Workshop at Lynall Hall, Coburg.
This shed was previously the home of Certificate 2 in Construction.
It has been empty since around 2016 and has been used as a store for hard rubbish since then.
It's one of three sheds with rollers doors and mezzanines, in a single large structure. The roller doors open out to overlooking large gum trees, just behind Lynall Hall's main school building, Department of Education head offices (housed in the former Phillip Institute).
The connection details in the shed seem to demonstrate that the shed was itself an educational tool when it was in use for Certificate 2 in Construction.
These details are full. They are expressive. In this shed, there are remnants of activity and I have an urge to preserve this, not just clean it up and forget it. I want us to use this shed in the same way — to be an everyday workshop and a place where people are working, with the roller doors open and activity spilling out.
As well as the physical space being a tool of learning, the culture and the behaviour of the group must also be a tool of learning. It needs to be both.
Contra Contribution
A program of simple grounds and building maintenance will be established, with the specific aim of improving health and wellbeing of staff and students through small acts of beautification and caretaking.
General grounds maintenance would include plants and gardens, rubbish removal as well as general beautification works under the direction The Projects.
Importantly in this process, will be the consistent daily occupation of under utilised spaces, for productive work, enabling a healthy and productive culture to develop on the site over time.
Contra Value
The exchange will be a total of up to 4 hours per week per participant, for space / workshop facilities, power, internet and outgoings.
The current nominated workshop space would be suitable for between 4 and 6 participants, dependent on the use. The exchanged value would be 16-24 hours of site caretaking.
Preferred usage
Individuals or small organisations would be ideal for contra agreements at The Island, with preference given to environmental or maker groups with interests in horticulture and / or small scale fabrication.
Workspaces – a collection of spaces across various sites (not necessarily nested inside sites that The Projects operates) that are connected through their relationships with people, their design, their ways of working, and responding to feedback – ways of changing.
