A walk led by Hawarun Hussain around Saltaire.

We asked ourselves two questions to frame the discussions as we walked round: "Why do we build houses?" and "What is a 15 minute neighbourhood, and is Saltaire one?"

The day after the walk, we recorded what had stayed with us from Saltaire and the things we talked about.

Nurjahan Ali Arobi
What stayed with me was "community and affordable local".

Community for connections and focusing on our similarities not differences. But also 'community' so when buildings are designed or other decisions made they should they work for everyone eg wheelchair users etc.

'Affordable local' again is about making sure decisions work for all eg with different income levels and abilities.

Shafia Chowdhury
What stayed with me was the social engineering of Saltaire Village and the balance and importance of ensuring the infrastructure is right for the people of the community.

Hawarun Hussain
The two things I remember were Ashley's comments about how expensive roads were.
and how engaged everyone was about the whole subject of housing and what impacts on individuals' choices .

Josiah Sulc
Relating to this photograph, what was once a space (in my imagination anyway) filled with children playing, going between each other’s back yards has accidently become a wheelie bin holding space. The thought here being, as we retrofit modern process’ and functions into our older spaces, insufficient consideration and planning goes into the impact these ‘improvements’ will have. And for whatever reason, we seem to accept the ‘improvements’ and their negative impacts they have.

Secondary thoughts were around, how to we make sustainability affordable and accessible.

Andrew Wilson
What stuck with me I think are that outside has its own "culture", with its own thresholds, it's not just the space between cultural buildings with thresholds. And I think the thing we all noticed, about taking some of the building lessons from Saltaire but being careful not to use them to create new places, or retrofit existing places, that have the feel as though they are built with only one kind of person in mind.

Participants: Nurjahan Ali Arobi, Shafia Chowdhury, Ashley Dobbs, Ruth Gelletlie, Hawarun Hussain, Josiah Sulc, Andrew Wilson

Photos by Ashley Dobbs, Hawarun Hussain and Andrew Wilson