By Site Practice

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Connection to Harringay Warehouse District

The pavilion is using cloth collected from neighbours and residents from the Harringay and Manor House Warehouse District, expressing the personality and presence of the local community. The walls and roof of the pavilion are dressed in a patchwork of rags and unused cloth patched together in patterns and motifs that show the hand of its makers from the locality. Not only the result but even so the act of making together becomes as important in the expression of the local borough.

Proposal Outline

Gallimaufry is a local community-built pavilion for gatherings, markets, performances and workshops.

The pavilion occupies a disused former car park in Tottenham and, using the cloth collected from neighbours and residents from the Harringay and Manor House Warehouse District, expresses the personality and presence of the local community.

The Gallimaufry is visibly handmade, built on-site by a team of volunteers, learning and experimenting together. Created as a single volume, the timber structure pivots around its central court, creating a focal point for gatherings, performance, adaptation and appropriation. Situated at the western corner of the plot, it leaves space for activities to expand outside of the pavilion, visible to passers-by.

The timber structure of the pavilion will be delivered as a giant construction kit, allowing volunteers of any skill or commitment level getting involved in the act of making and building it. Aided by instruction manuals developed during the prototyping and design phase, the ‘kit-of-parts’ gives flexibility in assembly and efficiency in construction, needing nothing more than a hand saw, a hammer, a knife, a power drill and some sandwiches and a can of beer.

Over the course of 4 long weekends, local residents will come together to get involved with sawing, sanding, hammering, cutting, sewing, dyeing, measuring, discussing, interpreting, stitching, eating, laughing, holding, talking. Making. The act of building the pavilion becomes the first engagement of a summer-long programme of activities for and with the borough.

The walls and roof of the pavilion are dressed in a patchwork of rags, old bedsheets and blankets and unused cloth, that will be dyed in vibrant colours, patched together in patterns and motifs that show the hand of its makers. Not unlike the quilting bees, that became important social events in many traditional communities, the cladding of the pavilion will be a true communal act.

At the end of summer, the pavilion will be disassembled and reused. The act of deconstruction will be the grand finale of the series of workshops and event in and around the pavilion. Once more as a communal effort, the timber parts will be worked into outdoor furniture and smaller structures using the fabrics to make coverings and pillows. The Gallimaufry that, for a summer-long, represented the Harringay Warehouse community, will now be dispersed back into the community.

Like the traditional French ‘Guinguette’ – or the Liberties in England – Gallimaufry is a marvellous place to return to lighter times, celebrating the process of making as much as the process of being.