Open House Festival 2022 at GROW - Open Studios and AfterParty!
GROW: OPEN STUDIOS & AFTER PARTY
To mark Grow’s history, heritage and contemporary context, we’re excited to be part of Open House Festival 2022, a two week celebration of London’s housing, architecture and neighbourhoods. In addition to our usual eclectic programme over the course of the festival (8-21 September), we invite you to join us for our flagship event on Saturday 10 September 2022 for:
OPEN STUDIOS (12-6pm)
Come down and celebrate Open House London 2022 to meet some of the artists of who shaped us into what we are today and see the usually hidden repurposed warehouses we have inhabited since 2007. Artists opening their doors include: concrete Artist Junior Phipps, Carnival Costume Makers, painter Rosemary Clunie and artist in residence, Hayes Burke. Many more will also be opening their doors. Also Hearth Bakery, Zings Juice Bar and East London Bikes will also be open to show you around and show you what they have to offer.
POP UP PERFORMANCES (12-7pm)
Expect live music from Conga drumming legend and world-class musician: Williams Cumberbatch and mind-blowing interactive magic from magician Hiroshi.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Meet some of our community partners and partake in activities and hear more about their projects:
GROWING COMMUNITIES
The Growing Communities team who sell organic fruit and veg bags, with collection points all over Hackney including at Grow! This fruit and veg scheme is packed with the best produce, some of it grown in organic plots in Hackney parks. They support farmers who are growing in non-polluting, planet-friendly ways; enjoying low-carbon, low-waste distribution; training young people in organic food growing; and helping to campaign for better, fairer food and farming. As well as finding out more about their Veg Box scheme, you can play the Human Fruit and Veg Machine!
WATERWORKS
We're joined by volunteers from East London Waterworks Park, a community group aiming to transform an industrial site on Lea Bridge Road into community-owned natural swimming ponds and a biodiverse park. Discover how the space will benefit the physical and mental health of the local community, and be inclusive to people from all walks of life. Find out about their upcoming events, how to get involved with the project and how to help with their crowdfunder to buy the land.
HACKNEY TOURS
Walking artist Simon Cole (AKA Hackney Tours) has been exploring Hackney Wick for a decade, trying to make sense of the changes. He loves being out in the world, walking the streets and finding gold in the urban cracks. Come meet Simon as he creates a space where we can all share our interpretations, opinions and reactions to the world around us.
RASHMIKA GUNATHILAKA
Rashmika completed his MA in Architecture from University of East London in 2022 with his final project exploring the regeneration of the creative yards of Hackney Wick. Rashmika joins us to talk about this project and invites you to help create a collaborative mural using your imagination with a grand reveal at the end of the day.
AUTONOMOUS ARCHITECTS
Autonomous Architects Hackney Wick present ‘Legacy: a feasibility study’. What is this dystopia of unsocial housing rising out of the ruins of east London’s warehouse communities. Looking like it was designed by Marcello Piacentini let loose on Minecraft. This is marketecture not architecture. Anne Thomas of &U studio and artist Pete Bennett (aka Autonomous Architects) reimagine Main Yard, Hackney Wick. Taking their lead from the Hochbunker Pallasstraße in Berlin, where, in 1977 an undemolishable WW2 concrete bunker was incorporated in to a new housing project; what if architects and developers were to imagine the second-use industrial buildings housing our communities as similarly immovable objects and build accordingly.
HEYRA
Heyra is a new app for locals designed to find in-person friendship groups and live more sustainably together. Currently in its beta stage, founder Paul Zhu will be there on the day to share more about this new platform and how you get involved in the piloting of this app.
AFTER PARTY (8pm-2am)
Music from Hackney Wick's most undercover DJs as they draw on their rare collections and headline live performance by Natural Symphony.
#openstudios #OpenHouseLondon #HackneyWick
About Grow Studios
Did you know Grow Studios was founded in 2007 by two locals living and working in Hackney Wick? The studios were repurposed from two empty warehouses - one was a commercial printers; the other a sausage factory backing onto the Lea Navigation canal. The studios were borne out of a DIY self-organising ethos to create useful and sustainable spaces for its tenants. GROW is a unit of these studios and a space to bring grassroots music, art and people together, operated as an experiment in ethical and sustainable business.