Week notes #19
Even the best-laid plans...
Our biggest update this week is due to a very last minute change in plans, the WikiHouse we are building in England has been postponed to next weekend instead of this (lesson learned: always have a contingency plan). So we have spent a fair bit of time this week rearranging all our plans. The good news though is that the blocks are looking fantastic and if you have been following Chop Shop on Instagram you’ll have seen them come together this week.
They are ready to go and patiently waiting in Sheffield until we can get to them next week. We are very excited, and despite this glitch, we are looking forward to getting to build this thing!
Blocks as seen yesterday:
WikiHouse map coming soon
Of course, stuff is not only happening in the UK - we know people are designing, prototyping and building all over the world. Which brings me to a question that sometimes comes up - what’s happening with the map of WikiHouses? If you’ve been around long enough you’ll know we once attempted this- with mixed results. However, we have a new plan to make this happen in 2022 and be able to show WikiHouses built and in progress in different countries, using Google maps. Coming very soon.
Online event next week
Zoom call next week! Thursday 8.30am UK time. We’ll hear what Jennifer, Amber and Lachlan have been up to, and we can also tell you a little bit more about the mysterious project in England I keep mentioning and what we’ve learn through the process so far. All questions welcome. Can’t make it? Don’t worry, we will record it for you to watch later.
And an in-person event too
If you are UK based and/or are able to get to London, we would love to see you on 8 June at the London Festival of Architecture. Together with Hawkins\Brown we will be hosting…an in person all-day WikiHouse HACKATHON! Entry is free and details are coming soon - we are not really supposed to be talking about it until the festival programme is officially launched in May but I wanted to let you know first!
WikiHouse in NL
Last but not least - in case you haven’t heard, WikiHouse de Stripmaker in Almere (Netherlands) has been nominated for the Almere Architecture Award 2022! Brilliant news - more info: https://kunstlinie.nl/genomineerden-apa-2022/ (in Dutch but nothing a bit of Google translate can’t solve). Also (in English) you can read more about why Almere is such a fascinating place here: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220404-the-dutch-city-experimenting-with-the-future-of-urban-life
Oh and if you want to keep following the story of how jeans became insulation at the WikiHouse classroom in Baanderherencollege in Boxtel - follow WikiHouseNL on Instagram - the project is looking amazing:
Have a good weekend!
Ps. Weekend treat: Alastair was recently interviewed for a podcast here in the UK - he talks about WikiHouse and also about land, housing and other projects OSL is working on. It’s a good one to listen to:
[These weeknotes started in late 2021 in the lead up to the release of WikiHouse Skylark, as a weekly update for our WikiHouse Slack community. Follow the link to find out more about the community and how to join.]