MRA: In With The Pigs: Magnificent Kingdom Office Opening Party

A Reason to Celebrate: It has been a long time coming but 22 September saw Mag Rev celebrate the completion of their office space at Hackney City Farm. The office has been dubbed the "Magnificent Kingdom" and you can view the story of it's development here, here and here. What a mammoth effort it was indeed to get the secondhand shipping container into the farm grounds. Big thanks to all those strong men made sure it landed perfectly next to the pig pen.

Shaun & Ellen installing bike sculptures for the party

We spent a frantic day cleaning, clearing, constructing, cooking and drinking loads of coffee. It is always surprising how much work putting on even a small event is, but this one was a labour of love for us all.

We called the office party "In With The Pigs" because that is very much were we now are - right next to them. Despite pigs common reputation - greedy, slovenly, smelly - we find them to be wonderful neighbours. They do a great job reminding us of the important things in life - rest, peace, affection and smiling in your sleep. At the moment they are about 5 meters away from our office window, but soon their pen will be extended to come right to the underneith our window sill. I hope this gets done before I have to go back to Australia.

For the Party we erected some wikid bike sculpture that Shaun had made a while ago. It was great to dust them off and have them watching over the party. The wooden one is designed to pedal a bike, when hooked up to a reversed pedal generator, but unfortunately it snapped a tendon in its leg, so couldn't show off its pedal skills.
We cleaned out the space and made it into a gallery, exhibiting photos from the volunteer day. So many people helped make this wonderful office a reality. It is inspiring to see how Mag Rev can drive so many people to be involved.
Check out more of Shaun's work on his new blog -Termite Head.

View out of the office to party and pigs

Photo exhibition of the building process and volunteer day


Party sytems go!

Entrance to the Magnificent Kingdom. We're not minimalists, there is usually furniture inside. For the party we converted the office to a gallery space, exhibiting photos of the office's development.

A touch of rustic bicycle calm

About the Office: A second hand shipping container has been transformed into a brightly-lit office space, made from recycled and salvaged materials, a roof top garden of native wildflowers and conductive heating system.   The aim of the design was to have the least amount of impact of the site as possible. The roof top garden acknowledges the footprint that the office has created and helps link a green corridor to the surrounding wildflower meadows.


The original design

  In fact, every part of the office’s design has been well considered in order to have the least amount of impact on the site and the environment:
- The foundation under the shipping container is made from crushed rocked and reclaimed railway sleepers. As the shipping container is lighter than a regular building, we were able to avoid laying a concrete foundation.


Roof top wildlife

-   The shipping container has been wrapped in Black Mountain sheep’s wool insulation manufactured in Wales from UK sheep for warmth, a breathable membrane for waterproofing and encased in timber from recycled pallets that were previously used in a temporary structure at the Spitalfields City Farm. The old markings on the pallets have been retained, to create a rustic assortment of natural and industrial shades on exterior for office. All the off cuts from the pallets were given to the Hackney City Farm to be used as kindling in the wood burner in straw bale education building, so nothing was wasted.
- The floor and the ceiling have also been insulated using recycled wood fibres.

Our little fish bowl to the outside world.

- On the interior, the floor and cupboards were made from strawboard, which is a material made from waste wood fibre and compressed with natural plant resins. These have been finished with linseed oils rather than a varnish, while the interior walls have been painted with natural paint from Ecos Organic Paints.

Fully operational

-   The building is then topped off with the wildflower roof top garden, which follows the principles of the Brown Roof concept. Some of the flowers that can be found in the garden are Crested Dog’s Tail, Blue Fleabane, Dune Fescue and Creeping Cinquefoil. The garden has been designed to provide habitat for a variety of insect species, creating a greater biodiversity than was on the site before the office’s construction.

The office is a cosy but adequate size to house MR’s team of six staff and volunteers. Its north-facing aspect gives the space a great source of natural light all day long. There are plans to connect up a conductive heating system for the winter, utilising the heat from the kiln in the farm’s pottery studio. This will keep the office warm during the winter using the excess heat, rather than building a separate boiler or installing another fuel/wood burner.
The office looks over the paddocks that during the days are filled farm animals and visitors to the farm. It is great exposure for MR, having so many visitors coming to the farm and then stumbling upon the office.
The total budget for the new office was £8,000, which included a generous donation of £6,000 from the Castle Climb Centre as part of a grant program that run in 2009. “The funding mostly covered the costs of materials so we were lucky to have such a fantastic team of volunteer to do the design, building and construction.

    A big thanks particularly to Shaun Termitehead for doing all the construction gratis - what a great dude.

Let the party began!!