Re_ Club at The Floating Front Room
About this Event
Re_ Club is a way to come together to repair, reuse, reimagine, resist, rejoice, restore and more in 2026 as we go into a new chapter for the design and construction of Neighbourhood Public Square and Retrofit House.
Re_ Club aims to brings together the best of shared practices around care, repair, creativity and connection in our homes, streets and neighbourhoods, and explore how they can unlock more possibility, more relationships, and more life for the land, materials and people that make up our places.
With welcoming shared spaces and hands-on workshops, Re_ Club aims to spark our imaginations while addressing everyday practical needs, making the most of the materials we have, the many languages and ways of knowing around us, as well as dreaming far beyond the here and now too; joining the dots—stitch by stitch, conversation by conversation, coffee by coffee—for how we might get there together.
Join us as we open up Re_ Club throughout the Summer across multiple sites, with activities taking place at both The Floating Front Room—a barge moored in South Loop Park alongside the Neighbourhood Public Square site—and nearby Retrofit House on Link Road this July and August, where we have making ourselves at home this year so far.
—
What To Expect
- Head through South Loop Park to our meeting point over at The Floating Front Room—a green barge moored canalside—from 4pm onwards
- Here there will be a light meal from 4pm provided by Lola the Cafeboat, which will be vegetarian and nut free. Food will be served from their boat, which will be moored up alongside The Floating Front Room
- A short introduction will take place at The Floating Front Room at 4.45pm to welcome you to Re_ Club and share more about this evening's sessions
- Practical sessions will start from 5.15pm
- Members of the CIVIC SQUARE team will be your hosts for the evening, and are there to help you navigate, answer any questions and make connections
- In these sessions, you will be learning with your neighbours, artists, local craftspeople and creative practitioners in hands on ways in small groups, such as mending clothes, caring for plants or mapping possibilities
- You can immerse yourself into one session, or explore any number of them during the evening, with the ability to drop in, test, and try different things
- Pong, one of our regular baristas will be joining us to share his love of coffee and will be happy to share blends and recipes throughout the evening, based at The Floating Front Room
—
Registration
- Things are quite open as The Floating Front Room is based in South Loop Park, but it's still helpful to register to let us know you're planning to join
- We will check you in via eventbrite upon arrival
- If you arrive without registering, we cannot guarantee entry to Re_ Club, but will of course try and welcome you if possible
- Tickets are limited to one per person. If things change and you're no longer able to attend, please cancel your ticket to allow someone else to visit this time around. We hope you'll come back in future when you're able to visit though!
—
Who's At The Boat?
- Jewellery Make & Mend with YA Creates
- Ecological Repair with FORIJ
—
Access & Wellbeing
Re_ Club will take place take place in and around The Floating Front Room at .
- The Floating Front Room is a dark green canal boat moored canalside
- All paths leading to The Floating Front Room through South Loop Park are flat and accessible. Primarily activities will be held outside where possible, however if you wish to enter the boat itself, please note that access to the boat is by steep steps, so is not accessible to anyone in a wheelchair or for whom steps are a barrier
- There is no formal seating outside, but there are benches and blankets available
- Unfortunately we currently do not have any toilet facilities available, so please do factor this in when planning your visit
- If you plan to enjoy activities over at The Floating Front Room in South Loop Park, please dress to be comfortable outside in weather that may be changeable
—
How To Show Up
Please be prepared to take an active co-stewardship role together, including:
- being patient and adaptable in taking care of yourself and being considerate of others
- keeping walkways clear
- ensuring others have a plate of food before we receive second helpings
- looking out for younger and older visitors
and countless other ways we know you will show us in what it means to navigate the barge and park with collective care and sensitivity to the needs and wellbeing of everyone
—
Please be considerate and respectful of our neighbours at all times by acting with the shared understanding that you are visiting a public park in a residential area. This includes:
- visiting by public transport and/or active travel wherever possible
- organising for drop offs in taxis or private cars only as needed, with limited street parking available
- not including any residents in photos or video without their explicit consent
- keeping noise to a respectful level, particularly when leaving in the evening
—
Please listen and respect any further care guidance shared by our team and practitioners on site, for whom your safety and the safety of others is the number one priority.
—
Site As A Classroom
Site As A Classroom is a long-term collective practice to ensure every phase of designing, building, repairing and stewarding our sites is an open, inclusive, and shared opportunity for learning together in our neighbourhood and beyond.
Our intention is for our team, neighbourhood, and wider national and industrial scales to learn from the ongoing demonstration through Neighbourhood Public Square and Retrofit House in real-time, as well as informing how we learn from what the site, ecoregion, neighbourhood, peers, and precedents can continue to teach us, without end.
As we move into the construction phase across our sites this year, Re_ Club will be just one part of a Site As A Classroom approach, and is an open invitation to bring the skills you have, your energy, and curiosity to help shape and co-produce this next phase of discovery and demonstration for the climate transition and retrofit of our homes, streets, and neighbourhoods.
Find out more: bit.ly/PublicSquareDesign
—
About The Front Room
For us, The Front Room was phase one of CIVIC SQUARE in 2020—2022, acting as the beginning of an ambitious, long-term neighbourhood platform to meet, connect and co-design together, operating as an initial 3 year prototype designed to transition into the full Neighbourhood Public Square proposal.
COVID-19 illustrated the necessity of adaptive, robust, resourced neighbourhood infrastructure, with The Floating Front Room — our on site neighbourhood cafe, operating from a canal barge — became an unexpected site of mutual aid, food distribution, and a safe(r) meeting point as the effects of the pandemic played out.
The front room of the home holds a significant place for so many cultures and communities, particularly those who immigrated to the UK in the 60s and 70s. From local savings groups to co-operative childcare, the front rooms of our homes and streets are where many people have organised, shared joy, grieved together and grown collective resilience in challenging times. We hoped to honour and continue this tradition of the front room as a noble environment to receive guests, to welcome and be welcomed, and express, share and preserve social and cultural values.
Together we have been exploring:
- What does such a space look like in our neighbourhoods and commons?
- How could it be designed, built and stewarded collectively?
- What inspiration can be taken from the way the front rooms of our homes and streets operate(d) in order to design networked spaces in our places?
Read More: Set Up Phase: The Floating Front Room (2020)
—
Agenda
🕑: 04:00 PM
Dinner Is Served!
🕑: 04:45 PM
Welcome & Introduction
🕑: 05:15 PM
Sessions Begin
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
