♥ Client: Arts Catalyst
♥ Collaboration: The Hundreds Club
♥ Year: 2026
♥ Location: London
♥ Collaboration: The Hundreds Club
♥ Year: 2026
♥ Location: London
Where we live affects how we grow up and how we feel about ourselves. Even when we don't think about it, our surroundings shape us. The places we live in, our neighbourhoods, streets, and homes, are shaped, built, and planned by others, and this has a real influence on our lives.
The built environment plays a part in the stories people tell about where they live. When a place feels safe, welcoming, generous, or neglected, it affects how people live and the stories they carry about their neighbourhoods. Cities become the living stages on which everyday life unfolds.
Children are part of these stories too. Their ideas and observations about the places around them are often overlooked, yet they offer powerful ways of seeing the city.
Building Stories shares work from three free workshops designed and led by Sahra Hersi in collaboration with TACO!, delivered with children in Thamesmead as part of The Hundreds Club at TACO! The workshops explored ideas of home, neighbourhood, and city life.
Thamesmead is a mix of social housing, large estates, green spaces, and long walking distances between places. It is a place people often make assumptions about, so the workshops gave the children space to think about it for themselves, designing homes, imagining cities, and reflecting on what makes a place feel like home.
The project culminates in a poster bringing together selected drawings created by children during the workshops alongside a responsive illustration by Sahra Hersi. The illustration gathers elements the children imagined and built during the sessions to form an imaginary city or landscape. In this shared landscape you might spot plants, a community hall, a school, a gym, a hospital, a barber shop, a café, a supermarket, homes, and a post office. The children imagined many more places than could fit here.
The poster is offered back to the children and the wider community as a small act of generosity, sharing some of the ideas and conversations that emerged during the workshops.
Workshops
1. My Dream Home in Thamesmead and Beyond In the first workshop, children designed their ideal homes using collage and drawing. They imagined spaces that felt safe, joyful, and personal. These designs were then turned into vibrant risograph prints. Even at a young age, the children showed how clearly they understood what makes a home feel like a home, thinking about light, colour, gardens, quiet corners, and places to be together.
2. Build a City Together The second workshop took place at the C2K Community Centre, where the group used cardboard to build a city from the ground up. Working collectively, they thought about what a city needs, parks, homes, shops, and schools, and also what they wanted, fun spaces, calm spaces, places to meet, and places to play. Their cardboard city was full of care and intention, showing how imaginative and thoughtful children can be when given the space to shape a world of their own.
3. Stories from Our Block The final workshop focused on storytelling. Each child made an eight-page zine about their block, their street, or their wider neighbourhood. Some wrote about friends, some about places they like, and others about things they wish were different. These small stories captured everyday life in Thamesmead with honesty and humour.
The built environment plays a part in the stories people tell about where they live. When a place feels safe, welcoming, generous, or neglected, it affects how people live and the stories they carry about their neighbourhoods. Cities become the living stages on which everyday life unfolds.
Children are part of these stories too. Their ideas and observations about the places around them are often overlooked, yet they offer powerful ways of seeing the city.
Building Stories shares work from three free workshops designed and led by Sahra Hersi in collaboration with TACO!, delivered with children in Thamesmead as part of The Hundreds Club at TACO! The workshops explored ideas of home, neighbourhood, and city life.
Thamesmead is a mix of social housing, large estates, green spaces, and long walking distances between places. It is a place people often make assumptions about, so the workshops gave the children space to think about it for themselves, designing homes, imagining cities, and reflecting on what makes a place feel like home.
The project culminates in a poster bringing together selected drawings created by children during the workshops alongside a responsive illustration by Sahra Hersi. The illustration gathers elements the children imagined and built during the sessions to form an imaginary city or landscape. In this shared landscape you might spot plants, a community hall, a school, a gym, a hospital, a barber shop, a café, a supermarket, homes, and a post office. The children imagined many more places than could fit here.
The poster is offered back to the children and the wider community as a small act of generosity, sharing some of the ideas and conversations that emerged during the workshops.
Workshops
1. My Dream Home in Thamesmead and Beyond In the first workshop, children designed their ideal homes using collage and drawing. They imagined spaces that felt safe, joyful, and personal. These designs were then turned into vibrant risograph prints. Even at a young age, the children showed how clearly they understood what makes a home feel like a home, thinking about light, colour, gardens, quiet corners, and places to be together.
2. Build a City Together The second workshop took place at the C2K Community Centre, where the group used cardboard to build a city from the ground up. Working collectively, they thought about what a city needs, parks, homes, shops, and schools, and also what they wanted, fun spaces, calm spaces, places to meet, and places to play. Their cardboard city was full of care and intention, showing how imaginative and thoughtful children can be when given the space to shape a world of their own.
3. Stories from Our Block The final workshop focused on storytelling. Each child made an eight-page zine about their block, their street, or their wider neighbourhood. Some wrote about friends, some about places they like, and others about things they wish were different. These small stories captured everyday life in Thamesmead with honesty and humour.