Star & Garter?

Meeting - 13/10/08
Well the 6th years are back......., dissertations (almost) complete. The meeting yesterday (mon 13th) was used to talk about proposal/ideas for the redevelopment of the Grange Lane station, and ways in which awareness of the live project could be raised. Just about everyone was present, and over a few beers each person went through their ideas for the scheme, highlighting ways in which the currently derelict station could be utilised to take advantage of the adjacent Trans Pennine Trail (TPT).

This was, as the Star and Garter location suggests, a relatively informal meeting, but gave everyone an opportunity to discuss ideas that had perhaps been perculating for a week now. One of the significant outcomes from the meeting was a distillation, or rather definition of what we, the Sheffield students, expected of the live project, and our role within it. Again this had been discussed in earlier meetings, but our meeting gave us the opportunity to clarify the overlying parts of the project, centred around the ideas of: Awarness/Events/Proposals - these in turn would respond to the 3 determining project factors:

Community - Grange Lane - T.P.T (network)
i.e raising community awarness of both the existing station building and its potential for integration with the existing T.P.T. Furthermore, it was established that our aim should be to incorporate these 3 aspects together in order to promote the idea of sustainability within the community.

Proposals
With this in mind we discussed our ideas which included (here are as many as i can remember):
- outdoor classroom/theatre
- ecological education/activity centre
- cycle stop/workshops
- craft centre
- participatory approach to redevlopment of the building using sustainable (& reclaimed) building materials/techniques as an education/awareness tool
- a community centre which facilates a varying program of events/installations (eg. a sauna), which could change on a monthly/6 monthly basis
- arts centre - again utilising the location itself as a source of inspiration/materials - the creation of soundscapes to raise awareness of the environment etc.
There were other ideas too & from this point of view, our proposals (for the eventual use of the building) are seen as satisfying, or contributing to a feasability report which will be used to gain future funding for the site.

Participation/Awareness
Of course, live projects are very much about community involvement, and as part of any feasability study, we are intending to gain input from local schools and community groups as to the future of the site - unfortunately, anonymous as it is to the local community at large, awareness of the potential for the site has to be raised, and we agreed that this was essential to the development of our live project.

Indeed, ideas to address the issue of 'awareness' were also discussed, illustrating possible ways we could get people interested/talking about the project - these ranged from a simple 'making good' of the site (tidying it up/highlighting something was going on) to mobile consultation devices and stealth poster campaigns.

Indeed, we have a lot to do and a lot to think about!! Another pint please......
KW.