'the great garage hunters' tea party

We arrived on site in the School of Architecture van (re-named the FUN VAN for today), and unpacked the elements of the tea party.

We marked on the ground with yellow chalk the size of a garage, and inhabited this space, with a table and chairs, tea, biscuits and twister. Inside the van we papered the sides for people to draw/write ideas for empty garages, and stuck some pictures of various ideas for ways to use/re-use garages inside.

The tea party didn’t draw as much attention as we had anticipated, and very few people even passed by in the time that we were on site. Two young boys stopped to find out more, and spent the rest of the afternoon with us, and even went off to fetch a friend. The three told us their ideas for how the garages could be put to better use; as a place to stash bikes, a youth club, and a skate park/gym. They told us about what there was to do in the area, what was lacking and what they usually did on their weekends. We played twister, and a memory game and they asked if we would be back next week with the van.

Despite the lack of people, we were glad to have attempted our first public engagement and got the opinions of some local children. Now we have to decide how we can attract more interest/footfall if we return to the same site, or if we would be more successful by contacting local community groups.