WeCanMake

Reminder that our monthly meet up is happening this Thursday from 5-7.30 at The Factory! Find out more, and book your ticket below...

🗓️ 20 March – Everyday Design for a Better Tomorrow For our upcoming Neighbourhood Meet Up, we'll be exploring the principles of design justice and practice how we can take digital ideas and bring them to life using the kit in our community micro-factory. How can design of our homes and neighbourhoods be led by our community to make them better for people and planet, but also contribute to wider movements for justice and collective freedom? In our current system where housing delivery feels disconnected from the wider needs and challenges of society, WeCanMake explores how using new technology and low carbon materials can make home design more democratic, improve social cohesion, and improve ecological health for human and more than human residents. Join us to explore how the WeCanMake team are informed by design justice principles to help us build good homes that address the wider challenges our society faces. Taking place at The Factory (BS4 1ET) from 5-7.30pm! Book your spot here: https://lnkd.in/e6g5P6JD

We all need a Jas in our communities! Jas is one of our community pioneers, championing retrofit on her street and in the wider neighbourhood. Here's a short interview with Jas at Futurebuild, where she was on the National Retrofit Hub stage as part of a panel on people-powered retrofit.

It's important that retrofit is done WITH communities not to them. We spoke to Jas Tippett who was presenting at Futurebuild 2025 with Melissa Mean from the pioneers WeCanMake who have a blue print for successful community engagement. The truth is. We all have a Jas in our communities. In fact we might be a whole lot better off. If just for the odd day, we all were a bit more 'Jas'. So if you're seeking encouragement and inspiration, follow the team at WeCanMake who provide insight and actionable ways for neighbourhood led retrofit schemes. And if you can, find your Jas. ______________________________________ Our show material from FutureBuild is being made possible because of the support of the awesome team at JRL Group. They're not just great people, they are experts at MVHR, retrofit design, build and mainatenance services, and they could work for you, check them out!

Tune into the latest Architects’ Journal Climate Champions podcast to hear Melissa Mean talk all things retrofit, and putting the power and resources into community hands. https://lnkd.in/ewnJWTMJ "Retrofit is seen as really alienating. We’re trying to blow that apart’ Hattie Hartman HonFRIBA Rachael Owens

Each time I record an episode of Climate Champions, I think it can't possibly be better than the last. But there are so many amazing people doing fantastic work. Have a listen to Melissa Mean of WeCanMake - another example of the 'power of small.'

Book your ticket to our next Neighbourhood Meet up on 20 Feb 👇 👇 https://lnkd.in/ePYqgAJf

This morning I've been writing for my MArch and feel compelled to share the gratitude I have for this amazing network of people! I remember re-watching the 'Retrofit Reimagined' documentary back when I started the research for my thesis in October 2024. I'd been collecting statistics, really big numbers and needs, and to be honest it was getting to me - as I think it does for a lot of us who work in this realm. Tuning into the work that organisations like WeCanMake, CIVIC SQUARE and Dark Matter Labs are doing to practically demonstrate how we can re-build our relationships with land, materials and each other didn't just rekindle my sense of optimism. It reminded me how the story we tell ourselves about what's possible is of vital importance when it comes to believing in our own power and acting upon that belief. Shifting the narrative is really the first step to creating change. That realisation instigated a whole new flavour of research in my thesis and is something I enthusiastically explore in my work for this Master's. I look forward to sharing some of the exciting things I've been working on over the next couple of weeks. For now, big love to those that go before me 💙