Hillfields

Research aim: To engage with the community and local primary school to create a Winter Trail, and put forward proposals for Hillfields Centenary Celebrations.

THE TEAM: Holly Roberts, Georgia Ball, Arian Horst, Cai Thomas

THE CLIENT: Ruth Myers with Local Learning

As part of the Masters of Architecture Year 1 course, four students (Arian Horst, Cai Thomas, Georgia Ball, Holly Roberts) from UWE, teamed up with Local Learning to create a Winter Trail as part of the centenary celebrations of Hillfields. The hope was that the project would bring alive stories of the last 100 years to make connections between past, present and future.

With the ongoing pandemic the project was centred around collaboration with local residents via Zoom and phone calls. The residents were able to share their stories and memories of their time in Hillfields, particularly over the winter period. These were then used to identify key themes which were developed into stops for the Winter Trail. These focused on how the architectural environment changed over the winter period.

The Video Output:

Using these ideas Minerva Primary School were provided with 6 videos to create their own decorations inspired by the residents’ stories. They were shown these videos teaching them about different winter celebrations before completing an activity which were turned into stops on the winter trail or decorate their own homes.

The children, aged 4-11, were tasked with the below activities:

 • Nursery, Reception and Year 1 – Tasked with making their own paper chains inspired by residents’ stories of making their own decorations.

• Year 2 & 4 – Tasked with making their own poems. This was inspired by a resident we spoke to mum’s poem, and the importance of the fireplace as a central element.

• Year 3 – Printable net for paper houses, based on the Hillfields house types, for the children to assemble.

 • Year 5 – Printable net for a paper lantern, based on Hillfields old gas streetlamps.

• Year 6a – Asked to design a meal, based on Hillfields residents’ recollections of wartime food rationing. We designed a printable plate template and menu for this activity.

• Year 6b – Tasked with writing a letter to someone, past or present, about their experience of 2020. This activity was inspired by ‘Hillfields: In Someone Else’s Shoes’.

The Winter Trail Output:

On the 18th of December 2020 ‘Hillfields Winter Trail’ was conducted and included activities and displays that related to Hillfields during the wintertime. It aimed to engage residents through shared experience and storytelling and provided an opportunity for a trial run for future proposals and events. Using resident’s studies audio boxes and QR codes linking to videos formed a hunt around Hillfields in which residents could follow using an online map. A central hub was created around the library, decorated with the primary schools output, and a ‘Memory Tree’ was installed with attendees being encouraged to hang their own memories on labels.

The future of the project including proposals:

The enthusiasm and openness of residents to share their stories then informed two other proposals. The first was a boardgame which aimed to encourage more stories to emerge and after talking with Local Learning gave the possibility to be developed into an ‘in person’ interactive trail. The second proposal is of a transformative space, named the centenary park, which will also aim to motivate storytelling as well as give back what the community has identified as being lost through time. The hope was that both the boardgame and the centenary park will act as a bridge between generations to keep sharing their stories and keep their enthusiasm and love for Hillfields alive.