Credit: Ibi Feher
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WeCanMake and Knowle West Media Centre are seeking to work with an artist(s) to creatively capture and share the story of how local people are coming together to make their homes, streets, and neighbourhood better for people and the planet.
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The artist(s) will be embedded as part of a new “Neighbourhood Trade Crew” of local people who are retrofitting six homes on one street in Knowle West. The Crew will be using biomaterials and following an innovative “neighbourhood retrofit recipe” that has been co-designed with local residents, designers, and engineers.
The artist(s) will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, with a focus on supporting participation and sense-making, capturing the Retrofit Street story using mixed medium, and sharing key moments through the publication of a series of street zines. The zines will bring together both human and technical aspects of the retrofit process and contribute to a Neighbourhood Retrofit Pattern Book (to be published in Autumn 2026).
Artists with experience of working with diverse communities in participative ways, and with skills in graphics, design, audio, photography, print, text, and zine-making are invited to apply. We particularly welcome and encourage applications from those currently underrepresented in the arts sector; particularly any applicant who identifies as working-class, from the global majority, transgender, LGBTQIA+, non-binary or genderqueer, D/deaf, visually impaired, disabled or neurodivergent. We have access budgets to support this residency and producers trained in supporting the creation of flexible work plans to meet your needs.
The commission will run from October 2025 to June 2026.
The artist fee is £8,000 (inclusive of VAT). With an additional materials budget to be agreed with the team.
The deadline to apply to be considered for this commission is noon on 6 October 2025.
The UK’s homes are among the oldest and leakiest in Europe, prone to freezing in winter and overheating in summer. Between now and 2050, 27 million homes in the UK need to be retrofitted – one home every 35 seconds.
Built as part of the wave of “homes fit for heroes” after the First World War, the council-built estate of Knowle West was once seen as the future of housing. One hundred years on, with poor insulation, solid wall construction and high reliance on gas, Knowle West homes are ill-equipped for the climate emergency.
Through demonstrating “people first” retrofit, could Knowle West become the future of housing once again?
Retrofit Street is a people-powered retrofit programme, guided by the foundational question of “What if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes, streets, and neighbourhoods were designed, owned, and governed by the people who live there?”
Designed as a street-based demonstrator, over the last 18 months the Retrofit Street programme has brought together local residents, designers, researchers, and technical experts to explore ideas, try them out for real, and share the learning with others. Together, they have developed an innovative Knowle West Retrofit Recipe that includes:
An important part of Retrofit Street is training and employing local people to do the retrofit works. This way, retrofit helps to build knowhow, collective agency, and community wealth.