Calum Norman: Make, Mend, Lend

Goal & objective
The goal is to enable us to transform our current consumption-oriented society into one of sharing and repairing. To implement a circular economy for repair that makes it accessible to the everyday citizen. To steer the transformation of our high streets to one of shared experiences and opportunities for active engagement in repair and the sharing of more than just objects and things – stories, skills and knowledge to build and repair relationships between citizens.

Strategy
The incorporation of light industrial workspace in forgotten sites at the rear of existing high streets. A Library of Things, repair workshops and community spaces are co-located to form a symbiotic relationship between use, lending and repair of items. The project manifests in Dalston as the first centre for share and repair. The concept will take on a number of scales across a variety of locations, and is intended as a proposition for high streets across the country, and globally.

Impact
The project will push a new model for the implementation of the circular economy in everyday life. It will enable us all to have agency over our lifestyles, and create a society in which the repair of our belongings takes us further, to repairing ourselves and the world around us. By creating these spaces on our high streets, we will be reconnected to the process behind the making and the physical nature of our things. The success of this scheme will lead to the formation of share and repair centres nationally, connecting communities with the act of making and mending, while educating them in the skills to make the circular economy work for everyone.

Site location
Birkbeck Mews, Dalston Kingsland, London Borough of Hackney, E8 2NS

Project size
77,070 sqft/ 7,160 sqm