Our House: Doors Into Bedfordshire
A new addition to the Our House family, reimagining the giant advent calendar house as Our “Mobile” House travelling across Bedfordshire to share and gather the stories, memories, identities and lived roles of local residents.
What this installation is
Our “Mobile” House is a touring arts installation: the reimagined advent calendar house developed as a public space for stories, reading, reflection and community voice.
Our “Mobile” House becomes a visual and emotional structure that can be encountered in different Bedfordshire locations, inviting curiosity, memory and conversation wherever it arrives.
Each stop adds new material to the installation, allowing Our House to evolve as it travels through towns, villages and neighbourhoods across the county.
- Stories of local life, memory and belonging.
- Poetry, spoken fragments and resident reflections.
- Shared reading prompts and literary participation.
- Door texts, visual responses and audio elements.
- The varied and diverse roles Bedfordshire residents have lived.
How Our House is reimagined
The giant advent calendar house remains the inspiration, but here it is transformed into Our “Mobile” House that can travel, arrive, open and reveal Bedfordshire stories in motion.
Stories behind each opening
Each door or compartment can reveal a role, memory, object, poem, photograph, phrase or recorded voice connected to Bedfordshire lives and experiences.
Our House that journeys
Because the installation moves, it can meet people where they are and let different communities see themselves reflected in the same travelling structure.
A shared county-wide Our House
Our “Mobile” House becomes a shared Bedfordshire space — carrying one community’s voices into the next and building a layered portrait of the county over time.
What stories it holds
The installation is designed to reflect the richness of Bedfordshire life by holding stories of place, work, family, movement, culture and the many identities people carry.
The lives people have lived
It can hold stories of being a parent, child, worker, migrant, neighbour, volunteer, reader, carer, artist, student, organiser, dreamer, elder or witness to change.
Bedfordshire remembered
It can gather memories of schools, libraries, bus routes, estates, workplaces, parks, kitchens, places of worship, town centres and the overlooked spaces that shaped local life.
Stories that travel onward
Each contribution can become part of the installation itself — something to be encountered by the next audience, the next town and the next stop on the route.
Its journey through Bedfordshire
As Our “Mobile” House tours the county, each location adds another layer of story, helping the installation grow into a living Bedfordshire portrait.
Our House appears
The installation arrives as a recognisable but reimagined form of Our House — part story archive, part public artwork, part shared cultural meeting point.
People step inside the idea
Residents and audiences encounter doors, fragments, texts, imagery and voices that invite them to see Bedfordshire through many different lived perspectives.
Stories are added
Each community contributes memories, phrases, poems, reflections, local histories and lived roles that become part of the installation’s growing content.
Our “Mobile” House carries stories onward
Our “Mobile” House leaves one place carrying what it has gathered, taking local voices onward into the next stop on its Bedfordshire route.
Communities meet through the work
Stories from one part of Bedfordshire are encountered in another, helping audiences recognise both difference and shared experience across the county.
A county-wide living archive
By the end of the journey, Our “Mobile” House becomes a layered, public archive of Bedfordshire lives, voices, memories and identities.
How it adds to the Our House family
This installation is designed as a new branch of the wider Our House family: recognisable in spirit, but distinct in form, movement and Bedfordshire identity.
Our House remains central
The core Our House idea remains intact — doors, discovery, story and emotional encounter — while the form shifts into Our “Mobile” House.
A Bedfordshire-specific expression
This version adds a new county-rooted chapter to the wider family, placing Bedfordshire voice, local memory and resident experience at the centre.
Our House that belongs across Bedfordshire
Because it moves, the installation can belong to many places at once, building a shared sense of ownership and recognition across Bedfordshire.
Read more
Explore the visual reference for the travelling installation and a connected Words Chose Me page rooted in Bedfordshire voices, reading and community storytelling.
Our “Mobile” House
A visual anchor for a touring Bedfordshire arts installation built around memory, belonging, identity and the many roles people have lived.
National Year of Reading – Go All In Bedfordshire
Explore the Bedfordshire-rooted reading, storytelling and community participation work that connects naturally with this travelling installation.
On Our “Mobile” House
“A travelling Our House carrying Bedfordshire stories from one community to another.”
Our House: Doors Into Bedfordshire
What it can lead to
The touring installation can grow into exhibitions, readings, performances, publications, community gatherings and a lasting public record of Bedfordshire voices.
A moving public artwork
The installation can appear across multiple locations while remaining recognisable as one evolving artistic structure.
Stories into spoken form
Text and voice gathered through the tour can be shaped into readings, recitals and live public sharing.
Stories into legacy
Over time, Our “Mobile” House can become a rich archive of Bedfordshire memory, language and lived experience.
Be part of the project
Help develop this as a touring arts installation that carries Our House across Bedfordshire in a new form, inviting each community to see itself reflected through story, reading, memory and place.
Develop Our “Mobile” House
Use this concept as the basis for a touring Bedfordshire installation that adds a bold new chapter to the Our House family through public storytelling, reading, memory and place.