23rd October – 29th October 2021

This is the second of our architectural schools for young people living or studying locally. This week long school is the first step of our community self-build project. Through this architectural school, led by Sahra Hersi, a group of young people made new designs for our community hall in consultation with local residents. The course introduced young people to architectural skills, asked them to think about how design shapes the way we live together, and how it can be socially and environmentally sustainable. A range of fantastic guest speakers gave tutorials and presentations and we had an incredibly thoughtful, hardworking and focused group of students.

Day 1: Meeting each other, touring the site, learning the history of the estate, talk and tutorials with Rico Prince and Zimmie Sutcliff from My Place, Manor House Development Trust

Day 2: How to do co-design, collaborative work and design for the community. Meeting the residents, asking them what they would like to use the hall for.

Day 3: Designing in response to community consultation, one to one spatial design.

Day 4: Designing tiles for the hall, visit to CerNamics Studio, Engineering and sustainability talk and tutorials with Ella Smith and Martina Pacifici from AHMM

Day 5: Final designs

23rd August – 27th August 2021

This was our first architectural school for local young people and the first step of our community self-build project. Led by Sahra Hersi, a group of young people made new designs for our community hall in consultation with local residents.

Day 1: Meeting each other, building together and thinking about the history and context of the estate

Day 2: Meeting the community, looking at the community hall context and learning about the history of the area

Day 3: Ceramics workshop with Nam Tran at his studio CerNamics, one to one scale modelling in the community hall

Day 4: Scale models and guest Jeff Tidmarsh from a civil engineering and construction company speaking to the students about sustainable design, plus two visitors from the architectural practice Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

Day 5: Tutorials and talk from architectural designer, Melissa Haniff of Resolve Collective and final student presentations of their community hall designs.

Student Presentations

We are raising money for our eco-community hall self-build project. Local young people who are not in education or employment will redesign and build our community hall, reimagining what it could be and learning the architectural skills in the process. We are really pleased that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has given us a grant – this will help us with the first part of the process, but there is still a long way to go. If you would like to make a donation we need all the help we can get so please do email to find out how you can support us: mountfordgrowingcommunity@gmail.com

Through this project a group of local young people are going to redesign and rebuild our dilapidated community hall, working with architects and engineers, learning the skills along the way – from consultation, prototyping and design development. It will have sustainability at its centre: the young people will learn how to apply green technologies, gaining the skills they will need for our new green economy.

We have a really fantastic architect, Sahra Hersi leading the summer school whose practice focuses on collaboratively designed public projects. https://sahrahersi.net

Image Credit: Sahra Hersi

Every year we have a community meal.

The community cookbook contains recipes collected from the residents of Mountford Estate, Hackney, London. It reflects the diverse culinary cultures of the neighbourhood, bringing together food traditions from many parts of the world. 

The recipes were collected while sitting around kitchen tables. Sometimes the recipes were translated in the process or translated from notes given by grandmothers as well as coming as written descriptions via email or through the door. The recipes are for the most part recorded here in the residents’ own words.

The cookbook was designed using the footprint of the estate, by a local designer, John Philip Sage, and hand printed by a local printing press, Hato Press.

If you would like to purchase a copy you can do so via paypal or GoCardless, the price reflects the costs of making the book and all money goes back into the community organisation. £20 + £5 postage and packaging. Purchases can be made through Paypal or GoCardless

Pay via GoCardless

Culinary Cultures Cooking in an Hackney Estate

Tate Modern 2019

This launch event brought people together for a discussion that explored food, heritage, memory and place. 

Exploring food cultures both as a link to family histories as well as Britain’s colonial past, this event thought through the role our culinary cultures have to play in our sense of belonging and as a means by which to reconnect with our heritages and pasts, whether those are here in the UK or elsewhere in the world.  

Often passed down through the generations, recipes link us not just with childhood memories, our parents and grandparents, but also with histories of migration, globalisation and the reverberations of colonialism.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/olafur-eliasson/culinary-cultures-cooking-hackney-estate

The panel included: founder of The Supper Club Arawelo Eats, Fozia Ismail, food writer Jojo Tulloh, multidisciplinary architectural designer and artist Sahra Hersi and researcher in in food politics, culture and history Dr Mukta Das. Chaired by artist and editor of Cooking in a Hackney Estate Rose Gibbs

_{Image credit: Ignasi Casas (Cookbook) & Richard Wentworth (Tate Launch)}

Please register your interest by emailing: renoinchenko@hotmail.co.uk 

Providing a fun way to keep fit and active this workshop for 12-18 year olds combine sports (football) and fitness training to build your strength and stamina with a local resident and professional fitness coach, Ricketo Anderson