Nottingham Waterside

Nottingham Waterside from Ash Sakula on Vimeo.

A film made at Ash Sakula together with Marialena Kassimidi and Cany Ash, about two 1920s waterside warehouses. Treating the combination of them and the natural features of the site as the starting point for transforming the area into the heart of a new neighbourhood, the animation charts the principles of the design proposal, the phased masterplan, and the life, events, activities, businesses and programs that are at its heart.

The film is part of a series of projects by Ash Sakula exploring the idea of Adaptable Neighbourhoods (incremental regeneration, in nottingham at the architectural scale), with other projects being Leicester Waterside Adaptable Neighbourhood (at the scale of a whole -extant- neighbourhood, and for which there is a film too), the Canning Town Caravanserai (which is a meanwhile animator of an area waiting for development, see last post), and Leather Lane Stars (injecting energy back into a failing market). 

Caravanserai Gate and Dining Table

I've been working with the Canning Town Caravanserai team recently, towards this weekend's opening events. We made this six-and-a-half metre high entrance gate/billboard out of 6 cross laminated ply boards (cut according to a 1:1 template we made out of paper) covered in roofing battens -39p for 3metres- that we painted with good-old emulsion.

Red, turquoise, pink, and white on the sides, and the same deep blue as the hoardings to either side on the front. A veritable paragon of DIY polychromy. Holes were left out of the ply boards to reduce wind loads. 

None of it would have been possible without expert help from the guys at the amazing Anchor House, who put a huge amount of energy into helping us with this, both at their fully kitted-out workshop and on site, as well as with making lounge chairs from palettes for people to chill on.

below, the gate just before being finished, and a couple of hours before the opening...

 

During the day there was a market, and at night, braving the cold were around a hundred souls who joined us for a bbq and Pot-Luck meal with Latitudinal Cuisine, the centre of which was the 18metre-long covered dining table that we made out of donated scaffolding polls, boards and colourful GRP.

For the market it served as stalls, but at night, after laying some tablecloths down, adding a few fairy lights, candles, and lots of bottles of wine, it proved a more than suitable focal point for our own not too insignificant outdoor banquet.