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April F ool s Weekend ‘Canning Town Caravanserai’ shouts bold lettering, breaking the monotony of blue hoardings surrounding development site opposite the DLR station in Canning Town — the community to the north west of the Royal Docks in East London. It’s April 1st and Ash Sakula, the architects, as well as a band of keen volunteers and an evergrowing local community have flung open its gates of the Canning Town Caravanserai. This begins the start of a live experiment in adaptable neighbourhoods, sustainable development and temporary urbanism on undeveloped sites like this. They seek to do for this site something that local authorities and developers have yet to – communityled regeneration. The CTC vision is for an ‘adaptable open courtyard surrounded by busy shops and production spaces’, produced by architects, thinkers, makers, community groups and local residents’, the
designers suggest, on the 0.5 hectare site off Silvertown Way. April Fools activity has awakened this idle land and bold new gateways create a landmark on the busy Silvertown Way. The day features several events: two markets and a food demonstration from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food Stratford – a local group promoting healthy lifestyles through cookery; Chermiah Hart, of Hart Culture – a local charity that promotes arts and cultural opportunities through creative pursuits – demonstrates how to make Duku, the traditional headscarves of Ghana; Yanik Beya presents the work of Imhotep Foundation – an organisation challenging stereotypes and empowering the local underprivileged adolescents through a number of activities including training, workshops, volunteering, media projects and dance. Later – at the 18m long table built of scavenged wood, donated scaffold poles and recycled 61
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Perspex panels – 100 guests gather for a dinner hosted by Latitudinal, a group bringing people together through food. Guests brought a dish of their country that would serve four people. It was a successful introduction of the CTC to the new neighbours and emphasised how it could facilitate a cross fertilisation of serious ideas and offer empowerment with this part of the city, in a fun and engaging event. One criticism of the weekend could be that volunteers outnumbered the community. When this is put to Cany Ash of Ash Sakula she suggests, ‘We are not able to promise footfall instantly, we are all part-time, we are opening an opportunity, not delivering a copper bottom, bottom-up project. People can see we are trying and that is to be honest all we can do. We can’t literally build people’s businesses up.’ It is an honest answer that emphasises the need for patience in a time when people demand