Spring Creative Lab was a week-long programme of workshops, group discussions and collaboration with artist Harun Morrison.
Led by Harun, young people aged 15-24 from Ebbsfleet and the surrounding area explored the site for the future garden city, receiving presentations from architects and city planners and taking part in hands-on workshops with artists looking at strategies for creating a sustainable city.
The week started with the group visiting the site of the future city, guided by architects and designers working on the plans; sessions thinking about ‘How living on water can affect how we live on land’ and ‘Representational Model-Making As Thinking’ with Harun Morrison; looking at how permaculture principles could be applied in the city with writer, activist and permaculture expert Graham Burnett; and using photographs, textures and objects collected during the site visit to respond to the area with artist Laurence Harding.
It continued with a sessions looking at bees and biodiversity, and thinking about the question: ‘What if a city is designed with bees in mind?’ with artists, educators and beekeepers Lily Hunter Green and Andrea Ku; building an electric sculptures from e-waste with a DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) spirit in a wrekshop with electronic artist Paul Granjon; and using the basic principles of fermentation and food systems with Inês Neto dos Santos to explore city design and consider: ‘What might a regenerative food system in relation to the city look like?’
Spring Creative Lab is part of This Must Be the Place, a three-year programme, co-led by young people from Ebbsfleet and the surrounding areas in collaboration with commissioned artists, to produce site-specific artworks and shape the new city as it is built. The project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and by Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.