Sharing Caring Repairing @ Pocket Park Community Day (26/03/2022)

1_Description of the intervention

The aim for our small-scale intervention was to encapsulate our intentions for the use of the Fenham pool as an open workshop where people can use the facilities to repair or produce items. We did this by making a table with scrap material found in skips to show how we reused different items to produce something new as well as repair some chairs to show how people can use the tool provided by our intervention to repair broken items. The intention was to gather the opinions of the residents about how our intervention fits into the local community and their input on our initial ideas.

Setting of the activity
Making a table with scrap material

2_What we have learned from it

  • The pool symbolizes Fenham’s pride as it embodies feelings and memories of many generations; therefore, residents would wish to see the pool renovated or repurposed Unfortunately, budget is the biggest restraint on renovating the pool.
  • The pool is also the ‘activist’ opponent, or an ‘open door’ for refurbishment.
  • The re-opened place should include elements that make people feel welcome.
  • Workshops can be held in the Fenham library or within the furnished space of the pool to teach local residents with new skills and make them feel accomplished.
    • It is important to get people from the Fenham community to be involved in the workshops and activities.
  • Rather than disposing of unwanted items as trash in backlanes and gardens, the pool could be used as a recycling center for residents to drop off items.
    • Collection or drop off of unwanted items and repairing must be free of charge.
  • Environmentally friendly and sustainable items, such as pallets (wood), can be reused and built as front garden furniture for engagement of the community.

Phase 3 – Parliamentary Debate

We created this flyer to hand out at the paliament on 14th May to the locals of fenham. Attached is a question passed to them about what they wanted the future of the pool to be with example ideas to get them thinking about creative reuse.

Flyer layout for community engament

Sharing Caring Repairing

The project ‘Sharing, Caring, Repairing’ aims to transform the former community swimming pool of Fenham and the Pocket Park next to it into a community-led space dedicated to trade, sharing, and repairing objects.

The swimming pool building contains two rooms: A welcoming coffee hall and a workshop space.

The coffee hall encourages community cohesion and social interaction. This place is where people in Fenham meet their neighbours, friends and new people who share the same interests. This room aims to create a warm atmosphere to make people feel comfortable within their community.  

The second place is the workshop. The hole of the swimming pool serves as storage and as workshop area where residents can repair their possessions like bike’s, lawn mowers, or furnishings. A lot of different tools will be available for shared use if needed to repair any type of item. As well as these repair areas, there are workbenches and sewing stations if required for cosmetic repair work.

During the weekend, the area transitioned into a market for trading. Many different events and stalls can be put up here because all shelves and tables can be stored in the empty swimming pool area which will be under the market stalls.  The empty pool can be covered by a wooden floor so that all the space available can be used for the event. This space can also be used for other events as it is designed as a covered square.

Activity opportunities in the workshop

The market will also take place outdoor in the Pocket Park. Indeed, the stalls designed for the market can easily be moved and installed everywhere because of they are foldable and have wheels.

The purpose of the poster is to show the transitions of the space from Repair shop to Market through an exploded diagram. 

Poster presenting the project

Circular economy and trading

Envision of covered market and workshop