Grangetown Community Gateway

The team behind Community Gateway, one of the University's five flagship engagement projects will host a stall at tomorrow's Grangetown Festival Day. The team will meet residents and share information about the project, which aims to forge connections between the University and Grangetown.

As part of the event, which is designed to bring the local community together, there will also be a display of the results of the Grange Gardens initiative, a recent collaboration between students from the School of Architecture and Grangetown residents.

The Community Gateway project is one of the five flagship engagement projects identified in the University's The Way Forward document. The project aims to pilot an approach to supporting and facilitating health, environmental and socio-economic development initiatives and interventions through community projects linked to existing research and teaching at Cardiff University.

This event follows on from the School of Architecture's successful Grange Gardens 'vertical studio' project, which saw them working with local people to plan how best to transform the disused Grange Gardens Bowling Pavilion into a vibrant community hub. The 'vertical studio' gives undergraduates the opportunity to work on an intensive 3 week project and takes them outside of the typical design studio experience.

Over 400 local residents took part in the Grange Gardens 'vertical studio' initiative. The project invited stakeholders from across the community to work with Cardiff University students to develop plans to transform the empty building into a lively community space which fulfils the needs of local people.

The team behind the 'vertical studio' also worked closely with over 50 schoolchildren to explore their ideas on what facilities they would like to see in their area. The school workshops were also an opportunity for the children to find out more about both Cardiff University and architecture as a discipline.

The Grange Gardens initiative is part of the Community Gateway project - one of the five flagship engagement projects identified in the University'sThe Way Forward document. The Community Gateway project aims to pilot an approach to supporting and facilitating health, environmental and socio-economic development initiatives and interventions through community projects linked to existing research and teaching at Cardiff University.

The Grangetown Festival is taking place in Grange Gardens, 1pm – 4pm.