Reciprocal Space is a programme run by Flimsy Works with the
Ebbsfleet Design Group, building on Cement Fields’ pioneering three-year creative placemaking programme This Must Be The Place to continue their work collaborating with local young people on the development of the new Ebbsfleet Garden City, supported by artists, academics, architects, and designers.
Reciprocal Space builds upon the notion of the circular economy and the re-use/re-purposing of materials, but takes it a step further and encourages the young people who form the Design Group to think about how the movement of materials impacts the landscapes they are extracted, stored on, or grown from, too.
Together with the young people, Flimsy Works demonstrated how demountable construction can ensure materials stay in circulation, and how self-supporting structures reduce material use by relying on smaller or thinner sections. We tested these principles in the building of a Reciprocal Pavilion at Whitecliffe (formerly a chalk quarry), one of the largest development sites in Ebbsfleet Garden City.
Designed to come together and apart in minutes, Flimsy Works guided the young people to prefabricate components for the Reciprocal Pavilion, and facilitated its assembling as part of a showcase event where friends and family were invited to enjoy this pop-up space.
All the materials for the Reciprocal Pavilion are either waste or grown. All the timber for the structure is salvaged from the film industry by ReCollective and the reed for the ‘thatch flags’ reclaimed from an exhibition on freshwaster by Material Store at Tipping Point East. Willow and birch coppice from the lakeside itself was supplied by Middlemarch and used to stiffen the benches. Straw grown in Kent and supplied by Glen Charter were bundled or bagged to create cushions for sitting on. Inspired by tipis, six ‘sticks’ come together in the middle as a self-supporting structure, stabilised by a bag woven from waste textiles and filled with demolition rubble as ballast.
The Reciprocal Pavilion was developed with the Ebbsfleet Design Group, who met over the course of three ‘labs’ in the October half term, the February half term, and April Easter holidays. These sessions taught the young people about the landscape of Ebbsfleet and how to build with waste or grown materials. Techniques were chosen and processes designed to be as accessible and collaborative as possible that relied minimally on tools. These ideas were explored incrementally through the building of panels and prototypes that then informed the final design of the Reciprocal Pavilion.
Reciprocal Space was commissioned by Cement Fields, and the
Ebbsfleet Design Group is delivered in partnership with the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.