Year | 2013
Location | Sheffield
Client | Portland Works
The team worked in partnership with community owned Portland Works to produce a sustainable vision for its future use. The site currently lets low cost workspace to tenants supporting a varied number of small businesses and traditional crafts. Following its recent purchase in February 2012 after a four year campaign, focus has shifted to securing its long term future.
Our live project fits into this vision by looking to encourage skill sharing between the local community and tenants at Portland Works, ensuring that the site’s wealth of traditional craft expertise isn’t lost whilst maintaining its historic working context.
The group addressed this with client agreement by focusing on
-Improving the site’s currently unwelcoming entrance whilst maintaining security for tenants
-Introducing a ‘makers lab’ with equipment that can be utilised by tenants , teaching workshops and other interested parties for work’s community profit.
-Implementing way-finding strategies, that make it possible to find and advertise tenant’s work.
The project’s legacy is an instruction manual which will enable Portland Works to continue the future implementation of agreed ideas and strategies. We began this work by clearing the future maker’s lab space and building a workbench on site using found materials and tenant skills. Future idea prototypes and images were presented to shareholders and tenants at an event held at the works, the feedback from which directed the final document’s content. The event also acted as a catalyst, generating positive interest and discussion between shareholders about the future of the maker’s lab, entrance and way-finding strategies.
Throughout the project the whole team gained a valuable insight in terms of producing work for a client within real everyday constraints. For example the speed of workbench construction depended on tenant’s free time between commercial projects. The project combined our design skills with stakeholder input to propose creative ideas that could be realistically taken forward by the works.
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