We Can Make Mini Build and Tour
Community-led housing initiative We Can Make shared how neighbourhood planning has taken shape through their homes built in gardens across Knowle West.
We got an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of two new homes and used mini blocks to reimagine Block West pavilion which was designed by the community using an online app during lockdown.
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We were able to see how the houses are made, ask about their importance and meet the residents they’re made for.
“We are breaking down the barriers of privilege, money and power in the housing system by creating opportunities for communities to get hands-on with new forms of architecture and housing. This is a test space for taking a values-centred approach to collaboration with local communities using modular methods of construction and democratising technology so communities are empowered to create the homes they need better and faster.”
Mollie Claypool, Co-Director of Automated Architecture Labs (AUAR)
Alongside this, the We Can Make team demonstrated how the blocks of Block West pavilion can be attached together into different formations.
We were invited to play with these blocks plus a set of mini blocks and experience it for ourselves.
Block West was designed by local residents using a new design app developed by AUAR, following a series of online workshops during lockdown. The parts were manufactured in KWMC The Factory using their CNC (computer numerical controlled) machine, and a crew of local people assembled the blocks into the pavilion in under 10 days in September 2020.
We Can Make is a new housing initiative that supports communities to create the homes they want and need
We Can Make uses an asset-based approach to re-imagine “how to do housing” differently.
It starts with the know-how and resources the community already has, and uses a process of creative co-design to work with people to develop the tools to do housing on their terms. It is a partnership between Knowle West Media Centre, a digital arts and social innovation centre in Bristol, and White Design, an award-winning architect's practice.
Together, We Can Make good homes, local jobs, space for nature, social infrastructure, community wealth, a thriving neighbourhood.
AUAR (pronounced ‘our’), are an organisation revolutionizing house building using automation.
AUAR empower people and communities to create better homes using automation.
Their construction platform and products are engineered for automation and a sustainable, circular, zero-carbon lifecycle. They take a micro-factory approach for localized production that enables community participation in designing and building the homes they need, creating local jobs
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