THE WORKSHOP:

This workshop will take you through the process of constructing a structural frame from timber over six consecutive days, 9.30am to 17.00pm daily, 7th to 12th July (residential participants arrive 6th July and depart 13th July). We will start by setting out the site and laying various foundation types and learning the process of site carpentry. By the end of the week, we will raise the frame together and have a self-standing structure. We will be working with locally grown timber, and the workshop will combine practical carpentry skills with sessions on how woodwork can help us critically engage with everything from tree anatomy to patriarchy.

We welcome participants of all skill levels, including complete beginners and anyone with a disability or special access needs. We will be working full days, using power-tools and doing manual tasks and working on uneven and soft ground. If you would like to know about our set up, please get in touch at theblackshed@grizedale.org

This workshop is part of building THE BLACK SHED, a construction project at Lawson Park and a learning platform set up to build skills and capacity among women and marginalised genders* in construction and self-building, in response to the intersecting inequalities of gender, housing, disability and climate. A low-cost, self-build home THE BLACK SHED will provide adaptable residency accommodation for artists and curators with access needs, carers or dependents, increasing access to Grizedale Art’s rural residential arts programme. Everything will be handmade, from the structure to the door handles, centred around a programme of practical workshops that will teach the skills needed to build a house and make it a home. We will be building with natural, local, sustainable materials that are considerately sourced and make sense in the Lake District, and teaching skills that are adaptable and transferable, giving participants the opportunity to learn, take-away (and build one for yourself!). The project is imagined as a small but important step towards building the tools and a platform for different ways of homemaking to develop - a demonstrator project for creative practices of collective self-build and sustainable development for a rural area where local provision is inadequate and unequally distributed.

*Responding to the gender-imbalance evident in all aspects of making a house, from design to construction, our workshops are exclusively open to anyone who identifies as female (including trans-women) or non-binary.

ABOUT JACK CARDNO:

Jack Cardno is director of the social craft and architecture firm Common Practice. He’s been a carpenter for over 8 years and an architectural educator for 5. He has an interest in materiality and mental health, specifically how making with natural materials can not only foster connection between the maker and the ecosystem that nurtured the material but also connect the maker to broader social and environmental concerns.

LOCATION: Lawson Park, East of lake, Coniston, LA21 8AD.

There is limited parking close to the site, so we encourage you to travel by public or shared transport if you can. Lifts can be arranged from Ulverston train station on the day of arrival & departure.

PARTICIPATION: You can join the workshop as a day participant or a resident participant.

Day participation is aimed at people you live close enough to Lawson Park to come in the morning and travel home after the workshop day. Price includes tuition, materials, tools, lunch, tea & snacks

Resident participation is aimed at people who have travelled further for the workshop and need a place to sleep. Price includes tuition, materials, tools, 6 nights’ accommodation, 3 meals a day, tea & snacks

For questions about arrival & departure times for residential participants, to ask any other questions, or to tell us more about dietary requirements, please send us an email at theblackshed@grizedale.org

PRICE: The Black Shed Project is grant funded and non-profit, and we have tried to allocate our resources to keep the price as low as possible while paying our craftspeople fairly. We are aware that financial means is a common access barrier and so we are offering a concession price for people who feel unable to afford this, whatever the reason. If you wish to apply for the concession fee, please send us an email explaining your circumstances at theblackshed@grizedale.org

Learn to Construct a Timber Frame with Jack Cardno