A podcast by design studio, Agency of None. Ryan McLeod and Lyall Bruce look at what design is.
Podcast Overview
A podcast by design studio, Agency of None. Ryan McLeod and Lyall Bruce look at what design is.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
9/27/2018
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Recent Episodes
July 13, 2022
05 - Conclusion
We're summing up everything we've learned throughout creating this podcast and trying to work out what we do next. There have been so many interesting avenues to explore with all our guests it's been hard to condense them all into this series. Space is such a complex issue that hasn't been solved over many years with many people trying. This series was never going to solve the problem but we have come up with a few key learning and starting points. We have to start with the creative community and bringing people together to define what we actually want for the future and how we do that together. In the same way that Baltic Creative and Midsteeple Quarter have done, we need to create a long term vision that people can get behind and a business plan that will attract investment. Beyond that we need to define a structure which could take many different forms but we need to create a protective layer between creatives and property. This could be the ownership model, the CIC model or working in partnership with a landlord/local authority who are committed to the vision. What we've seen in the past and recently is that if you are at the mercy of the commercial property sector long term sustainability just won't work. Agency of None - twitter.com/agencyofnone
July 13, 2022
04 - Placemaking
We need to appreciate the value creatives bring to areas of our cities when we give them space and create a destination. There are so many cultural and economic benefits attracting other businesses and visitors to the area. Mark Lawler from Baltic Creative CIC talks us through how they have completely transformed a former industrial area in Liverpool into what is known as the Baltic Triangle. There are two real strands to what they have done. Firstly, creating a commercial property company that essentially holds the assets in trust solely for the advancement of the creative community and their activities. This has been done by creating the company as a community interest company (CIC) which means the profits are only used in 3 ways: for reinvesting in the properties that house creatives, reinvesting in creatives through training or other support or reinvesting in the wider sector strengthen the sector in Liverpool. A CIC is essentially a normal limited company but it exists purely for the benefit of the community. Secondly, Mark talks about the area company which works as a lobbying organisation. Through this company they generated a vision for the area and a business plan to get people on board and to support the project. This vision for the future of the creative community is something that we are really lacking in Dundee. We really need to come together to work out what we need and want for the future. Mark also goes on to explain that the support and buy in of the local authority is crucial to create long term strategy and sustainability for an area. Again this is something we feel Dundee lacks and although the marketing materials celebrate the design in Dundee, the examples that are heralded are the big corporate businesses not the strength of the small scale creative community. We wanted to bring back in some of the thoughts of David Cook around the provision of space in Dundee and why creative businesses want to stay small rather than growing exponentially. This model of growth is what the economic develop of a city want but it doesn't take into consideration the quality of the creative outputs. It also fails to address the issues of creating a culture and space to allow the small scale businesses to thrive. An interesting potential development and placemaking opportunity in Dundee's Blackness area has been proposed by Kennedy Twaddle Architects and 71 Brewing. This goes back to the same building we discussed with Joanna Helfer in episode one where Tin Roof were based. Baltic Triangle - https://baltictriangle.co.uk/ Baltic Creative - https://www.baltic-creative.com/ Kennedy Twaddle - https://www.kennedytwaddle.com/ Agency of None - https://twitter.com/agencyofnone
July 13, 2022
03 - Community
In this episode we focus on community, how you shape it and the importance of building a culture within a space in order for it to thrive. We start out by speaking to Annie Marrs, Lead Officer at UNESCO City of Design and Gillian Easson Director of Creative Dundee about the needs of Dundee's creative community and what they need as organisations in the city. We then bring in Claire Carpenter who set up the Melting pot in Edinburgh and now helps others start and build coworking spaces across the world. She explains how the melting pot came from a need that she saw to deliver a more flexible model for space, particularly for freelancers. At that time, offering the ability to pay for space as you wanted or needed it was a pretty radical concept but it has now become commonplace. We also go on to discuss the affects the pandemic has had on coworking space and why the terminology is often confused with flexi-working space. Lot's of big corporates like bars, hotels and banks are trying to move into the space but they are offering Flexi-work space. They are not developing the culture and community of a coworking space which is confusing and leads to a misconception of what try coworking is. If you are creating a coworking space it needs to have a community and a culture that is valuable to its members. Whoever is creating or running the space needs to define the the boundaries around who is right for the space and ultimately the right customers for the coworking business. Claire explains some of the complexities around this and a few key considerations when defining how a space is structured and operates. Ultimately, coworking spaces take a lot of effort to run and desk rent does not generate a lot of income so the business model has to work for the scale of the space. We spoke to Christine James of Blick studios who have around 60 members over 3 spaces in Belfast. She talks about what they have done to ensure they have a lean business model and integrated more profitable services to make it work over the long term. UNESCO City of Design Dundee - https://cityofdesigndundee.com/ Creative Dundee - https://creativedundee.com/ The Melting Pot - https://www.themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk/ Blick Studios - https://www.blickstudios.org/
16 total episodes available
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