Richmond Community Gardens are about to get an exciting upgrade. Work on a new community gathering space is about to begin in preparation for a container cafe, called Riverlution, set to arrive later this year.

Greening The Rubble, an initiative focussed on creating green spaces for social wellbeing, is working closely with Richmond Community Gardeners to kickstart the Riverlution.

The team has co-designed a community courtyard as a welcoming gathering space. Detailed landscape design is complete and locals can expect to see developments unfurling on site in April.

Greening the Rubble Design and Construction Lead Jordan Hampson says, “We’re thoroughly enjoying this collaboration. Shared workshops focussed on participatory design which allowed us to gauge the wants and needs of the community and have lots of fun along the way!”

Riverlution and the Richmond Community Gardens are great examples of local innovation, demonstrating what’s achievable when communities come together, and the vast potential for red zoned or transitional land. Projects on interim land provide a unique opportunity to test ideas in ‘light’ form which are innovative, low budget and responsive to the community. The community gardeners are passionate about improving their community and have achieved a lot in a short time. Riverlution is the next step in their plan to encourage community engagement and connection in the area.

Richmond Community Garden Trust Chair, Hayley Guglietta, says “The Community Cafe is an opportunity for us to become more sustainable as an organisation, offering a bumping space for our sister community groups such as Delta, Shirley Community Trust and Youthtown and to activate the Te Ara Ōtākaro-Avon River Trail, with a beautiful place to start and finish the trail or just to come and enjoy a coffee.”

On Sunday 31st of March, Avebury House and Richmond Community Garden are holding the Avebury Gala. This is a fantastic opportunity to experience first hand the groundswell of community action. There will be an extensive car boot sale, kids activities, music and food as well as a showcase of local initiatives. Greening the Rubble will be there to talk about the Riverlution Cafe project.

These projects don’t happen without the generous support of community members and local businesses donating their time. If you would like to get involved with either of these projects, please contact (Greening the Rubble or Richmond Community Gardens).

The space has been made available for transitional use by Land Information New Zealand and is supported by CCC’s Enliven Places Programme.

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