Melissa Mean
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melissamean.bsky.social
Melissa Mean
@melissamean.bsky.social
Regenerative neighbourhoods, social infrastructure, community-led housing, just transition.

All about making together. Land. Materials. People.

Founding Director WeCanMake; Trustee Power to Change; Director MAIA Group.

www.wecanmake.org
Reposted by Melissa Mean
How to build affordable homes within planetary boundaries? Great to hear @melissamean.bsky.social @cityofsound.bsky.social @indyjohar.bsky.social at the launch of the MULTIMAX Playbook. wecanmake.org Hosted by @wshed.bsky.social
June 16, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
(In Bristol tonight, helping @wecanmake.bsky.social launch their amazing MultiMax community housing system—it’s so good. Congrats to @melissamean.bsky.social + @wecanmake.bsky.social team, plus great support from Dave Lomax from Waugh Thistleton and Bristol council) wecanmake.org/builds/multi...
multimax: affordable homes within planetary boundaries - WeCanMake
A multi-storey, maximum-timber construction system for unlocking urban infill sites, to provide low-carbon affordable homes.
wecanmake.org
June 16, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
The New Plan for Neighbourhoods. Six thoughts 🧵.

1️⃣ It’s seeking to learn from the New Deal for Communities (great!) but the ££ involved isn’t anywhere at the same scale.

www.gov.uk/government/n...
£1.5 billion to restore pride in Britain's neighbourhoods
The government has announced £1.5 billion funding for 75 selected communities through the Plan for Neighbourhoods.
www.gov.uk
March 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Tune into the @news.architectsjournal.co.uk Climate Champions podcast to hear @melissamean.bsky.social talking all things retrofit, and putting the power into community hands 🙌
February 13, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
AJ CLIMATE CHAMPIONS PODCAST | Melissa Mean (@melissamean.bsky.social) from community land trust WeCanMake (@wecanmake.bsky.social): ‘Retrofit is seen as really alienating. We’re trying to blow that apart’
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/aj-clim...
AJ Climate Champions podcast: ‘Retrofit is seen as really alienating. We’re trying to blow that apart’
‘What if the power and resources to make good homes were in the hands of our communities? What if yo...
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
February 12, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Join the @wecanmake.bsky.social team at our next Neighbourhood Meet Up to make a cold-busting 'fire cider' tonic, try your hand at some visible mending 🪡 and learn how to safety-check your bike 🚲

Book a spot 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wecanmake-...
February 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
At this meetup, you’ll be able to take part in:

🚲 Bike maintenance with Athlyn and Peter
🪡 Visible mending with Hester and Riannan
🍯 Fire cider making with Tay and Meha
🍲 Shared food + drink
😊 Connect with the wider WeCanMake network

Book your spot: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wecanmake-...
WeCanMake Hood Meet Up – Feb
Meet the WeCanMakers, for an evening of speed crafting and making!
www.eventbrite.co.uk
February 10, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
At our next WeCanMake Hood Meet Up (20 Feb), the team would like to share some of what we like making in our own time with YOU!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wecanmake-...

#Bristol @knowlewestmedia.bsky.social
WeCanMake Hood Meet Up – Feb
Meet the WeCanMakers, for an evening of speed crafting and making!
www.eventbrite.co.uk
February 10, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Just as UK subsidies for Drax and Lynemouth power fuel forest destruction in the SE USA and British Columbia, biomass subsidies in Japan and South Korea are fuelling rainforest destruction in Indonesi: news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indo... #BigBadBiomass
Indonesian forests put at risk by South Korean and Japanese biomass subsidies
Biomass energy subsidies in South Korea and Japan are threatening Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, warns a new report by environmental NGOs. Of particular concern is the nascent but rapidly growing ...
news.mongabay.com
December 15, 2024 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Yes to all of this!

And then maybe in refurb especially, where the need for labour is always going to be higher, we consider the possibility that to be a builder/joiner/plumber/spark, you don't actually *have* to be a white man. That adds c.60% of the population to the recruitment pool.
December 14, 2024 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
👇 What are your favourite examples of community music hubs? Or venues you miss? 👇

@mr.place @communityguy.bsky.social @melissamean.bsky.social @wecanmake.bsky.social
a photo of a concert by benjamin adams shows a large crowd
ALT: a photo of a concert by benjamin adams shows a large crowd
media.tenor.com
December 12, 2024 at 1:04 PM
Seeking the #CommunityLedHousing people on #Bluesky @wecanmake.bsky.social @tomchance.bsky.social @clhlondon.bsky.social

Where is everyone else? Feel a #StarterPack coming on….
If I’ve met you in 2024, I’ve no doubt shared this brilliant paper & my hack highlighting the role for #CommunityLed in filling out the missing third of “common good” homes that actually meet the needs of people & respect planetary boundaries.

What any overhaul of #NPPF should be aiming to do…
December 12, 2024 at 1:40 PM
If I’ve met you in 2024, I’ve no doubt shared this brilliant paper & my hack highlighting the role for #CommunityLed in filling out the missing third of “common good” homes that actually meet the needs of people & respect planetary boundaries.

What any overhaul of #NPPF should be aiming to do…
December 12, 2024 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Excited to share a new report by Material Cultures, situating social and ecological possibilities and context for the retrofit of the Neighbourhood Public Square at @civicsquare.bsky.social. In part it shares an ecoregional mapping of Birmingham + West Midlands, + much more.
bit.ly/BuildingSkillsCS
December 9, 2024 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
📢 Starting our Bluesky journey with exciting news: Footwork’s People & Place 2025 community innovators!

🏘️ These 10 groups & individuals make an ambitious collective, galvanised around a shared mission of locally-led neighbourhood transformation

🔗 www.footwork.org.uk/post/meet-th...
Meet the People and Place 2025 community innovators! | Footwork Trust
Over the next year, community innovators in across the country, will receive Footwork’s support to realise bold ambitions for change
www.footwork.org.uk
November 28, 2024 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
This sounds worth putting in the calendar!

Black Mountains College is partnering with Sparks Bristol to host a Sustainable Futures workshop, bringing people of all ages together to explore what role they can play in creating a just society within safe planetary boundaries.

Free, 25th Jan @ Sparks
December 4, 2024 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
We are absolutely over the moon 🌑 to have been awarded the Community Land Trust 'All About Community' award on Saturday! ✨

John, one of WeCanMake's pioneering residents accepted it on our behalf. You can watch his speech here: drive.google.com/file/d/1-Ypm...
We can make - CLT Awards - Made with Clipchamp.mp4
drive.google.com
November 27, 2024 at 2:24 PM
This is actually a very funny & nice thing 😁
#blueskyroast.com
December 4, 2024 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
Up to 85% of high street department stores have disappeared. But communities are creating new ways to fill these vacant spaces.

Join us 11 Dec with:
@jesscraig.bsky.social
@grahamsoult.bsky.social
@katcj.bsky.social w/ @artspaceuk.bsky.social

Chaired by @jonnelledge.bsky.social

🎫 bit.ly/3OBMdP1
December 4, 2024 at 10:01 AM
Great #StarterPack incoming, courtesy of @nelandrum.bsky.social 🤘
December 2, 2024 at 10:09 PM
Reposting this as an invite to nominate who else should be in this starterpack Have noticed there’s been a bit of gender imbalance in nominations after the initial post. Every place-based change maker 💯 welcome 🙌 … But if you are/ know an awesome women who should be on the list, extra warm welcome 😁
Well this is turning into a pretty ok space to be :) Hello EVERYONE
If you're seeking more #HopeInTheDark (gratitude & citations to @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social) - here's a starterpack of place-based changemakers who're making some of those better futures we all hope for happen.
go.bsky.app/6BNBPgg
December 1, 2024 at 5:08 PM
Move over cheesy dad-jokes. I’m in charge of the advent calendar now! I think my twin teen girls are going to appreciate December in a whole new way 🤘
Day 1:
December 1, 2024 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Melissa Mean
If you want to learn more about what we're doing at Centric Lab, check out this thread that covers the story to date pretty well.
As it's all new here, we’re going to introduce ourselves and what we do through a story. It’s a story of our health, a story of power, dominance, extraction and contamination. However, the story nears its conclusion through hope, imagination and action….enjoy.
November 25, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Well this is turning into a pretty ok space to be :) Hello EVERYONE
If you're seeking more #HopeInTheDark (gratitude & citations to @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social) - here's a starterpack of place-based changemakers who're making some of those better futures we all hope for happen.
go.bsky.app/6BNBPgg
November 20, 2024 at 1:17 PM