We’re excited to be working with Mereida Fajardo as our artist in residence from November 2025 to August 2026!
Mereida’s residency is part of Retrofit Street: a collaborative project between We Can Make and Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) on Andover Road. Retrofit Street focuses on improving existing homes to make them warmer, healthier and cheaper to run, while creating opportunities for learning, skills-sharing and local jobs.
The traditional way of doing retrofit work can be complex, top down approach with lots of technical processes happening at once. As collaborators, KWMC’s role in the project is in creative community engagement for the co-creation process and inclusion – making sure the residents ideas and needs are prioritised throughout the process. We’re also actively involved in developing and delivering with the neighbourhood trade crew what an inclusive site culture would mean for them.
Mereida’s role is to translate the project into simple stories that are clear, welcoming and genuinely useful for everyone to learn about retrofit and what’s happening on Andover Road. Her background in visual art, zines and comics makes her brilliantly placed to do this. Illustration and comics require limited text, which helps make the project more accessible – whether English isn’t your first language, or long written explanations feel overwhelming.
Mereida will be creating five zines throughout her residency. Each one will focus on different parts of the project. We’ll be sharing the zines here as they’re released, delivering copies to homes on Andover Road, with physical copies also available at KWMC.
First Zine – January 2026
Mereida’s first zine is an introduction to Retrofit Street, explaining what retrofit is, why this work matters, and what’s been happening day-to-day on Andover Road.
With support from Chloe Meineck, KWMC’s Creative Producer on Retrofit Street, Mereida has quickly built an understanding of the project and brought it to life in a way that feels simple and grounded in real people and places.
Mereida’s reflections so far…
My time as artist in residence on the Retrofit project has been fantastic so far. Day-to-day, I’ve been joining the Neighbourhood Trade Crew as they work on homes on Andover Road, and it’s a pleasure to observe them at work. KWMC and We Can Make have worked hard to create a welcoming, inclusive environment that makes it a joy to come to work everyday.
I’ve come to the project with zero understanding of retrofit, construction or homes, so a big part of the project so far has been learning about these processes and approaches.
It’s really pushed me out of my comfort zone and it feels exciting to be part of the growing retrofit movement and part of a national network of projects exploring retrofit in new ways.
Second Zine – February 2026
Mereida’s second zine focuses on the Neighbourhood Trade Crew who are performing the retrofit on five homes on Andover Road. The Trade Crew is made up of local tradespeople and Andover Road residents who are learning about using sustainable building materials and methods.
This zine explores what it means to create an inclusive Trade Crew that prioritises wellbeing and healthy workplace practices. The zine features interviews with various members of the trade crew about their experiences, alongside drawings Mereida made on-site of the trade crew at work.
I had so much fun working on the zine, as a big part of my residency has been being on site alongside the crew and observing them at work. I’ve learnt so much from them and seen them doing amazing work and create a wonderful, welcoming team environment, so to get to give something back in the form of this zine centring their work has been so lovely.
– Mereida, February 2026
The zine is shaped like a Trade Crew hi-vis jacket and risograph printed. Risography is not only a more sustainable print method (using much less energy than normal printing), but it also perfectly captures the jackets’ fluorescent orange!
Third Zine – Spring 2026
This zine shares more about the co-design process and research that went into developing a ‘recipe’ that works for the kinds of homes found in this neighbourhood. It shares:
- What’s been happening on Andover Road for the past two years.
- The residents involved in the project.
- How we’re working together to co-design solutions to make their homes warmer, greener and healthier places to live.
Final Zine – Summer 2026
The fourth and final zine is all about the Retrofit Recipe co-designed with neighbours, architects and experts to improve homes on Andover Road.
Building on the previous zine, we go in depth into the different measures that residents could do in their own homes, to make them warmer, healthier, more spacious, and better for people and planet. From loft insulation and storage solutions to retrofitting the garden for wildlife, the Recipe looks at retrofit from all angles.
With every Retrofit Zine I’ve had the opportunity to try out something different, experiment with styles and ways of telling the story. I was quite daunted by this zine as I knew it would be the most information-heavy and technical of the bunch, and its been a joy to explore infographics and graphic design in order to make all this complex information easy to understand.
– Mereida, 2026
Once again we’ve printed the zine in risograph, this time in bright green, and even made a special edition that uses cork (similar to the cork used in the flooring of some of the homes) and a breathable membrane (actually used in the floor insulation) to create the cover.
Printed by Formatte UK.
Our Collaborators
This project is a collaboration between 6 households on Andover Road, WeCanMake, Knowle West Media Centre, and the University of Bath. Special thanks to the Transforming Homes project funded by Innovate UK. We’re proud to be part of a national network of people doing retrofit differently called Retrofit Reimagined.