Tell me about yourself... or Sharrow...

Housewarming

The Distinctive Sharrow Housewarming on Wednesday 23rd September was a really fun evening where we chatted, found out about each other, collected people's ideas and let people know about the projects which we have been involved in...

Our displays told people about:
1. Distinctive Sharrow / The Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit
2. The Action Group
3. Our future plans
4. The four key projects: i. flags, ii. signs (the word on the street), iii. Lloyds corner, iv. empty shops

During the evening we asked people to add to:
1. The display about people of Sharrow (by telling us something about themselves or their relationship with Sharrow and chalk in on a board and have their portrait taken)
2. A map of Sharrow painted on the wall (telling us a project idea, something we should know about Sharrow, or something that inspires them about Sharrow)
3. A display of exciting ideas, ways to act, art, architecture, landscape or design projects they love. (either by making a card or chalking on the wall)

The photos below give a glimpse of some of the input/ ideas that came back. A comprehensive collation of this will be posted on the blog and this will go on to inspire our agenda for the next few months.

We have also had an expression of interest from a few new members and hope they are still keen to be involved- a meeting will be confirmed asap to welcome them into the group. Watch this space!

inspring ideas cards

I am starting to put together some cards with inspring ideas on them- hopefully to get people thinking about future projects in the area and really to update/ build on the toolkit information. I intend to also put some blanks cards up so people can add to these ideas... I have kept text to an absolute minimum, but this does include a link so that people can find out more.

Displays: For Housewarming

Please find below the plan for the displays for the action group room. Please contact me if you wish to write any of the introductions for the projects and/or select images etc for the projects.

Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit and Action Group Intro and aims
· Intro to the project
· Intro to the action group
· The toolkit
· Invitation to join the group
· Blog address and website address

Lloyd’s Corner
· Project intro/description
· Brief
· Masterplan
· Photos of event 1
· Photos of event 2
· Outcomes
· Future Steps

The Word on the Street
· Project description/ intro
· Brief
· Shortlisted Artists
· Stage 1- lanterns at the lantern festival, Sharrow festival and on buildings etc
· Stage 2- final design
· Publicity- Sharrow Today

Flags
· Project intro/ description
· Flag workshop photos
· Flag planning application drawings
· Photos of flags on London Road
· Publicity- Sharrow Today

Empty Shops
· Project intro/ description
· Future plans

Map of Sharrow
· Map Lloyds Corner
· Map Signpost locations
· Map Flags
· Map Thriving centres outline
· Map Lowfields/ My Place
· Map the hub
· Any grow Sheffield projects to map?

Other
· Planning Applications
· Other documents and information from SCC and Grow Sheffield and CAN etc

Room Painting and design of displays: DS HQ

We had a painting day on Saturday, decorating the new DS Action Group HQ... Thanks to everyone who helped...and as you can see have now painted a map of Sharrow on the wall... we hope to use this to add information about DS Action group and others' projects in the neighbourhood. Hopefully as we begin to do more spontaneous projects these can also be mapped.

There is still some painting to do- largely of the woodwork, please contact me if you may be able to spare a couple of hours to help.

We also need to design displays for our housewarming event which is fast approaching. It has been discussed that this will include information about our projects, students work, planning applications, community building projects and inspirational ideas from others... If you would like to be involved or have any ideas for this it would be much appreciated.

Room painting day: Saturday 15th August

Room painting will be a drop-in between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 15th August 2009 with lunch provided around 12.30pm. Please come along!

Please find below my draft layout for the room (if we share with Grow Sheffield). Comments welcome. Click on the image to enlarge it- alternatively email julia@sharrowcf.org.uk for a copy.

Unfortunately Stokes currently do not have any paint available for donation... Has anyone had any luck on freecycle, either in terms of paint or any other items we require?

Action Group HQ- previous years flyer

Excitingly Adam has also volunteered to have a think about the flyer for this years housewarming event... Watch this space! + Previous years flyer for information...

Distinctive Sharrow Action Group HQ

This is room is soon to be Action Group HQ- it has potential!

Last night we met to design our Sharrow Action Group HQ! I will circulate minutes, but if you are not on our current mailing list and would like a copy, please contact me on: julia@sharrowcf.org.uk

We will have a decorating day on 15th August 2009. Please attend if possible and invite anyone else you can! I will bring lunch... so please let me know if you can come so i know how much to bring...

We will need the following- please post if you can help with any of the items below:

· Paint! (Plus paintbrushes, rollers, roller trays, masking tape, turps etc) We may be able to get paint donated by Chris Stoke from Stokes Tiles (2589595) or Freecycle. We need people to follow up these contacts.
· Card. Loxley Print Limited may donate some to us- Paul German is Jean Cromar’s contact. This needs to be followed up.
· Display boards: Adam and Catherine have some a1 display boards which they will kindly donate. We may need some more in the future, but this should be fine for now.
· Furniture: We have access to plenty of furniture, which may need repairing/ patching up. We have a plan chest which will fit A1 drawings. but as the room is used we may find other essential items that we can find at a later date. When we have the painting day we can pick furniture and see what needs to be done. It is agreed that we will try to keep this to a minimum at the moment.
· Rugs/ plants/ lamps/ things to make it feel homely... From freecycle- keep a look out but we don’t want to over clutter...
· Base map on acetate/ projector to paint map on wall. (Julia will provide this)
· Sheet and sewing things and fabric pens to make portable map (This could be done at a later date)...
· Cleaning stuff (Julia will source this)
· Velcro/ picture fixings/ scissors/ tape/ pens, paper/ other crafty type things etc (Julia will try to provide as much of this as possible, but if you have anything, bring it along)
. Any other items you think will be useful (this may not be a comprehensive list!)

Building Exploratory Proposals: Dec 08

The Building Exploratory Project

What are the aims of this project?
The aim of this project is to physically ‘map’ and test the findings of the Distinctive Sharrow Project into Sharrow, including creating a ‘building exploratory’ as a temporary part of the social infrastructure.

This Distinctive Sharrow Project, which is run by Sharrow Community Forum, aims to enhance Sharrow’s social, cultural, economic and tourism contribution to Sheffield. The lasting ambition of the project is to produce a strategy that can be acted on within the council; by creating the building exploratory we can make this truly transformative by creating a way for local people to lead action in Sharrow.

What am I proposing and why?
I am proposing the creation of a 6 month ‘Building Exploratory’, within a shop unit, as a point of access for local people into developments in the built environment within Sharrow. The role of the exploratory is to provide a shared space for the on-going negotiation of the neighbourhood; in terms of its built environment, spaces, identity and social and physical connections. Speaking about socially engaged and site specific art practice, art theorist Miwon Kwon suggests that there is not a fixed notion of ‘community’ in need of outreach, but one which must be created for each issue, each ‘thing’ and matter of concern. This is our aim through creating the exploratory in Sharrow.

How would we use the Building Exploratory?
I propose that through using this space as a base for creating small-scale interventions and events in public space based on mappings produced as part of the Distinctive Sharrow project, those choosing to participate can actively test the reports’ findings rather than being merely ‘consulted’ on them. The occupation and curation of space as a collective process reveals desires and tensions within a group; an event could be characterised as an opportunity to take off on a new path, responding to the dynamic nature of the area.

In contrast to office based consultation, I have found that this performative methodology is often seen by participants as unreal or fantastical and therefore an escape from pragmatic concerns, generating a sense of freedom and play and ultimately more creative responses. The manner in which an event will go on to inform the architectural process is often oblique and so people are less inclined to feel that there are expected to respond in a certain ‘correct’ way. It has been clear in the first exploratory I have run that through using these more ‘active’ techniques the boundaries between the professional or specialist and the user or client can be broken down, as each is an actor within an event; roles and hierarchies can be blurred, undermined or inverted.
The McAslan Bursary would allow us to take over a prominent shop unit, adjacent to the Lansdowne Estate, for a number of months. The shop front itself would allow us to have a street presence where activity is visible from outside and also a base for operations that go out to other places in Sharrow to create workshops and events. The benefit of this is that the continuity of reusing a venue that has been used by a relational art practice, ‘‘encounters1’, would allow us to contact the people who worked with them and living on the economically deprived and often socially isolated Lansdowne Estate. Occupying the shop over a period of months allows the exploratory to become part of the landscape of Sharrow and those who may not initially, to become comfortable with entering.

I carried out a week long trial of the building exploratory format, held in January of this year. This was very sucessful and included a 3-D building kit, displays and mapping projects and invited residents, businesses, councillors, developers, local people, activists and others to draw, write, discuss, design and build, either on to maps, proposals, or on a blank piece of wall or floor. The manner in which it was collected allowed each type of knowledge to be added directly to either the urban design or identity aspects of the Distinctive Sharrow proposals. There is now a great opportunity to take this a step further by placing these design proposals into Sharrow.
1. http://www.wearencounters.org.uk/shops.htm
Encounters took over a shop unit for their relational art practice and collected stories from local residents of the Lansdowne Estate.

Examples of proposed projects
The Distinctive Sharrow mappings have suggested the following interventions could be made in public space in Sharrow:

Locations for signage: tested through a temporary, playful (and perhaps humorous!) signage project to mark important routes and encourage greater footfall around the area.

Opportunity sites for temporary occupation: tested through a week long series of events such as an art market, free-cycle type market exchange, or temporary cinema with some physical temporary infrastructure. This can create shared spaces without thresholds that are informal and not commercially driven.

Areas for shop front renovation: tested through businesses and artists working together to creatively paint shop fronts. This should also respond to the identity of shops in the area.
Routes that need improvement: tested through temporary art trail linking places together.
Important meeting points: tested through the placement of temporary seating or canopies.
Which of these projects are selected and who facilitates them will require detailed development to ensure their maximum impact and feasibility.

The theoretical approach to the Building Exploratory

The theoretical background of the project stems from my dissertation research completed in 2006 and titled Architecture by Other Means, Instances of Representation and Participation, which received a High Commendation at the RIBA Presidents Medals in 2007. This bursary would enable me to develop this research and I would hope to write an article on the processes and outcomes of this project. This is something which I have already started in the Urban Act/ PEPRAV2, which details the earlier stages of Distinctive Sharrow and the thinking behind it.
A series of tools devised to promote action and interaction were developed during research into alternative architectural practice in my final year in the Live Project named IYO3. These methodologies, of which the exploratory is one, have been deemed critical because of the power they have to address particular representative concerns and aspects of space and place that may not be contained within conventional forms, locations or processes. The architect, who often occupies a privileged position, should use each form of representation with awareness of its particular potential; where it locates the discussion, who is invited to participate and under what terms.

What is Distinctive Sharrow and how is it structured?
Distinctive Sharrow is the strategic design and mapping of small and large-scale interventions and opportunities in a manner that unites the many projects, initiatives and understandings of the area. This can then be used to:
i. Liaise with the council, developers and stakeholders to push for longer-term larger-scale changes such as the development of ground floor retail units as workshop space, shared space along the main road of the district centre and physical improvements to connections between Sharrow and the City Centre.
ii. Work with the Sharrow Community Artists Network, Public Art Officer Andrew Skelton and local people to create a series of small briefs for permanent public art projects and streetscene improvements. The funding would be sourced through initiatives such as % for art, section 106 open space allocation, Neighbourhood Management funding and working with local businesses.
Over the past two years, research for this project has been gathered from conversations with local people, a Joseph Rowntree report, the Encounters’ Lansdowne Report, The Bond Bryan vision study, ‘Hello Sharrow’ community events, Civic Regeneration research into Culture, Leisure and Tourism and work with the Distinctive Sharrow Steering Group comprising of local stakeholders, agencies and the council.
2. PEPRAV Urban Act, Montrouge, France 2007.
3. This Project, which was funded by the European Union’s Commision Culture Programnme as part of the PEPRAV Platform for alternative Urban Action is documented in PEPRAV Urban Act, Montrouge, France 2007. Image: The publication

4. www.liveprojects.org

Who are Sharrow Community Forum and why are we engaged with this organisation?
"Sharrow Community Forum helps groups and individuals in Sharrow to make Sharrow a better place to live and work. We support local people to be part of decisions that affect their lives and work to promote equality for all sectors of the community. We are a team of Workers supported by a Board of Trustees, many of whom are Sharrow residents with experience in Community Development"

My involvement with the project began during a Sheffield University ‘Live Project’ which ran during the first year of my M Arch course in which a group of ten year 5 and year 6 students worked on a ‘real’ brief from Sharrow Community Forum. This fed into a document that concluded that small-scale interventions in the area, led by local people exploring their desires could be a catalyst for change. Since then I have become part of the Distinctive Sharrow Steering group and am currently employed for fourteen hours a week by the forum. I am also employed by Birkett Cole Lowe Architects.

Why do I think that it is achievable?
Sharrow Community Forum is an umbrella organisation and through the Distinctive Sharrow project we have been working with and have the support and expertise of a broad range of agencies and organisations, including Sheffield City Council, Sharrow Artists Network, Little Sheffield Development Trusts, The Sharrow Partnership and the Civic Trust. There is a strong desire and support to see a physical manifestation of the ideas and knowledge that has been gathered over the past two years. The building exploratory is an opportunity to link these agenices, local people and activists to achieve transformative change in Sharrow.

Next Meeting Date

The next Action Group meeting has been proposed for the 26th Nov at 6.30pm at the meeting room at The Old School, South View Road. I will draw up an agenda, which I will forward around before the meeting for anyone to add other items, the recent email from Julia be our main focus (building exploratory)

The 26th of the month will be generally when I will be calling meetings however we will discuss how people feel about this at the next meeting and also decide what we will do about Christmas time..

Building Exploratory II: 2008-9

The Building Exploratory will have two key elements; the displays and the workshops. The displays will primarily include three Sheffield University Live Projects, (Lost in Lansdowne, Grow Sheffield Food Map and Arch). There will also be displays relating to the Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit, The Distinctive Sharrow Action Group, and the shortlist of the signposts competition and update on the flags project and the work of Holly Barnes, the Community Forester.

It has been decided that we will run three workshops, the first about Lloyds Corner, which will be designed by the action group according to the outcomes of their current research into the space and its significance. The second will be an architecture trail which will invite people to photograph their local buildings and also map their routes through the area. The third will be a signposts project where people will design and place signposts in places around Sharrow. These workshops will need to be designed in greater detail. The information gathered from them will be fed into briefs for action in Sharrow and be displayed in the shop for the duration of the project.

We now need to confirm a venue and hope to hold the exploratory within the next couple of months. The shop opening hours will depend on the availability of the forum staff and volunteers. A timetable will be posted on the blog where volunteers can sign up to times. The shop window will be used to further promote the events and also to display the work produced during the events.

The outcomes of the shop should be:

1. To inform: present the projects that are currently ongoing- live projects (Lansdowne/ Arch/ Grow Sheffield), toolkit projects (Flags/ Signs/ Lloyd’s Corner), and Community Forrester projects.

2. To allow people to speculate on where these projects should go next, feed in to emerging briefs and respond to what has happened before.

3.To engage local businesses and allow them a space to give their views on their area.

4. To publicise the Action Group and invite people to join in.

Building Exploratory

Dear All,

URGENT: SPACE FOR ACTION!

I would like to throw open the offer of some space in a shop unit on London Road to the Action Group for events/ workshops or displays relating to the actions we are carrying out. This could provide us with another type of space to talk to people, bring people together and think about Sharrow's Built Environment. We hope to hire a shop unit in a prominent location from Monday 17th November- Sunday 30th November, although this will include setting up time for the displays.

A few of us are meeting on Monday 3rd November at 1.30pm in the Old Sharrow Junior School- although we can schedule an evening meeting if people would like to be involved and cannot attend at this time.

We are hoping to use the space to also exhibit the work from the Sheffield University Architecture Live Projects that have been going on during the last month in the Sharrow area so that we can consider how to take the ideas forward- make the most of all of the research that they have carried out... more info on these projects is available at http://07liveproject2008.blogspot.com/
http://02liveproject2008.blogspot.com/
http://10liveproject2008.blogspot.com/

If you would like more information, please let me know.