Samenvatting

The project ‘Rooted Together’ aims at creating a community for people in need of social and mental support. The project area is Goitside, a historic industrial neighborhood in Bradford, UK. It has become a derelict fringe area within the main city, without a social structure but still with some support centra for specific target groups which have found refuge here. Inspired by community driven projects like the Maggie’s Centres and other, empowering, architectural projects for specific groups, often based on alternative ownership schemes, a secluded site with the remains of a former mill is chosen to transform into a place for social interaction, food support and guidance. The center of the project is formed by a vegetable and flower garden, which extends into the former mill building with a wintergarden and panorama roof garden, and towards the main street with a new addition serving as a café and market space. Meeting rooms, kitchen diner and other service spaces are interspersed in the main overall structure, minimizing the need for a total rehab yet supplying basic comfort. A server room on the ground floor is let out for rent, but also supplies heat used for installations. The design reacts to the surroundings by turning inward and creating alternative space, but it also reaches out by offering articulated openings towards the streets running along the project, and by making openings towards adjacent plots, which might get adopted in later stages of the project. In a surprising, adroit and low-key manner the design has found a way to take root in an unwelcoming environment, to create a social frame for a plenitude of activities and events, and to stir the ground for further redevelopment of Goitside.