Future Brixton

Category Archives: Somerleyton Road


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Brixton Desgin Week::September 13th - 21st

BDW Shop Poster

Changing Brixton By Design - Binki Taylor

For the first time this year Brixton is taking part in the London Design Festival. Brixton Design Week runs from 13th to 21st September. It’s an event which has particular resonance as Brixton itself is undergoing huge transformations with parts of the town centre being redesigned.

Brought together by a small team of founding members including We Love Brixton and design and fabrication consultants 2MZ, Brixton Design Week has amassed a collection of local design talent to represent the area. There will be installations, exhibitions and talks all blooming from some fab new partnerships. Brixton Design Week is about highlighting our home-grown talent and its potential when harnessed together, to develop social, cultural and economic capital within our community. It’s also about showing how we engage with design on a daily basis whilst going about the regular routines of working, travelling, shopping and relaxing.

So what’s on offer?

grow:brixton looks to the future with a live-in prototype of their development at the old ice rink site; they are now furiously transforming a shipping container into a mini-studio. Local photographer Vincent Garnier will spend the week roaming around Brixton with his ‘Golden Throne’ inviting Brixtonites and visitors to BDW to strike a pose for him. Play with 3D printing at Turpentine, join in the ‘Brixton Chronicles’ with Robyn Parker whilst having your breakfast at Phoenix, wander the village to discover a host of interesting designers working at Woo Woo Boutique, Circus, Snugg, Studio 73 and Cornercopia Homestore.

Talk design with the Design Council or Crafty Fox. Visit Making Uncovered for beautiful craft and workshops. As founders we have been delighted by such a positive response to a crazy timescale and no funds. Brixton has pulled it out of the bag and now it’s time to enjoy it!

Details of exact dates, times and locations for all activities are available on brixtondesignweek.co.uk
Tweet us @BrixtonDW

 


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How to design Somerleyton Road?

Here Robert Knight explains Igloo’s approach to design for Somerleyton Road development

When we spoke to local residents and businesses about the redevelopment of Somerleyton Road some people were concerned that a ‘shiny new development’ would be built that would have no relationship with the surrounding area or the communities living there.

We need to make sure this doesn’t happen so we will approach the design of the new buildings in a different way.

We believe that the best places are made when you select the best architects for each building and public space. Therefore, we have drawn up a long list of architectural and landscape practices, including a number of local ones, who we believe have the qualities necessary to deliver the type of street that people want to see.

Igloo, on behalf of the partnership, will speak to this long list of practices. We’ll assess each one in terms of their quality of design, their capacity and proposed design team, as well as any specialisms they may have (such as theatre design and heritage).

We’ll then recommend four to five practices that we think are the best fit for Somerleyton Road and could work together to create buildings that will reflect the neighbourhood and local community.

To make sure the individual building do work together, lead architects Metropolitan Workshop will coordinate the work. This will include making sure landscaping and building services work across the whole development. Igloo will be speaking to the practices soon and the project steering group hopes to announce the final list of architects in August 2014.

In the meantime we’ll also be making sure we understand all the technical and engineering constraints of the site so we can brief the architects.


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Meet Igloo - Somerleyton Road’s development management team

Our new development management team, headed up by Igloo, came to the Somerleyton Road Street Party on Saturday 21 June to meet local residents. Igloo’s Chris Brown, explains who they are and how they will work with us at Somerleyton Road:

It’s a privilege for Igloo to be supporting Lambeth, Brixton Green and Ovalhouse to deliver the Somerleyton Road project. We are working with some great people like Metropolitan Workshop (architects and urban designers), Tibbalds (planning), Conisbee (engineers) and Social Life who have done previous work for Brixton Green on the project. Hopefully they will all blog on their specific roles here over time.

Igloo are employed as development managers so our job is to provide the development skills but without taking the developer’s profit! Our nearest project to Brixton is Bermondsey Square on Bermondsey Street in SE1 for Southwark and Aviva.

Bermondsey Square SE1

Others say we have a reputation at igloo for innovation and trying to make the world a better place and it’s a challenge to match the aspirations of the Brixton communities for Somerleyton Road.

The project breaks new ground in so many ways, not least the sharing of control of development of council land with a local community based organisation, the real and deep community led approach to the brief for the project and the provision of long term low cost funding by the council. Any one of these would be unusual and together they are unique.

We try to be selective in the projects we work on and the aspirations of the Somerleyton partners, developed from the consultations with local people, to maximise the affordability of housing for local people and make the street a better place are exactly what gets us out of bed in the morning.

We know there is controversy about the project, we know it has huge challenges (like the live railways alongside and underneath) and we know we won’t get everything right. We have started on a very steep learning curve and look forward to learning from supporters and critics alike.

You can follow Chris on twitter @chrisigloo


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Wished you were there - Somerleyton Street Party

It was great to see so many people turn out for the community day on Saturday 21 June. Thanks to Brixton Green, Hill Mead Primary School, Brixton Come Together, Block Work Out and everyone else who made it such a success.

We talked to lots of people about how to make the development of Somerleyton Road into a successful street and we were particularly keen to find out what people thought about the new homes and who they should be for. We’ll feed back on this when we’ve had a chance to go through all the notes.

If you didn’t make it, here are a few pictures to see what you’ve missed. Pictures by Fiona Freund.


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I am your neighbour

‘I am your Neighbour’ is a celebration of London, Brixton, neighbours and the unexpected friendships we make living side by side.

In 2017 Ovalhouse will be moving to its new home in Brixton as part of Future Brixton’s Somerleyton Road project. This week long festival is a creative introduction from the young people involved in Truth about Youth to their new neighbours.

Highlights include six short plays by Truth about Youth’s writers and performers, which explore the lives of young people living in Brixton and are performed inside local houses.

More information about all the events can be found on the Ovalhouse website.

You can also follow Truth about Youth on twitter @TAYlondon1

Brixton Green family fun day


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Somerleyton Road Street Party

Brixton Come Together, Hill Mead Primary School and all at Number Six will be hosting an action-packed mid-summer event this Saturday at Somerleyton Road.

There will be a carnival parade, street olympics, live bands, art workshops, theatre and more.

  • Saturday 21 June at Somerleyton Road
  • From 1-6pm

Meet the Somerleyton Road project team

Between 1pm and 4pm you can meet Future Brixton’s Somerleyton Road team, including the new development manager, Igloo.

We particularly want to talk about the new homes and how they can help make a successful street. The Somerleyton Road project includes about 300 new homes for rent.

Who do you think the new homes should be for?

Find out more about Somerleyton Road here

Go to the Brixton Green website


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Somerleyton Road Community Day

Lots of things to do for all the family, from 11am til late. We look forward to seeing you there.

11am to 3pm: Community workshops, BBQ, family activity including Community Portrait with the Mosaic Rooms, and an opportunity to drop-in and discuss the Somerleyton Road project with the team.

4pm until late: Opening event for the Brixton Street Gym / Brixton Come Together Spring Sessions with live performances from Omar, Poeticat, Lescines and Beans on Toast and a celebration of World Record Day!

Somerleyton Road Community Fun Day leaflet

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