April Newsletter

Rooted in Place: Community Solutions for Housing & Climate Justice 🏡✨

Last week at Marmalade Festival (UK), we hosted an inspiring workshop at the Old Fire Station. It was a powerful evening exploring how community-led retrofit can balance both social inequality and the climate emergency.

A huge thank you to our brilliant panellists who shared so candidly:
🎤 Sara Khatun Miai (Retrofit Balsall Heath)
🎤 Maisie Wilson (Oxford Renters’ Union)
🎤 Martin Cattermole (Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon)
🎤 Facilitated by our own Sammy-Jo Hagan

Thank you also to all participants whose local insights and energy made the session so impactful.

Key takeaways from our discussion:

• People before emission targets: While achieving climate goals is crucial, prioritising well-being and living conditions remains essential. Effective retrofitting should address residents’ actual needs, particularly those struggling with bills and health issues.
• Building bottom-up strength: Changes could originate from the community and local initiatives rather than top-down measures. Residents want communicators who truly understand the area and are actually approachable for dialogue, enabling their involvement in decision-making.
• Fear of eviction: Tenants often hesitate about retrofitting due to fears of rent increases or displacement. Advocating for greener homes must go hand-in-hand with policy reforms such as rent control to safeguard tenants’ rights.
• Education is crucial: Knowledge empowers people. Challenges stem from a lack of awareness about what is happening and how to improve the situation. There is a need for local training and investing in a new generation of tradespeople skilled in green technology.

What’s Next?

A full reflection will be posted on our website soon. In the meantime, as part of our ongoing community retrofit research project in Oxford, we’re focusing on mapping the skills of female construction workers and tradespeople experienced in retrofit measures, from draught-proofing and plastering to full retrofits.

Interested or know someone who might be? Please contact us at info@transitionbydesign.org!

Curing the Draughty Home

Building on the theme of our Marmalade workshop, you may be interested in a recent article by Joyce: Curing the Draughty Home: A Guide to EnerPHit Retrofit. While our workshop focused on community solutions, Joyce’s piece introduces the technicality of achieving EnerPHit, the gold standard for retrofitting. Whether you are a homeowner or a curious advocate, this guide breaks down the benefits and risks of deep retrofit for creating homes that are truly fit for the future.

SAW event

On Tuesday 21st April, Sammy-Jo spoke at the SAW (Architecture Workers’ Union) Branch Meeting about us becoming the first architecture practice to sign a recognition agreement, and also about what it means to be a workers’ cooperative. The event also focused on the changes to Employments Rights and an opportunity for Q&A.

If you’d like to find out more about what it means to be a worker’s coop, then you can read this piece. We’ll be sharing more soon about what the recognition agreement means in the next few weeks!

Community Right to Buy

It is exciting to see that Communities in England finally have a Community Right to Buy! The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has received Royal Assent, and this gives the opportunity for communities to have a pre-emptive right to buy Assets of Community Value, once they come up for sale. And not only that but at a fair market price.

You can read more about what this means here.

We’ve been dreaming about what this could mean for previous projects we’ve worked on such as Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, which transformed several empty and derelict shops and buildings across the county for purpose-led businesses. Imagine if, instead of meanwhile use, local communities were able to transform their own high streets in perpetuity! This dream could become a reality, and we feel a blog post coming along to reflect on this… Watch this space.

If you’re motivated by this or involved with a local organisation who is looking to transform the high street / an empty building, then do get in touch at info@transitionbydesign.org.

🚨 Calling all women tradespeople in Oxford & Oxfordshire!

As part of our ongoing community retrofit research project in Oxford, we’re focusing on mapping the skills of female construction workers and tradespeople experienced in retrofit measures, from draught-proofing and plastering to full retrofits.

You can find more details about the project here.

We are building a local resource inspired by Task Her to connect female residents who prefer working with women in the trades. If you know any skilled female tradesperson in Oxfordshire who would like to be included in our directory, please feel free to get in touch with us!

Got a community project that you’d like to work together with us on, or a retrofit to your home, or any other design needs?

Find out more about our services and arrange a design consultation.