About this Event
Have you ever walked past a wooden pallet, pile of rubble, or old sash window lying on the street and wondered how it got there or where it’s going to end up?
Join us this May for a special scavenger hunt. We’ll meet at 32-34 Rodfords Mead, BS14 9UE, one of our small sites at 5pm. From there, we'll walk to the Factory, collecting treasures in the form of discarded materials as we go*. Once back at the Factory we’ll do some collective brainstorming, sorting and prototyping to see what we can make from what we have scavenged.
We’ll be exploring how to design and make:
- Gabion Walls as a way of re-using waste construction materials to create new habitats for insects and plants; and sharing how these gabion walls will be part of our Rodfords Mead site where we are creating community-led homes that are good for people and the planet.
- Green roofed bikes stores - using construction waste and planting them up with native wildflowers and drought-resistant succulents; and sharing how the bike stores are part of a Neighbourhood Retrofit Recipe designed with local residents.
No prior knowledge needed - just curiosity to look at our landscape in a new way. We’d love to see you there!
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Approximately 60 million tonnes of construction waste is generated every year in the UK. The Urban Mine is an idea WeCanMake have been exploring to rethink our existing built environment as an "urban mine" where we can harvest materials from end-of-life buildings and discarded "rubbish". How do we reuse the materials we find around us? How do we shift the narrative from waste to valuable resource?
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Join us to:
🌱 Discover useful materials hiding in plain sight
🦺 Hear about how we can reuse materials to build better, for people and planet
🍕 Enjoy a shared meal
🤝 Connect with WeCanMake and others in the community
As always, our meet ups are free and family-friendly. Please sign up at this link so we can prep enough food.
*You can also meet us directly at The Factory at 5.30pm if easier.
Challenge: see what you can scavenge on the way to the meet up - whether it's a broken brick, a wood offcut or an abandoned bicycle wheel. Please be careful when handling any materials, and watch out for sharp edges and rusty nails!
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About WeCanMake
We host community meetups every 3rd Thursday of the month! Come along and meet your neighbours, chat, and get hands on making together.
WeCanMake is a community land trust and neighbourhood system demonstrator working towards more regenerative futures. Our North Star mission is: “everyone has access to a genuinely affordable home created within safe planetary boundaries”.
WeCanMake works to create little pockets of the future in the present, tangibly demonstrating what alternative regenerative futures can look and feel like in our homes, streets, neighbourhoods. We do this in four ways:
· Creation of new homes through infill development of existing settlements. WeCanMake has delivered two low-carbon 100% affordable homes so far and has 34 more homes in its development pipeline. Homes and land are held in our community land trust, with affordability and long-term community benefit locked in.
· Retrofit of existing homes. Our people and place-led approach to retrofit includes biomaterial fabric improvements, spatial enhancement, and green infrastructure. WeCanMake currently has retrofit work underway with 6 homes on a demonstration street in Knowle West and have set up a Neighbourhood Trade Crew to undertake the work.
· Democratising and localising the means of production. WeCanMake focuses on using low-carbon and locally sourced bio- and re-use materials for construction. In our neighbourhood factory we train local people to use digital fabrication kit and natural build methods and materials to make components for the homes, creating future-facing local skills, jobs, and community wealth.
· Community stewardship and agency. WeCanMake takes a collaborative approach to housing whereby residents aren't treated as just consumers or service beneficiaries; but instead are invited to be active citizens in the management and maintenance of their homes, and, in the process, help build a stronger sense of collective agency, security, and belonging in our homes, streets, and neighbourhoods.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
WeCanMake - The Factory, Hengrove Way, Bristol, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
