Notting Hill Housing is running a friction fit makers workshop from a couple of shipping containers behind the Thurlow Street MUGA as part of the Aylesbury Summer Programme.
Assemble & Join (A&J) is a micro-manufacturing workshop used by communities to collaboratively design and make items for their neighbourhood. The project revolves around a CNC wood router which cuts sheets of plywood into designs, which are then assembled by the local community.
Founded in 2013, A&J first took residency in Lower Marsh, Waterloo where designs made by the community can still be seen today.
Managed by HTA Design LLP; the lead design practice who initiated the project back in 2013, the project aims to engage all ages and abilities across the estate. Groups of people work together to design items such as bat and bird boxes, play equipment, signage, planters and street furniture.
Lucy Smith, Partner at HTA said "The project is a great way of engaging with all sorts of people from the local area - residents who we generally haven't seen at traditional consultation events before. It's a way of getting new people involved in activities on the estate as well as generating an interest in design, craft and making. The project is as rewarding for us, as for the people who have attended and made things with us so far."
Meghan Doyle, Head of Community Investment for the Aylesbury Regeneration said "Notting Hill Housing is excited to be hosting the Assemble and Join project on the Aylesbury Estate in partnership with HTA. Interest in the project has been great, attracting over 100 local visitors in its first week. It has really encouraged Aylesbury residents to come together to share ideas and design objects that they feel will make a real difference to their neighbourhood. It has been a great way of engaging people in design, while sparking conversation between residents who wouldn’t otherwise."
The project runs until 12 August 2016 behind the MUGA on the corner of Thurlow Street and Inville Road, SE17.
