Welcome to Grounder, Local Works Studio’s new Journal! 👉link in bio
If you’re looking for a slower, intentional alternative to the more, ahem, excitable and morally ambiguous social media platforms (and apparently everyone is) then you could do worse than join us on 5ub5stack (cool code for our journal platform that hopefully flies under the algorithm radar).
Grounder is a place for people who are curious about the materiality of their built environment – their homes, workplaces, streets, parks and gardens; for those who want to explore alternatives to the destructive take-make-waste economy of construction; and those who want to find ways of making places that might instead contribute to a healthier, richer and more equitable earthly home for people and other living things.
It’s early days yet, but in the coming weeks and months on Grounder you can expect to find writing, photography and occasionally sound that explores themes of seasonal construction, building with plant-based materials, bioregionalism, circular economy, vernacular placemaking, craft, habitat creation and more. We will tell the stories and introduce the people behind the implementation of these old and new practices. All essays will aim to inform, but also to reflect what it means to be human in our current uncertain predicament - to occupy and make places and to go about our ordinary lives, trying to do the right thing, behind the curtain of landscape and city.
Link in bio, as they say.
#landscapearchitecture #architecture #landscapewriting #architecturewriting #substackwriter #substack #substackwriters #designsubstack #landscapejournal #grounder #vernacularlandscape
Some recent plaster samples for a project in Liverpool, made using clay and waste aggregates♻️blended with a small amount of lime putty for extra durability. #clayplaster #clayplastering
Casting the first section of the circular Harvest Moon tabletop 🌖- a research project with @_cat_rossi@charleshollandarchitects . Made with Chalk and plant aggregates from Kent. Strengthened by adding Apple rebar (year-old growth from pruned Apple trees 👉 see link in bio to Grounder for more info on Apple orchards), and Sweet Chestnut framing.
For our latest post on Grounder go to the link in our bio. “When an orchard is grubbed out, it is a loss. At its most derivative, it is the loss of a valuable material resource. It is a loss of years of investment, stewardship and a reliable income for the farmer. It is the loss of carbon to the atmosphere and a fully functioning mechanism for sequestration. The loss of an orchard represents an erosion of our capacity for national food security and sovereignty – only 40% of apples consumed in the UK are grown here. We must not forget that it is also a loss to the personhood of the trees themselves, and a loss of a home to those more-than-human beings who come to depend on them. It also represents a loss to the distinctive culture and identity of communities around the UK – and anywhere else that apples grow and orchards are cultivated. It would be a mistake, however, to equate the grubbing up of orchards to the loss of a bucolic, monocultural concept of an England that never really existed, or to grieve, instead of acting. The loss, especially when an underperforming commercial orchard must be replaced, is actually a rare moment of possibility – a chance seedling from a discarded pip. It is a moment for re-evaluation, or remembering, of what orchards can do. Well-managed orchards can be complex habitats and cultural sites that exemplify hybridity and our capacity to provide for our own needs, whilst creating a mosaic of opportunities for others to benefit too. Orchards can enrich the diversity of our landscapes, cultures, food and ecologies, connecting us to place and to roots that run deeper and wider than nationhood.“
Lots of Sweet Chestnut working in the next few weeks for our project with @assembleofficial at Bramcote Park in Bermondsey, South London. Making some play features with excellent help from @shadesadastudio . Sweet Chestnut was felled from a coppice woodland managed by the RSPB in Groombridge, Kent. #coppice #woodworking #chestnut #play
Starting to fabricate Harvest moon table 🌒 with @_cat_rossi@charleshollandarchitects There are lots of different materials and processes involved, but starting with some 50 year old Sweet Chestnut from a neglected, over-stood coppice.
Images of ongoing research project #Harvestmoon with @_cat_rossi@charlesjholland . Gathering materials from Kent to make a table. Images of samples show cast chalk with Sweet Chestnut peelings, clay, red cabbage dye and cider vinegar stain on split Chestnut 💜
A great event coming up this week organised by @civic_square@fircroft_college in Birmingham, to wrap up and celebrate their Re:Builders program. Ben @localworkstudio will be providing a survey workshop and tour of the building alongside @tymawrlime Looking at repair, care, maintenance and potential retrofit options for existing buildings. Lots of other great speakers and workshops. @amarecoplaster Eventbrite link can be found via @civic_square #repair #architecture #maintenance #rebuilders #buildingcraft @material_cultures
A day well spent with my son, about to fly the nest. He took me up onto the Downs to childhood haunts. We looked over the town and the Weald through the haze, listened to the raving Skylarks and walked barefoot on the sheep mown grass.
We used to use Instagram like a sketchbook - fast and loose, instinctive and for our own inspiration. Somewhere along the way we became self-conscious, a bit detached, and bored by the endless feed of targeted ads. However, we’ve decided to try and loosen up again. So expect a resumption of service of random stuff coming from this feed, just like the good old days…🤞 Here’s some special trees along a quiet ghyll on Ashdown Forest for starters.
