A creative project in Poplar’s Aberfeldy area uses knitting to visualise air pollution data, raising awareness and sparking conversations about air quality. As the area undergoes major regeneration with over 5,000 new homes and community spaces, nearly 140 knitters have contributed 4,000 hours to craft a large-scale artwork representing a year of pollution data by sensor and pollutant type. With a cost of under £5,000, the project has engaged 130 artists and over 600 participants.

Who is on the project team?

Poplar HARCA

EcoWorld London

Caroline Murray

The Aberfeldy Practice

130+ knitters from Poplar and East London

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

Knitting the Air is a community-led campaign that uses the power of knitting to visualise local data, raising awareness of air pollution and its impact.  Air pollution is a significant local issue. The A12, A13 and Blackwall Tunnel - with over 50,000 daily vehicle journeys – converge in Aberfeldy and contribute to worsening respiratory health. Children in Tower Hamlets live with 5% less lung capacity than the national average. The majority of Aberfeldy’s current housing is social housing, with families having limited choice in where they live. Despite Tower Hamlets having the second lowest levels of car ownership in London, local people’s health is disproportionately impacted by poor air quality, mainly due to the proximity of these major arterial routes.The Aberfeldy area of Poplar is undergoing major estate regeneration, with over 5,000 homes, alongside new parks, community, retail and workspace delivered or coming forward in the next decade. Plans include infrastructure improvements to change traffic movements within the area and create dedicated routes for pedestrians and cyclists. These interventions  – alongside wider measures such as ULEZ - will help to mitigate poor air quality, but will not address the wider issue of vehicle numbers on surrounding arterial routes. 

Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way? 

Poplar HARCA is part of the Breathe London programme, managed by Imperial College London, which aims to democratise access to air quality data across the capital. We installed a sensor at the entrance to Culloden Primary School in Aberfeldy and found another sensor on the A12. The sensors track two pollutants on an hourly basis: Nitrogen Dioxide and Particulate Matter 2.5 (fine dust). We spotted an opportunity to make the resulting data more accessible and relevant by making it more visually appealing – which is where the knitting comes in. Working with lead artist Caroline Murray, a growing community of nearly 140 knitters are lending their time (over 4000 hours to date) and skills to create a large-scale artwork that shows the data for each sensor and each pollutant type over a whole year. Experienced and new knitters, residents (aged 8 to 101), staff and stakeholders – anyone and everyone has been invited to pick up needles. It has galvanised a community and introduced many to a new skill. Knitters are gaining a deeper understanding of air pollution in the area. 

Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution? If it was a temporary intervention, is there a legacy plan? What happened to its tenants, users, materials and programming?

Knitting the Air is founded on making a positive social and environmental contribution. It raises awareness of one of the biggest global environmental challenges, air pollution, and has given voice to communities most impacted by its effects. It has galvanised a community to help tackle the issue by bringing their creative skills to the fore, with over 130 local people contributing to the artwork and over 600 to date engaging with it. The project continues. We expect to show the final artwork in Aberfeldy in Spring 2025 together with stories of the knitters who have made it and the community’s reflections so far. The piece has resonance beyond Poplar and we are in discussions with galleries, museums and other institutions about hosting the work longer term to reach wider audiences.