UP Projects were appointed by Bellway Homes and Waltham Forest Council to develop a Community and Culture Strategy for the Avenue Road Estate in Leytonstone, East London. The strategy was developed through an artist-led community engagement programme that enabled local residents to voice their ideas for how community and culture could sit at the heart of this new neighbourhood.
The project followed a two-phased engagement process which began with one-to-one meetings with local community leaders throughout January to March 2022. This initial stage offered a space for dialogue and brainstorming between the UP Projects team and key members of the community in order to identify groups and provisions necessary to consider and investigate further for the development of the strategy.
Phase two involved a programme of engagement workshops, events and drop-in days offering the community a chance to learn more about the development and contribute ideas to the Community and Culture strategy.
UP Projects worked closely with multidisciplinary design and architecture collective, genuinefake founded by Rachel Stella Jenkins to devise the engagement workshops in phase two that were hosted at local venues the Toy Library and X7eaven at the Nexus Centre in Leytonstone. For details of the workshops help please see below.
The project kicked off with an Edible Estates workshop as part of the Winter Festival in February 2022, held for existing residents of the Avenue Road Estate. Additional workshops were then held between March and April 2022 before the Community and Culture Strategy was compiled to complement Bellway Homes’ planning application, including recommendations for how existing local groups could be supported in the future plans for Avenue Road.
Torange Khonsari, Director public works also offered strategic advice on the project.
For further information on the Avenue Road Estate please visit: https://avenue-road-estate-regeneration.co.uk/
Community and Culture Workshops and Events
If you are a parent…join us for ‘Make my Day!’
Date: Monday, 13 June 2022
Time: 15:30-17:00
Location: Toy Library, Langthorne Park Pavilion, Birch Grove, E11 4YG
Play is integral to every child's development (mentally, physically and socially). Through examining daily rhythms through the four seasons of the year, we will create a map of PLAY in the area for the various ages. Exploring the provisions currently available and how the future development of the Avenue Road Estate can consider the needs (interactions, activities and spatial) of parents and children in the area.
If you are a creative...join us for ‘Creative State of Mind!’
Date: Tuesday, 14 June 2022
Time: 12:00-13:30
Location: X7eavan Academy, Nexus Centre, 3 Snowberry Close Leytonstone London E15 2AH
Wanstonia was the name given to a micro-nation created in 1994 in the Leyton area. They had their own passports, national anthem, and flag. This workshop will explore what an imaginary state created by Avenue Road Estate creative practitioners would look and operate like today.
How would the methods of citizenship be practiced and enacted? What would the unique culture and crafts of the nation look like? How would they be celebrated and/or traded? What acts of diplomacy towards the neighbouring nation would be put in place?
Through this process we will explore existing challenges and opportunities faced by the local creative community, reflecting on how the future development of the estate can consider and foster a thriving ‘nationhood’.
If you are aged 12-17…join us for ‘Let's Dance: Architecture & Movement!’
Date: Saturday, 18 June 2022
Time:14:30-18:30
Location: X7eavan Academy, Nexus Centre, 3 Snowberry Close Leytonstone London E15 2AH
Architecture and the built environment have a direct (and indirect) impact on the body and how it occupies, experiences and moves within space. We shape and are shaped by our surroundings.
Dance, the language of movement, and other forms of expression, such as spoken word, can be a universal language for us to share and explore our experiences.
This workshop will invite participants to survey, engage & enter in a ‘dialogue’ with and about the architecture of the Avenue Road Estate and its surroundings. Telling stories and opening insights about how architecture and our experiences of architecture can be used to support the future development of the site.
Something for everyone else… join us for ‘Let us break bread together!’
Date: Tuesday, 14 June 2022
Time: 18:00-19:30
Location: X7eavan Academy, Nexus Centre, 3 Snowberry Close Leytonstone London E15 2AH
Bread has significance beyond mere nutrition in most cultures. The many variations of breads that can be found on the high streets surrounding the Avenue Road Estate, are a testament to the diversity of the cuisines and cultures making up this area of contemporary Britain.
The British public was recently invited to ‘invent’ a dessert to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
This workshop invites the residents of the Avenue Road Estate to ‘invent’ a bread together. One that will celebrate and represent the historic milestones of the estate (past), mark the significance of change (present) and create a symbol of ‘hope’ for the future, supporting the future development of the site.
About genuinefake
In a world where people migrate more often, ideas and goods move faster than ever before. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to the tides of migration and increased connectivity; forging new parallels and new possibilities.
Challenging established and emerging definitions relating to cultural, critical and urban practices, genuinefake founder, Rachel Stella Jenkins's work is shaped by a continuous interrogation and search for new perspectives, frontiers, imaginaries, taxonomies and insights to the complexities of both largely urbanised and rapidly urbanising environments. This endeavour is brought to life through genuinefake, a multidisciplinary platform where partnerships in the realms of design, architecture & urbanism aim to broaden normative definitions and concepts and mediate between social, cultural and spatial agency.
At our core we are inspired by the constant state of flux experienced, negotiated and hosted by urban spaces. We are engaged with an on-going dialogue of how spaces are changing, how cities and communities can learn from one another, how citizens interact with cities, who is changing the city? Why? And how? These reflections aim to reflect on how architecture can keep up with concurrent and complex societal change and evolving global 'norms'.
