The Archimedia Project for Knowle West Media Centre

Architectural lessons

An estate photography club chooses shots for an exhibition

The role of Archimedia's group of young people is pivotal. 'They have been working with the fundraiser,' he says, 'and they will explain the Archimedia project to the rest of the estate, hopefully generating a lot of support.' Early on they learnt how an architect works and how a public consultation works. 'We also did a walking tour of Bristol, showing them the key or interesting points of Bristol's architecture,' says Ford. 'It was filmed and they all took cameras.'

Not all the ideas the trip inspired were feasible. 'One young man had this idea of a castle with a moat around it - just a cool couple of £ million!' says Manson. 'They were also really keen on a slide from the top of the building down - well so am I but I don't think they'd let us! It's about letting their imaginations run wild then reining them back in, getting them to understand that everything costs money.'

Next up will be a trip to the Centre of Alternative Technology in west Wales, looking at green architecture and environmental sustainability. 'This will educate and again inspire them about the things we could do with this building,' Ford says. 'By the end of the year we hope to have recruited a resident artist and resident architect and the young people will be involved in that. The design will take place once the artist and architect are on board. So, through tendering and construction, in January 2007 we should open our doors - to a spanking new building like the Guggenheim!'

Flagship enterprise

In practice, says Manson, the new building will allow the media centre to expand the number of traineeships it offers local people. It will also incorporate incubator units, generating potential employment. 'Even though Bristol's a huge centre for media, there's not a lot of smaller work spaces.' They are working with BACEN (Bristol Area Community Enterprise Network) and BRAVE (Bristol and Avon Enterprise Agency), looking at how to assist young people who want to set up their own business. 'They'll also get support from the media centre and the facilities we can provide - film, photography, multimedia, graphic design,' she says.

Building on the same spot will make best use of what is probably the old centre's main advantage. 'Young people here won't go to other parts of the estate but we're seen as neutral ground,' says Ford. 'It can be territorial,' says Manson. 'But most young people on our groups come from different clubs and they feedback to their lot. It's a good way of uniting Knowle West.' That the estate is almost on the outskirts of Bristol also has plus points, says Hassan. 'It's much easier to park and negotiate your way around than central Bristol and the healthy living centre has its own café - and it's excellent and cheap.'

Countering the estate's poor reputation comes into it, she says. 'A lot of the problems here have been created by its isolation but we have a lot of talented professionals approaching us for work because they've seen that we're successful and they've seen some of our work. There's a lot going for it here if we can just provide a better creative working environment.'

Showing Knowle West to the world is essential, says Manson. 'People can be quite frightened to come here but we're actually quite nice people and we even eat with knives and forks! It'll be fantastic when we've got a brand new sparkly media centre. And when I say sparkly, I mean sparkly.'

The media centre's history

Lifelong resident, health worker and media centre trustee Cheryl Martin

Initially Hassan worked with adults, including older people and those with poor mental health. 'My earliest memory of Carolyn was making cameras out of Coca Cola cans,' says trustee Cheryl Martin. 'She set up a dark room in the girl's changing rooms of the old school gym.' But it soon became clear that there was a pressing need to target young residents as well.

'There is a huge population of younger people on the estate and they had nothing to do. So I ended up running a lot of photography clubs,' says Hassan. Like many residents, Martin, 50 this year, has lived on the estate all her life. 'We used to be well-known for sports but with money taken away from after school activities and sports fields lost there wasn't much left. Drugs and crime became the centre of focus,' says Martin. 'But there's also a very closeknit community,' says Hassan, 'and a very strong identity.'

Early projects included an SRB4-funded video project, Your letters from Knowle West, created with 120 young people across the estate finding out what they wanted and how media, photography in particular, could aid that. 'It lasted 18 months and from that we set up the Knowle West Media Project,' says Hassan. A series of mini-media projects followed, triggering her interest in a longer term facility.

'The work grew massively,' she says, 'from websites that grew out of community safety surveys to works with health, education, on environmental issues - anything that came from the community. From that we built an argument that there was a role for using media as a tool to negotiate with other people in regeneration. All the ideas for the projects have come from the community. 'Our philosophy is training and qualifications but doing it for real.'

The centre, which got charitable status two years ago, now employs staff specialising in video, web design and graphic design, supplementing Hassan's photographic skills - though none are full-time. Freelance media professionals work on short-term contracts, on different outreach projects, or with groups that meet regularly at the centre. It has an established track record of taking on local people as trainees. Its core annual running cost is £150,000, partly paid for by money from EU Objective 2, SRB6, and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Additional funding has come from the Lottery and one-off project grants, plus - Creative Partnerships for delivering digital media projects to local schools.