Shanty or Sustainable Shelter ?

When you come into 'sustainability' from a cultural perspective you sometimes discover, happen upon, some extraordinary things. Taking a look at NVA's Website – a Glasgow based arts group – there was this entry ... "Harvest’s Eccentric Sheds ... Alongside Glasgow Harvest NVA wanted to try and find some of the most original allotment sheds in Glasgow. We commissioned film stills photographer Neil Davidson to search for, and record the most unique and interesting ‘eccentric sheds’ he could find. These are some of the results of his quest.

These structures are recycled architecture, they are all well ahead of their time and show a beautiful combination of practicality and imagination. These are the sort of buildings that give authorities a headache. They represent a freedom of spirit, an ‘outsiderness’, that hasn’t been tamed by petty planning restrictions or B&Q-itis."

To see the full project visit Neil Davidson’s WEBsite www.stillsman.co.uk.

And his two WEBgalleries on the sheds – Gallery 1 • Gallery 2

These 'sheds' are at the cutting edge of the sustainability endeavour. They speak volumes about the experimentation that goes on in "allotments" – 'Pommy speak' for community garden – alongside the community building, social networking, etc. These sheds also explain the not-in-my-backyard syndrome – wonderful but not in my backyard – that is exposed when this kind of social and cultural experimentation is proposed on a plot of land near you. Rather than say no, and with no discussion, we need to find ways to say yes if .............

These sheds not only represent experimentation into sustainable living social networking and cultural connection they also represent a threat to bureaucracies almost everywhere where the evidence is increasingly point to the unsustainable paradigms bureaucracies increasingly support for fear of loosing their authority. Interestingly, these sheds are not only of evidence of lost authority they are blatantly disrespectful of it – as a consequence each builder is a hero, an artist, an activist and a cultural treasure.