Arch 2 - Imagining the Space Session 1 - Sunday 13th March 2022 12:00 till 17:00

Discussion
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Hey @members come along to our first real-world ‘Imagining the Space Day’ – a fun hands-on session to take first steps to imaging ourselves operating in an expanded space: to get to know and explore the possibilities of our new joined-up arches, and talk about the exciting activities that could happen!

We’ll likely start with a little sorting and shifting to get areas clear, after that it will be various forms of playing/experimenting with room use and layouts (we can rig up tarpaulins/props etc to represent future walls and doors) and all suggestions will be considered by the group

The original plan (pre-COVID) was to run these ‘imagine the space’ sessions from an early point to gather information and ideas…however for practical reasons and virus-safety we’ve gone a little beyond that and now have a working shell, and have set out provisional areas for the 8x4 CNC and a woodshop, with a potential metalwork area to the rear

This will be a facilitated session where we’ll have printouts of everything suggested up to then (we have some excellent proposals already), and be looking for ideas that emerge on the day, all of which we can try out with placeholders (paper and cardboard cut outs/simple timber frames possibly?) and generally be in and feel the spaces, including the differences in natural light (Arch 2 has much more than arch 1), and gather reactions and ideas…and crucially get our juices flowing on how our new space will work…

This is not going to be a day where any final decisions are made, but one for testing ideas and making discoveries

What should I bring?

  • enthusiasm to champion your area of making
  • maybe some cardboard to rig up ‘machines’ - will put a call out in the week
  • openness to a collaborative design process
  • experience and skills
  • absence of previous experience (you really don’t need any previous experience)
  • curiosity
  • the urge to be part of this exciting process and feed into the final design as Arch 1 and Arch 2 simply become SLMS

By the end we expect to have collected a whole bunch of ideas, suggestions, unanswered questions and reflections on existing proposals for us to take away and feed into a future session. All of which should guide us towards workable workshops that are space efficient, multi-use where feasible, represent members’ interests and enthusiasms…and feel great

I’ve made a booking in the usual way, and for fun have added a few proposed workshop spaces (some are existing rooms that will be emptied, some are proposed spaces in Snug that could perhaps be useful workshops)

If you would like to start tinkering with proposals ahead of this then we have some drawings:

South-London-Maker-Survey.dwg (795.7 KB)
South-London-Maker-OutlineSurvey.pdf (385.0 KB)

And some excellent work in this thread (which we need to collate)
https://discourse.southlondonmakerspace.org/t/arch-2-proposal-first-ideas/18786?u=dermot

P.S. should we get the BBQ going again…?

https://discourse.southlondonmakerspace.org/t/imagining-the-space-session-1-shifting-sorting-and-playing-with-workshop-ideas/20532?u=dermot

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Yeah, I think BBQ is still serviceable, we used it late last year yes?

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I believe it was used as a stand for a disposable BBQ? @Julia said there was a connector issue?

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Sounds like fun! I have a few arrangements but will try to make it down for a while towards the later end. BBQ yes please! the last one was fun :smiley:

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BBQ Sounds fun!

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the meeting but I am happy to collaborate virtually with some ideas :slight_smile:

Also, I don’t remember if I have read this in a chat - but is there a chance we can get a kiln in the new space ?

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Yes, but not disposable, it had a bowl type BBQ on top with charcoal but true, the original gas BBQ needs fixing I think :thinking:

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Sounds really cool!

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Would there be a clean space, even cleaner than our current one in Arch 2?
cheers, Elizabeth

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I would like to consider an athmospheric use of the view on the eucalyptus tree from the windows at the top of the Arch2 for an activity that centers around people meeting rather than a heads down workshop and consider moving screen printing and laser from messy to allow metal work to spread to the whole room there considering metal tools have already concrete supports built in there.

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Yes, I agree! I unfortunately can’t make the event this weekend, but have put all my ideas into the original proposal thread, so please take a look.

I think the important point is to consider both arch spaces holistically and not pigeon hole any particular activity into one arch or the other just because that was an idea at some point- ie metal has to move to arch 2… As Petra said, arch 2 has way more light, so why use it all for dust and noise??

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Yes, at this stage we want all ideas and suggestions!

On Sunday we’ll have both arches open and connected to eachother via the Snugs…and although it won’t be entirely clear it will allow us to imagine using the different areas and feel what they’re like

EDIT: for clarity absolutely all ideas are welcome…if you think we should convert the arches into a gaming arcade come and make your case…

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It would be good to finalise where everything is going in the wood workshop on this session so the infrastructure can be put in the right place

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Arch 2 is clear enough to be navigable!

The aim for Sunday will be:

  • to try out the options for a woodshop in the front section of Arch2 and move to a layout we can implement over the next few weeks (some excellent thought has gone into this, so we should be able to lock in the best bits and solve the remaining challenges if we have a few woodshop users and techs in)

  • harvesting ideas for how to use the remaining areas effectively and efficiently to reflect members interests and enthusiasms (including Arch 1) – nothing is out of scope here

We’ll have plenty of timber/paper/pens/rope/tarpaulins etc to use to mock up different workshops and record ideas, questions and suggestions. The emphasis will be on experiencing the true dimensions of the arches and looking for practical solutions. Bring your ideas if you have them, if you don’t then your experience as a maker is hugely valuable to evaluate potential layouts and uses of space: you don’t need to be a designer – we all know when a working space is too cramped to be productively used, for example

The members’ survey and @sunil’s analysis is an excellent resource if you want an idea of the likely popularity of different maker activities…or just want to drool over the possibilities…

See you on Sunday!

Here’s a mini tour

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I will be terribly late or might not come because of work, can it be considered that sanding COULD have some sort of enclosure? Some curtain or alike…

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That’s a good point, but if we have good extraction, we should have basically no dust.

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Music to my ears and lungs.

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@joeatkin2 are you going to be there for this, I think it would be good if you can make it

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Looking forward to seeing everyone this afternoon from Midday – should be a fun session of gathering as many thoughts and ideas as we possibly can on a ‘there are no stupid ideas’ basis

Come see Arches 1 and 2 linked up for the first time!

No qualifications/skills/experience required to be a part of reimagining our Makerspace…apart from ‘join in’

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On my way see you all!

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