RE:IGNITE — How can we boost our Economy & Independent Business Culture
As part of our trilogy to support community co-creation in the city, thirty seven of us came together to RE:IGNITE Wolverhampton, building on our earlier RE:IMAGINE session a few weeks earlier. At the previous session, people had identified seven themes that they were interested in putting energy into developing further. We shared examples of how similar ideas have been ignited around the world, and in themed breakout rooms, sparked ideas for how we can make this happen in Wolverhampton. This blog is part of a series sharing what happened in each room.
My chosen theme from our RE:IMAGINE Wolverhampton event was Economy and Independent Business Culture — this particularly resonated with me as I run my own graphic design studio in Wolverhampton supporting a host of local organisations and independent brands, and I also run a fashion e-commerce business True Reverie with my husband Tim from our studio in Tettenhall Wood, and so ideas on how we can revolutionise our high street and support local businesses are always top of my mind!
I started by looking at some examples from around the world which touch on the use of indoor and outdoor space in alternative ways, opening up support for local businesses and helping to sustain a vibrant independent business community.
Repurposing empty buildings & unused spaces
I started by looking at ways different cities have been creative with their buildings and public spaces to help promote independent business, local trades and services.
In the wake of economic fallout from COVID-19, urban centres could see a sharp increase in abandoned spaces as some businesses are forced to close. But vacant space doesn’t have to sit idle. If managed properly, it could spark a cultural revival.
Roof tops could be activated as community gardens, bringing people together and helping to create a collective activity which can build relationships. The example in the image above is Soradofarm Vegetable Garden, built on top of the Ebisu train station in Tokyo (read more in this article).
Here we have two incredible examples of how a building’s use can be completely changed an be used as a leisure space for the community (and you can read more about these projects in this article).
Even using limited spaces temporarily can help to revive spaces — in the Street Stories project, windows of empty shops in Leicester city centre have been given a new lease of life as part of a new augmented reality art trail creating an interactive street museum.
Co-working spaces
Co-working spaces are popping up in cities all over the world. They’ve revolutionized the work model and brought life to many communities, changing them for the better. They promote sharing resources and space and so have a positive impact on the environment. They’re also used as community spaces where people can host events and different types of meetings. These two examples show coworking spaces that have brought abandoned buildings back to life.
Duke Studios is an open collaborative space in in a former belt factory in Leeds. Their goal was to turn this space into a creative hub in order to facilitate knowledge exchange, encourage networking and spark collaboration on joint projects with the aim of nurturing talent in the area.
The Old Print Works is Birmingham’s most eco-friendly and sustainable co-working spaces. It’s run by a local charity and hosts woodworkers, ceramists, photographers and a range of other designer makers and community-facing organisations, together with a whole host of events that celebrate and enrich local culture.
Night-time economy
Turning to our night-time economy, we can again look at the use of outdoor space to help revitalise independent businesses and our leisure culture. Markets have always been an important part of town centres. They are often the focus point of city centres.
This market model has been appropriated by breweries in Boston, where they open seasonal pop-up beer gardens across the city promoting their flagship, locally produced beers.
Digbeth Dining Club and Brixton Night Market are great examples of how monthly street food markets help to showcase local restaurants and chefs, and create a colourful and lively atmosphere.
The Brixton market is also a Community Interest Company (CIC) so it offers subsidised pitches to enable new traders to access this highly competitive market, allowing them to hone their skills alongside more established names on the scene.
The breakout room to discuss this theme was very interested in these ideas and were positive and hopeful that, as Wolverhampton as a city does have some really interesting and beautiful architecture, that there is ample opportunity to utilise our spaces in better ways.
It is not often you stand still in the city centre, linger and look up, but when you do you often notice beautiful buildings which you’ve walked past many times. Some of these buildings may have empty shops at ground level, but why can’t we use the window spaces in creative ways to revive the buildings? Perhaps create a trail which tells the story of the buildings historic past?
Or campaign with our collective power to lower business rates so that entrepreneurs of all ages from the city could open pop-up shops, galleries or workshops?
Could we run a “LOOK UP” campaign which, along with increased bump spaces and serendipitous seating and meeting areas in the city, could help to increase local pride and ensure people notice our beautiful buildings?
Could we use some of our great outdoor squares and spaces for more regular markets featuring unique traders from around the city?
Could we collectively turn an empty historic building into a co-working space which would breathe life back into the building and encourage collaboration and entrepreneurship within our community?
Our breakout room thought that the common theme that ran through these ideas was PEOPLE, that it is ideas coming from community level and if we can free people up with a can-do attitude, these ideas could flourish into reality.
This recent article highlighting a report commissioned by the independent trust Power to Change echoes our hope for how community ownership is key to the survival of Britain’s high streets. Now is the time!
