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#35 Laundry Noticeboard

posted by Dave Gravina on February 5, 2009

I live in a medium sized building (maybe 80 residents) in the inner city Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst and while i see my immediate neighbours regularly and say hello and occasionally run into some of the tennants who have lived their longer in the corridors i still haven't met most of the people in the building after four years.

I guess this is just a product of busy lives and unavoidable unless i want to spend time oitering around my building, so i had an idea. We have a rooftop laundry where many of us do our washing so i thought i'd set up a noticeboard as an experiment in creating a space for us to discuss ways to improve the building, share our things, get to know each other a bit better.

Making the Noticeboard

I wanted to re-use an existing picture frame i had lying around the place rather than buy a new board so we (thanks Kate!) attached some corkboard to it and placed the (rather quirky) noticeboard in the laundry.

I thought we should start off with a bit of fun and posted a missing sock announcement.

Week 2: The ideas start flowing

It took a little while for poeple to start to use the board but the first person to contribute raised the ongoing question of what to do with our rooftop which is massive and has great views but due to Body Corporate rules is pretty spartan and unused.

i contributed the locavore concept idea which involves a group of innovative ecological designers installing and maintaining a rooftop vegie garden (we have one on our studio roof).

Someone was kind enough to supply extra pins :)

Week 4: Voting commences in earnest

The Rooftop ideas voting proceeds

Week 6: Things get interesting ...

The board starts to take on a life of its own, someone offered a new
pen (after the last one mysteriously dissapeared), a lollipop appeared
out of nowwhere and someone decided to create a vote for the rooftop
usage ideas!

week 8: Clothes reunited!

A neighbour accidentally collected another's washing and what could have become a feud became a chance to connect via the board and after a notice was posted the clothese were safely returned!

I also gave away an old DVD player i wasnt using on the board this week to a grateful neighbour (and new friend!)

The board really feels like its working now.

week 10: The rooftop garden wins!

By far the most popular idea for our rooftop was (surpirse surprise!) a rooftop garden. So i added a note asking people to bring a plant up to the roof rather than try going through the body corporate.

Let's see what happens in my new experiment .. The Rooftop Garden ...

Comments (6)

Have you heard back from the sock as yet. A postcard perhaps? Did the sock go on holiday? Perhaps it was socknapped.
Great idea with the notice board. I might try and replicate it in my building.

Piers 7 January 2009 at 20:22
Permalink

Alas no the sock news to report Piers. The missing socks beureau has been informed however and we continue to maintain hope of a return to its partner (and my feet) one of these days.

 

Dave Gravina 18 March 2009 at 13:22
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Picture of user chrisgaul

Poor sock. Maybe something is… afoot?

Chris Gaul 18 March 2009 at 14:32
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Just an introduction. Glad to be here, I'm new. Saying hi to all you all. ;)

SLK

StephenLK 5 September 2009 at 04:24
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Hi,
I am new to the forum and just saying hello.

Bobby 17 October 2009 at 00:37
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Picture of user DaveGravina

Hi Stephen, hi Bobby - welcome and please feel free to contribute experiments to the site!

Dave Gravina 18 October 2009 at 10:08
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