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Ladywell Self-Build Community Space published their Delivery Report!3 years ago
Delivered 14 December 2019
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
By Rural Urban Synthesis Society
We want to self-build a community space on our site in Ladywell with local people and volunteers to create a knowledge hub for self-building, community-led housing and sustainable living.
RUSS is a community land trust run by volunteers passionate about community-led affordable housing. Our self-build community space will be built on the site of RUSS’s first housing scheme on Church Grove in Ladywell. Our project has 3 parts: 1. We will offer opportunities for local people and volunteers to participate actively in a sustainable construction project through the building of the community space itself. 2. Once built, the space will host the School of Community-led Housing piloted by RUSS and become a knowledge hub to share and inspire other communities in self-building and affordable housing projects 3. We will use the space to test ideas and consult with the Ladywell community on our future goal of a permanent community space that can bring new residents and the existing community together. Lewisham Council support our project & we will be applying for planning permission shortly. In the unlikely event we are not successful, no money will be taken from backers.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
Lewisham has a history of self-build going back to 1985 when Council tenants built their own homes with no previous building experience led by architect Water Segal. Our self-build community space will utilise the Segal timber frame building method together with natural materials such as timber and straw bale. We will source recycled/reclaimed materials locally where possible and will experiment with off-grid technologies such as rain water collection to create an environmentally sustainable, low impact space. Participants in the construction phase will be mentored by RUSS members, volunteer design professionals and partner organisations that RUSS will work with. Once operational the location of the space will be unique, overlooking RUSS’s Church Grove housing project bringing the hub to life with practical learning on the doorstep. The building will be designed so that at the end of the project, materials can be reused in permanent structures on the site.
Steps to get it done:
To make our project truly sustainable and successful we need your help! See our wish list for materials, skills and volunteers we are looking for. We already have support from other organisations and hope the whole community can get behind this idea! "Meanwhile Space is very happy to support RUSS community land trust with their Space Hive campaign for a community hub space in Ladywell. This is a great use of a temporary structure during the construction phase of the self build project on Church Grove, enabling RUSS with a space to teach the self builders and run community events'. From Meanwhile Space 'RUSS have been at the forefront of efforts to build a community-led, sustainable solution to London’s housing crisis since they launched in 2009. This new hub reflects RUSS’s commitment both to supporting the wider community and to training new community housing groups, and will help the Church Grove site to thrive.' From National Community Land Trust Network
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As the RUSS Community Hub build is nearing its final stages, we'd like to invite all our amazing volunteers and supporters to come see the result of our collective hard work, sweat and a lot of tea and biscuits. On Saturday 21st September from 12 - 4pm the Community Hub will be open for public viewing as part of Open House London. We are delighted to be one of a number of projects funded via Crowdfund London that are being showcased during Open House this year. The RUSS hub core volunteer team will be on site to answer questions on the day and explain the project and we'll also be giving a series of short talks about the project at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. There will also be a display of photos of the build and our wonderful volunteers that made it all possible. See here for more details including how to get there: https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/8355. When visiting; - Please note there is no parking at the site and the surrounding streets are restricted to residents parking so we would encourage you to use public transport, see the link above for options - The community hub building will be finished but the wider site will still be under construction and we may be finishing off some of the permanent access paths to the hub building. We will ensure there is safe access but we would suggest sensible footwear is worn. - Please respect our neighbours when visiting and keep noise to a minimum when on Church Grove and do not enter any private gardens or driveways; please respect their privacy. We hope you can join us on the 21st and look forward to celebrating the project with you! From the RUSS Community Hub Team sbhub@theruss.org
The Community Hub build has been extended into August - we're aiming to complete works by the end of the month. From next week we'll be installing the cladding, preparing flooring and painting the interior. Its all coming together but we still need volunteer help to get us over the line. If you can help us out and would like to experience life on a construction site please visit our Eventbrite page to sign up for a free 'ticket' as new sessions have just been added; https://russhub.eventbrite.com. To follow progress of the project check out our Instagram or facebook pages: https://www.instagram.com/russlewisham/ https://www.facebook.com/theruss.org
We're entering the final few weeks of the Ladywell Self-Build Community Space build. The walls are up, the roof deck is on and windows and doors have just started to be installed. We've had a fantastic volunteer response to our project with over 40 volunteers learning new skills and helping us construct the building. If you haven't got involved on site yet and would like to please visit our Eventbrite page to sign up for a free 'ticket' as new sessions have just be added; https://russhub.eventbrite.com. To follow progress of the project check out our Instagram or facebook pages: https://www.instagram.com/russlewisham/ https://www.facebook.com/theruss.org
This week was all about foundations. We made timber formwork for concrete, learnt the dos and don'ts of setting out and constructed a nifty system to allow tolerance for bolts being cast into the concrete. We finished the week with some concrete pouring - it's quite a delicate process to get right it turns out. New volunteer sessions have just been released on eventbrite: https://russhub.eventbrite.com/ Follow our build on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/russlewisham/ or facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theruss.org
Good evening self builders! A massive thanks to everyone one who joined us last week for our launch of the RUSS Temporary Community Hub build, and to those who filled out our volunteer questionnaire. We are very excited to announce that the first volunteer build-dates have been released and you can now sign-up to get involved! We’re getting volunteers together to build London’s first training facility for would-be community self-builders. Our timber-framed building will be constructed in Ladywell, Lewisham on part of the land set aside for a new 33 home affordable self-build housing project. Signing up to help for a day will give you the opportunity to get hands-on experience of construction a timber building. To find out more and to sign-up please visit our Eventbrite page; https://www.eventbrite.com/o/russ-hub-15802787559 We'll be adding lots more build opportunities shortly so don't worry if you can't make one of these slots. We look forward to meeting you on site soon! The RUSS Community Hub Team sbhub@theruss.org Photo: Our start-up meeting on site with our Contractor Habitat for Humanity
Just a quick reminder that we're holding our launch event for the RUSS Temporary Community Hub tomorrow evening. Details below - we'd love to see you there! Time: Wed 15th May 7-8.30pm Location: Good Hope Café in Place Ladywell Event Details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/russ-community-hub-build-launch-event-tickets-60878784082?fbclid=IwAR34XHk_kZLfk9ekthWDte_pobHnH75QkGIbJsX1r_5BYQopnCLwimfK1NA Agenda: 7.00-7.15pm: Informal - meet hub volunteers, review our drawings and contribute to our brainstorm wall: "What activities would you like to see at the RUSS Community Hub"? 7.15-8.15pm: Presentation by RUSS hub volunteers and Habitat for Humanity 8.15-8.30pm: Q&A session 8.30pm onwards: Drinks at the Fox and Firkin across the road
It’s been a while coming, but we are very excited to announce that the ‘Temporary Community Hub’ project is starting on site! To kick things off we’re holding a launch event on Wed 15th May 7-9pm at the Good Hope Café in Place Ladywell – see here for details; https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/russ-community-hub-build-launch-event-tickets-60878784082?fbclid=IwAR34XHk_kZLfk9ekthWDte_pobHnH75QkGIbJsX1r_5BYQopnCLwimfK1NA This event will be a chance to get up to speed with what’s been happening on the project since our successful crowd-funding campaign back in 2017 and to find out how you can get involved with the build. We’ll explain what we’ll be building, how we’re going to build it and how you can sign-up and join in. We’ll also be sharing some of our experiences to date designing and organising a self-build volunteer project – we’ve had some brilliant times but also a lot of challenges which we’ll talking about. You’ll also hear from volunteers who’ve been involved with the project over the last year. If you can’t make this event, don’t worry, we’ll be advertising volunteer opportunities for the hub project shortly via RUSS’s facebook page and website. Hope to see you at the event or on site soon! The RUSS Community Hub Team
With 2018 drawing to a close, we have spent the last couple of weeks looking back at what we have achieved so far, and looking ahead to 2019. Please follow the link below for some slides that summarise the highlights of the past year. We have a detailed planning workshop lined up before Christmas, so in January we will post another update with the plans for next year. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X1LHS3SVNFhbOorzGShExnJx5gIHK6cN/view?usp=sharing GIFT AID: when we launched this campaign, Spacehive didn't have the functionality to ask for Gift Aid on our pledges, but now finally they do. Next week they will be sending you an email on our behalf to ask you for a brief declaration that you are happy for us to claim Gift Aid on your pledge. We know it's a while back, but we would be eternally grateful if you could complete the declaration for us. Gift Aid allows us to claim 25p for every £1 you donate, without any material difference to you. This would make a huge difference to our project! Thanks a lot for your continued support, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas! The Russ Hub Team
Our planning application was unanimously approved by Lewisham Council Planning Committee B yesterday evening 7th June. This couldn’t be achieved without your help and support, to the tireless efforts of our volunteers, RUSS members and our technical team. Thank you so much! We plan to start self-building the ‘Hub’ this summer. The community space will be built on the Church Grove site in Ladywell as part of RUSS first housing project of 33 affordable and sustainable self-built homes. Well, here is a more amazing news. It’s happening! London’s biggest affordable self-build housing project also secured planning permission last night, again unanimously approved by Planning Committee B. A mammoth effort that has paid off. How exciting! Find out more at https://www.theruss.org/2018/06/08/cgpplanning-permission/
How will the money be spent?Total £53,449
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Total £53,449
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The Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) is a members-led Community Land Trust based in South London, founded in 2009 with the aim of creating sustainable community-led neighbourhoods and truly affordable self-build homes. RUSS is guided by ten principles that were developed by the local community. These principles embed an ethos of affordability, sustainability, self-governance and community engagement into everything we do.
Governed by a board of Trustees, our work is delivered by our members mainly through weekly members’ meetings. RUSS is registered with the FSA as an Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community (30624R) and is an exempt charity registered with HMRC (XT18342).
2016 was a landmark year for RUSS: after a long members-led campaign in 2015 and a successfully public procurement process, we signed a Development Agreement with Lewisham Council in April 2016 for a ‘community-led, affordable, self-build housing development’ in a derelict former school and industrial site at Church Grove in Ladywell, South East London.
The project will provide 33 new sustainable, customised, high quality homes that are permanently affordable and partly self-built in order to reduce construction costs. It will also design in opportunities for training in construction for self-builders as well as apprentices and volunteers from the wider community. The project will contain a range of houses and flats of different tenures, sizes and levels of self-build in order to create a truly mixed community made up of people from diverse backgrounds in the local area.
One of RUSS’s principles is that residents should have input into the major decisions that will frame their living environment. They have been involved in the design process through a series of co-design sessions from May 2016 to March 2017 led by the architects Architype and Strategic Advisors and Self-Build Facilitators Jon Broome Architects. After each session decisions with the relevant material were assembled to form a ‘Design Menu’, which has been used to elaborate the final Design Brief. We aim to begin building in 2018 and complete the project by 2020.
Project Owner: Rural Urban Synthesis Society The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
