Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Design

  • Two inspiring & successful sustainability projects!

    Sharing two inspiring projects! 
    Both projects aim to demonstrate and create something that is beautiful and functional, creating results which please people and show that sustainability is achievable and attractive now.

    One is in Tooting: a front garden restoration that takes into account affordability and biodiversity.
    One is north London-based: an bamboo bicycle enterprise which is imaginative and practical.

    Tooting Front Garden Restoration
    The project has been a partnership between a housing association, residents, project leader and a professional team including Community Gardener Rose deFalbe. The intention was to carry out the restoration in a way that is participatory, affordable, adaptable, biodiverse and with zero environmental footprint. There’s a full description of the project downloadable here.
    Here’s the result photographed earlier this week. 37 Manville Road – go and have a look as it’s a beautiful sight!

    In April the restoration was Commended at the Wandsworth Design Awards. Here’s the team in front of their display with the Mayor of Wandsworth who gave out the awards.
    Congratulations!

    Bamboo Bicycle Club
    Engineer James Marr has established this business designing cycle frames out of bamboo (imported at the moment) and hemp (grown in Yorkshire). All the details online here.

    A unique element is that BBC sells no finished bikes at all: the new owners and riders make the frames and fit out the bikes themselves. James want to offer cycles that are sustainable, recyclable and designed collaboratively according to need.
    As a consumer, the maker-rider is in charge and makes all the decisions. Each maker practices or learns new skills.

    ‘His and hers’ road bikes

    Over 200 have been designed and built in all shapes and sizes (look at their Hall of Frames) – either from kits at home or on weekend courses where the output is a bamboo cycle frame that you then fit out with the drive train, wheels, handlebars, etc. Track bikes, tandems, balance bikes…and a new project in Africa where farmers will make their own bikes that can each carry 100kg.


    Another practical BBC project now: school groups of 5 children are making bamboo BMX frames for shared use – fantastic teamworking and design & technology experience.

    A vision for the future is that a family will plant bamboo on their urban plot. When the children are 8 they’ll cut their materials in the garden to make their first bikes at home… a lovely image.

    TTT met the Bamboo Bicycle Club at the London Permaculture Festival last Sunday, which we mentioned in our recent mailout.
    It was a great scene of stalls, children playing, several hundred people chatting and engaging, good food and a demonstration garden – plus two dozen workshops to choose from.

    We explored permaculture in our Growing Tooting grow-your-own workshops (for example in the 6th class and handout). While the concept covers far more than gardening, it is rooted in growing.

    Permaculture teacher Patrick Whitfield described it like this: 

    ‘Permaculture is a design system for human habitats which work with nature rather than against it. 
    It is modelled on natural living systems, and makes use of both traditional skills and modern science’.
     
    ‘Transition Towns’ and ‘Permaculture’ have very similar approaches. There’s a lot of shared history, research and ideas (plus some jargon which may not always help); both cover a huge international and diverse range of activities; both are practical and can-do. 
    The hall of stalls at the Permaculture Festival on 31st July

  • Growing together, Learning together, Working together: three years of Outdoor Learning in Gatton Primary School’s own words

    Early in May we held a delightful celebration of three years’ shared experience of the outdoor learning project between Gatton Primary School and Tooting Community Garden. 
    You can look at that blog report by clicking here. 

    The sun shone on us all and lit the mosaic made at the school with every pupil involved. 
    Among the natural images the tiles spell out the three phrases that are the title of this post.

    What is outdoor learning? ‘OL’ covers many activities (not only gardening) and settings. OL offers opportunities for surprising and diverse impact on participants –not fixed or one-size–fits–all.

    Have a look at this earlier TTT post on outdoor learning with younger children from Gatton School.
    Also, click on OUTDOOR LEARNING in the Quick LInks at the top of this web page for stories from 3 years of the project.

    We want to share Gatton School pupils’ own words about their experience of the project. Young people from Year Six (10 & 11 years old) made confident and touching short speeches at the celebration, and you can read the texts here. 


     All the statements are fascinating, and I’ll quote just parts of what 4 different pupils said:

    • “For over three years now our school has worked as a team to create these projects which you see before you. Team work is necessary in our lives and Gatton School has used this advantage to work as a team and benefit the environment”
    • “We can cultivate land together and learn more social skills when we are engrossed in doing gardening together as either a family or as a community”
    • “Taking part in such activities even improves our Design & Technology skills and encourages children to do something that benefits them as well as having fun doing so. D&T inspires children’s creativity and pushes them to think about important ways to support Mother Nature” 
    •  “Nature plays an important part in every religion and it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of it. We strongly believe that this community garden has brought us together and closer than ever before”


    I asked Rifat Batool, Head of Gatton School, to share some of her vision for establishing and continuing the project. She said:

    “Outdoor and engaging learning is a strong aspect of our work at Gatton School. The various projects carried out in the community garden over the past 3 years have allowed pupils to see first-hand how much we can do together as part of a strong partnership committed to learning. 

    We continually challenge our thinking and way of learning to drive for more innovative ideas to enhance learning even further. This allows pupils to see that so much is possible when using creativity, imagination and sense of purpose. 

    This partnership and celebration represents the coming together of people from different backgrounds and interests  and is an amazing representation of teamwork, collaboration and mutual respect”.

    TTT feels honoured to be part of three years of positive experiment, and grateful for the commitment shown by the children, Gatton School staff, Mushkil Aasaan the owners of the garden site and our own team, rain or shine.

     
    Thank you all, and we’re looking forward to the next three years!
    – Charles