Reviving the River Lea is a proposal for a collaborative, community-based sustainability workshop situated in the Hackney Marshes. In collaboration with a variety of grassroots networks and organizations based in Hackney - namely East London Cares, East London Waterworks Park and Allday Goods - our aim is to facilitate a day-long workshop in a venue on the river Lea, with an eye to developing a design for a permanent, interactive infrastructure on the river which brings long-lasting and positive ecological benefits to the river area. We intend for the community to guide our proposed end action. More broadly, the workshop intends to promote positive and sustainable future engagement with the river in the area by raising awareness about the high levels of pollution and toxicity facing this body of water - one of the city’s most polluted. Using workshop kits designed by members of our team, and with the expertise and assistance of our collaborating workshop leaders, we aim to facilitate - collaboratively with the workshop’s thirty-five participants - the designing of a permanent infrastructure on the river banks, to create a space designed for the community, by the community.
Our 1 day workshop will host a series of talks with luminaries (artists, designers and makers). Our aim is to not only to influence and pass information on but hold focus groups and allow the community to help guide our proposed end action. Our plan is to host a sustainability workshop in the Hackney Marshes in March 2023.
Our aim is to do litter cleanups along the river and hold focus groups which will allow the community to help guide our proposed end action. We want to create something that is not ephemeral but has legacy.
Our participants will use a unique workshop kit designed by us. The aim is to create an interactive structure designed by the community for the community.
