South Kilburn Swap Shop

South Kilburn Swap Shop

The South Kilburn Swap Shop is a collaborative marketplace in which the inhabitants of South Kilburn and the wider area can explore the rising trend of collaborative consumption: an explosion in sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping.
People can meet and exchange their unwanted goods and items for a range of different products and services. They can participate in a variety of events or workshops. It is both a physical space and an online network. It is both social and commercial.

The Façade

The façade is painted in a striking bold colour with applied graphics and features a variety of different functions, including a ‘community chalkboard’ and a number of ‘storefronts’. Each ‘storefont’ has a unique graphic covering providing them with a sense of identity and ownership of their space.

Canopy

The canopy activates the façade of the building by creating an external exchange space. Community members can take advantage of this new sheltered area and enjoy reading the ‘community chalkboard’, gazing at many of the 'storefronts' displays, relaxing in the sun or even exchanging a product or service directly on the street.

Community Chalkboard

The Chalk board will serve as a community newspaper and act as a device to collect local stories from different cultural groups. People can chalk a story or a message for someone, whether it is to report something they found, announce something happening in the community, ask to borrow an item, warn people of something to watch out for, or simply to chat.

Store Fronts

The existing windows become storefronts which are linked to the studio spaces that are offered to local business and artists within the Swap Shop. These windows to the street can be used as a display area, a performance space or a kiosk counter for exhibiting artworks, staging impromptu events or selling products and services to passersby. The external area outside each of the storefronts are filled with planting boxes growing a variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables for use in the Swap Shop Cafe