Finding an Architect - Second Stage
Some of you may have read Ronnie Hughes' original post about our [https://asenseofplaceblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/homebaked-in-anfield-the-community-land-trust/' target='_blank'>link] Community Land Trust, and our open events to invite people to join the process of designing the Homebaked development. We have managed to save the bakery from demolishment, but there is nothing we can do about the adjacent row of houses. Planning requirements foresee three storeys and shops on the bottom. We want to build a community-led and owned development here with the bakery at the heart, with a nod to the past and a bold step into the future! The council have asked us to come up with a 'scheme of significant merit'. And so we are inviting more people from the neighbourhood in to help us define what that means. What do we care about? What do we need? What do we want?
On Monday, we invited several architects to come in and speak to us about what they feel they could bring to working with us, and what this place, and Homebaked, means to them.
Setting up for the event – it looks quiet now, but soon the bakery was bustling with local people, all eager to hear what our guests had to say!
Naturally, we were well prepared for them and had plenty of goodies set aside, as well as myself and Janice on call should anybody need a spot of tea or coffee!
First they spoke about their own work, then we followed up with questions we had prepared for them.
Here are some:
Tell us about a project of similar scale to ours you've worked on from initial design through to full completion. What does sustainability look like for you? How would you ensure full engagement of this community in the process? If we came up with a very bad idea what would you do?
And, thanks to our own Paul – what type of cake would your company be, and why?
Each presented themselves in different ways – whether it was with slideshows or examples of previous designs, or models, as you can see above.
It was interesting to see how each team/architect brought their own individual views and skills to the table. We learned a lot that evening I think. And I believe, maybe so did they.
After we interviewed our final team, we discussed what we thought as a whole, and shared our own scores and feedback with the group. We made a short list and will now have a look at some of their work in life size.
We'd like to thank all of the architects who took the time to come and share their plans with us, and thanks to the members of staff and members of the community who turned up to take part in the interview process!
We will update you on this project as and when it happens. Next we'll do another set of open workshops on the process of design and setting a design brief. Everybody is invited to join and give their input.