Speaker: James Mac Donald

About: Sanford Housing Co-operative, Carbon 60 project

Website: www.sanford.i12.com

Hello. My name is James Mac Donald, I used be Sanford’s Chairperson for 3 years, and now do public relations for our Carbon 60 project.

Introduction
Sanford Housing Co-operative was formed in 1973 by a group called the Student Co-operative Dwellings. They were a group of student radicals who wanted to provide housing for themselves as London was just too expensive. So after much lobbying, they were granted permission and funding to create Sanford. Sanford is a purpose built co-operative, with 14 terraced houses and a block of 6 flats. It houses approximately 136 people, with 8-10 people per house sharing kitchen, bathroom and now lounge facilities; and we have great big gardens with ponds and annually host a great big party for everyone to come and enjoy.

So what’s so special about Sanford/ Housing Co-ops?
Sanford is one of the very few independent mutual housing co-ops. What does this mean? 1st: we’re independent, thus we are not subject to stringent and sometimes destructive regulating from the Housing Corporation. This has destroyed many a housing co-op before us (ie Clays Lane, Mayday Co-op). A fully mutual housing co-op means that when a person joins the co-op, they buy a share (for £1) in the co-op, thus making them a shareholder in the business. From then one, a member is expected to participate in the running of the co-op (from gardening, paperwork, attending meetings, arranging rubbish collections etc.) to keep costs of management down to a minimum: the prize…….£36 - £45 per week rent (that’s everything included). Thus by participating as a group, we derive the benefit of our numbers (bulk purchase, large pool of capital) and work (less management costs). This is the basic idea behind the housing co-op.

Current projects:
Sanford is currently engaged in a unique project called Carbon 60. We are working with architects, engineers and energy-reduction groups to reduce our energy consumption (gas, electricity), and thus reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 60%. This project will be using technological measures, such as wind turbines, biomass boilers, solar water heating panels and ventilation and insulation measures, as well as trying to encourage an energy-aware membership. This will be one of the first projects of its kind (namely, the conversion of old building stock to meet high energy efficiency levels).

So what? OK lets tie this now into the them of the conference: Firstly the question: How does Sanford help those involved world of Art/ Media/ Design?
First: Sanford is a very affordable place to live. It allows those who have a stake in an extra-work activity or those with little income to pursue art or music or whatever they are interested in, but keeping rents affordable. Without it, many would not have the time nor inclination to keep up these hobbies/ interests. Second: Sanford has ensured that each house has a computer terminal connected to the internet by ADSL. This allows members to keep in touch by email, surf he internet for useful contacts, and for those who have websites, they can download, upload and blog from their living room.

For these 2 main reasons, the following bands, websites and artists are or have been based at Sanford:
OK, This is where I do a whole lot of name dropping. Many of the people about to be featured are fairly well known on the New Cross scene and some even internationally:
Bands: The Kut, Dirty Pins, Placebo, Spektrum, Ten Benson, Kill Casino, We Yes You No,
Websites: southeastlondon.org, speakers corner (both here 2day), socialistwanker.com, thatjuggler.com
Artists: Arif, Agate (many who you see on display here today)
Sanford is home to many creative artistes, who are enabled to follow their professions full-time or as much as they want: Jugglers, syth-juggling unicyclist, acrobats, street performers (musical and show), DJ’s.

So how can the world of Art/ Media/ Design help Sanford in its aims and ambitions?
Website:
Sanford needs good website. Our current website was designed and hosted 4-5 years ago, and although entertaining, informative and well done, it lacks the sophistication, applications and message that could be obtained by a good website. Using the example of Rokeby’s website, I would like to demonstrate how a little bit of design and application could make a very interactive website that would be a resource for members and outside bodies.

For Outside Bodies: the following resources would be very useful: People being able to apply for entrance to Sanford online, receive instruction as to the procedure It could be a portal for people finding out about housing co-operatives, what a co-op is, people’s comments. It could be a portal for people who would like to find out more about projects such as the Carbon 60 project….facts and figures, architects drawings, our plans, consultation, etc. It could be used to advertise events held by Sanford, the community and members of the co-op. It could be a mouthpiece for members to make their ideas, visions, comments known (Big question: who would run the space?)

For the members it could offer the following : Minutes from the Monthly management meetings, policy and procedure documents, so that people could refer to them when trying to take an action, financial statements, budgets and up-to-date spending to increase the transparency of the running of the co-op. Updates and information about projects for members (eg Carbon 60) so that people can bring themselves up to speed, and make proceedings transparent.

On the techie side: Wireless will provide a more accessible internet on the Street, and even provide free internet access to the surrounding area.

Carbon 60:
Carbon 60 will be using a huge amount of architectural design to create a visual impact on the East London Line. Large red heating pipes will run along the terrace, coloured wind turbines will line the roof, maybe even a new mural on one of the unpainted walls to advertise Sanford and the project. This will make the project and its aims visible to the many communters who pass by on the train everyday.

CARBON 60 is a project which has been planned for the last 3 years. It aims to cut our carbon emmissions at the co-op by 60% using behavioural and technological measures to achieve this. Ideas that came out of the original feasability study include a large Boimass boiler burning woodchip (sourced from local parks) to heat the street instead of gas, windturbines on houses, solar panels on our block of flats, improved ventilation and insulation in the houses and solar waterheaters to heat water during the summer months. This will all be achieved with Sanford's own reserves, some grant funding and hopefully a few more finance sources.

Maybe even save and protect our much loved/ hated mural created at the end of the GLC in the mid-1980’s. It’s a piece of political and artistic history that has become our trademark.