A project exploring sheds, shacks and shelters across Waltham Forest, focussing on community spaces built from mainly recycled materials and the way they are used by local allotment holders. The project included a 19 minute film and series of photographs, made in local allotments and featuring plot holders on Low Hall Farm, many of whom are from Caribbean and Turkish communities, along with archive material from local allotment sites and from the borough archives. The film makes connections between the way communities are created and held together, and the spaces that are constructed for this to happen, often utilising found materials from the streets and industrial estates of the borough and taking place directly next to and in stark contrast to new housing developments.
Image above: Yasha’s shed, 2018.
The project was included in the E17 Art Trail 2019 at Bodega 50, a cafe formerly on Hoe Street, Walthamstow, and also included a new publication with a text by architect Jonathan Crossley, designed by Claudia Schenk (trockenbot) and printed at Aldgate Press.
The film and photographs were also shown on Fellowship Island at the Walthamstow Garden Party 2019, installed in a bespoke shed made from recycled materials including Momart artwork crates (often used by nearby allotment holders), inspired by the self made sheds of the borough and constructed by Norman Saggers.
Self Build also included a pergola built by MA Architecture students from the University of East London in the edible garden at the Limes, Walthamstow, using recycled artwork crates from Momart Art Transport & Storage, and a series of Gardeners’ Archaeology workshops with local archaeologist Helen Johnston.
Funded by Arts Council England and an Arts Development Grant from Waltham Forest Council.
