment. My proposal, for an educational and growing centre, aims to make high quality rich individualised environments using very low cost and hand -made materials with a simple structural envelope. The artefacts generated in Semester 1 are developed as building components such as the recycled walls made from windows retrieved from the soon to be demolished West Kentish Town Estate, and floor and roof tiles using leaf prints ‘as found’ on site. A series of handmade and stitched cloth plans and drawings which would also act as an insulation and blinds within the basic glass and timber structure. The growing walls, using recycled coke cans and papercrete, will be a community ongoing project to create tiny rewilding areas within the project. There would be public programmes of workshops, events and education. Once plants and vegetables grow, they will be used in the café, and sold affordably to the community. The intention is to involve local to help them grow, learn and inspire between design and architecture.