Retrofitting our Roads with John and Joe + Lavender Bag Making with Nettes

Join us at 5pm for food and refreshments
We'll meet at Midlands Sailing Club to eat together, before breaking off into groups for a choice of two classes exploring July's theme of materials in different ways.

1) Retrofitting our Roads with John and Joe
Learn about creating safer streets and get started reimagining street space with the help of tiny benches, as we kick off the Dream Bench Project. To start our class, John will lead us through a presentation focusing on the design of the streets in neighbourhood. We will explore the ways that private property impacts how we are able into interact with the spaces around us and look at the ways that changing our infrastructure can help produce safer, more friendly and healthier street spaces.

Once we have each built a tiny bench with the help of Joe from the CIVIC SQUARE team, we will head out on a walk in the neighbourhood. On the walk we will see examples of street design in action and ask the question, who should we have in mind when we design our streets? (See the map below for the route we will be taking).

As part of this walk will use our tiny benches to identify street spaces which are lacking a place to rest and linger. Taking a photo or making a note of these street spaces will feed into the Dream Bench Project at the B16 lunch in September, where we will co-build some real life benches and distribute them to these locations - making our own mark on the infrastructure of our streets.

2) Lavender Bag Making with Nettes

This class shows how an unwanted material can remind us of an old skill! When a Trade School member donated a large quantity of dried lavender that they no longer had a use for, Nettes remembered making lavender bags as a child, and offered to share the skill through a Trade School class.

From Midlands Sailing Club we'll head over to Birmingham Settlement Nature and Wellbeing Centre ('Red Shed'), where Nettes will guide us to cut, sew and decorate our own small lavender bags, which can be put into clothes drawers or placed under the pillow to aid sleep. All ages are welcome, including young children.

John is a local neighbour and a lecturer in US and International History at the University of Birmingham. While his work focuses on histories of imperialism and colonialism, John is also interested in the design of our streets and how power is embodied in the everyday infrastructure of our places. As such John has been campaigning with Better Streets For Birmingham for a number of years.

Joe from the CIVIC SQUARE team is a regular face at Trade School and has been building furniture from the front garden retrofit kit alongside neighbours for the last year. The kit is now in over 30 locations around the country and Joe is excited to explore the power of benches as street infrastructure through the Dream Bench Project.

Nettes is also CIVIC SQUARE team member, who lives in B16 and loves to build connections between people and what’s going on in the place they live. Nettes is inspired by people who are building communities, and by the things that people can do even when they don't think they can. Nettes learned how to make lavender bags when growing up in the Isle of Wight, where children would often make them as gifts for family members. Connect with Nettes on Instagram @NettesatHome

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn. We invite each class host to choose items that they would find useful and delightful to receive in return for their time and experience in sharing a skill, so we invite you to explore which of our host's barter items you would like to bring along with you, if you are able to do so.

John's Barter List:

• Identify a location for a bench in our neighbourhood and share it with us
• Check out Safe Street Rebel
• Watch this video to learn more about School Streets in Paris

Joe's Barter List:

• Bread
• Soap
• Notebooks

Nettes' Barter List:

• A lift to the tip
• Cat equipment or toys for a new kitten
• Ahead of the class, go to the Round the Reservoir fun day at Edgbaston Reservoir on Saturday 6 July

The Midland Sailing Club site is accessible from the footpath around Edgbaston Reservoir. You can walk or ride your bike, or reach the site via bus route 80, which stops on Icknield Port Road or 82, 87, 89, 11 which stop a short walk away on Dudley Road. We encourage arriving by foot or public transport where possible. If arriving by car, you can park inside the gates at the Icknield Port Road entrance.

Our Monthly Supper Club takes place in the main room upstairs. There is a lift up to the Midland Sailing Club, and please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements so we can assist you.

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn.

What if we could activate the potential in our homes, streets, libraries, playgrounds, schools and more as places to exchange learning together in a kind, joyful, noble and intergenerational way that is available to all of us?

We invite you to explore how exchanging skills and knowledge of many forms can make our neighbourhoods resilient to the challenges and opportunities we will face together, now and in the future. Discover what you’d love to share or learn more about, as we shape Neighbourhood Trade School together.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Midland Sailing Club, Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, United Kingdom