We are a not-for-profit organisation based in Cornwall, made up of architects, artists, builders, researchers and educators.
We practice investigative design and construction, delivering architecture and enabling land-use that encourages local culture, agency and economic resilience.
We work as a ‘community of practice’ - brought together by a common interest in the future of rural areas - most pertinently the one we live in. We are committed to building a future people want to live in, whilst meeting the immediate needs of today through the motions of transition.
Architecture
We design architecture that is of the place and for the place; embedded with stories of community endeavour and material landscapes.
We work with private clients and community groups, all of the profit generated working for the former stays in the company to fund pro-bono work for the latter.
Low carbon materials are non-negotiable, we are more interested in local materials as a catalyst for local industry and inspiration for current and future makers.
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Construction
Under a different trading name; Social Constructs is an eco-feminist building and making collective, attending to the relationships between natural materials, craft and human health through live construction projects.
Social Constructs works at varied scales and in varied roles; from furniture making to deep retrofit to new builds, we fulfil roles from Main Contractor through to self-build facilitators.
We also regularly integrate education with our construction sites, providing introductory courses to natural materials, plus longer-term apprenticeships and training for womxn who want to get into construction and making.
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Engagement Programmes
We specialise in participatory design, in architecture but also outside of it, facilitating broader engagement through systems design, network building, environmental campaigns and business consultancy.
We view participatory processes as micro-political environments, where we can build the ‘soft’ architecture of community, improve public trust through inclusive decision making and imbue built outputs with the identity of people involved and reflect that back at them - as story of their collective agency.
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→ Loveland Community Farm / Falmouth Food Coop
Penryn, Cornwall
Community consultations: Penryn Town Fair, community picnic, community feasts, brief building for a multi-purpose community building
Art & Ecology: ‘Exploring the Underworld’
Co-design events: Site planning and community-led land management, architectural design workshop for new community building
Material salvage for new community building with ReCollective
Business/coop development workshop: integrating a new community building with Falmouth Food Coop’s business strategy
→ Goonown Growers Eco-Barn
St Agnes, Cornwall
Community consultations: brief building for a multi-purpose eco-barn, community feasts and farm tours
Co-design events: architectural design for a new eco-barn
Eco-barn Crowdfunder: media and launch events
Integrated Eduction: Construction skills training for Goonown staff and volunteers, and women and girls new to construction
→ Assembly Space: Towards a Bioregional Construction Industry
Cornwall, Devon, South-West UK
Resources for Construction, Mapping Workshops with: Falmouth University staff- student groups , public and practitioners, Plymouth University student groups, Arts University Plymouth student groups
Focus Group Workshops: Stakeholders in local timber value chain, stakeholders in local stone value chain
Research Intensives: Exeter University MsC Sustainable Business Management - Research in Practice
→ Sustainable Food Cornwall
Cornwall
Community and Business Consultations: Defining Cornwall’s ‘Sustainable Food Charter’
Co-design events: Partnership strategy with Simon Platten / Good Food Loop, Food charter workshops on; health, economy, ecology,
Conference / Summit: First ‘sustainable food’ summit - coordinating panels, workshops, presentations
Education
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Research & Publications
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Past Consultancy
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→ Falmouth Food Coop - Coop Development Strategy | Falmouth | 2019
→ Falmouth Food Coop - Coop Development Strategy | Falmouth | 2019
→ Rewilding Roscollas | Falmouth | 2019
→ Sustainable Food Cornwall Project Delivery | Falmouth | 2019
→ Sustainable Food Cornwall - Sustainable Food Charter | Falmouth | 2019
→ Innovation Nursery | Falmouth | 2019
→ Allotment Club Artist Residencies
→ Unltd* - Elderly Life in Multi-Generational Cohousing Environments
Public Appearances, Facilitation
&Academic Roles
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