Briefings- Business hubs come home
Enterprise HQ is a hub in Shrewsbury town centre, operated by Shropshire Enterprise Partnership. Its task is to support local home based businesses in making vital connections, establishing clear routes to market and accessing good business advice and support.
Published Nov 28, 2007 - 04:04 PM
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Dublin’s Digital Hub has breathed new life into the city’s once historic Liberties neighbourhood. Lisa Thompson reports.
Published Oct 12, 2007 - 03:22 PM
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Briefings- BRIEFING: Live/work Main Street, USA
Gordon Brown may have upped the UK ecotowns target to 10, but Kentlands in the USA has stolen a march on us. David Gilliver reports
Published Oct 02, 2007 - 01:00 PM
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Briefings- Live/work in France - vive la tradition!
Mention live/work to many people in the UK and they will envisage lofts in warehouses - a very modern use of buildings picked up from the USA.
But learning lessons on what works when it comes to live/work development need not all be about the American approach, or even urban areas at all.
On a visit to France, Live Work Network explored how the continental concept of the atelier could be applied here in the UK.
What is an atelier? According to google definitions, the word means any of the following:
'an artist's studio or workshop' here
'French word for studio' here
'a studio or workroom where high fashion garments are made, also known as a designer's studio' here
'French term for printer's workshop' here
'artist's workroom: a studio especially for an artist or designer' here
What the definitions don't mention is that, often enough, French ateliers incorporate a ground floor workspace with the owner living above. An old fashioned version of live/work in other words.
We visited ateliers in Languedoc in the south of France to see how similar they were to modern UK live/work units. The answer was: very, but usually making use of old buildings in otherwise commercial backstreets and squares.
Typically the ateliers would involve a ground floor workshop in which visitors would also be able to see the artist/artisan working as well as being able to buy their work. Above would be one or two stories of residential use, where they live. Often the ground floors have an informal mixed use feel to them, with a blurring of the distinction between shop, living room and workshop. Outside on the street would often be seating. Out of hours the atelier owner or tenant would probably use the space as their own - watching TV, eating or just sitting with the doors open (but the sign 'ferme' indicating that the premises were in private use that time of evening).
In Uzes near Nimes, Marie Poizat runs an atelier (Atelier de Marie) selling a wide range of art as well as her own crafts, including specialist books such as photo albums and address books. The atelier has seating outside and is informal and welcoming. Inside there is the smell of cooking as well as a colleague using a wireless laptop. Mixed and modern uses combining with the traditional, with ease.
'I moved here from Paris some years ago,' she says. 'I could not afford separate premises to live and work, so I took this atelier to combine the two. It suits me and I think my customers like the less formal atmosphere when they come in to buy.' This could be a UK live/worker speaking - though the context here is that this is common and established type of property use, not a pioneering new concept. Marie told us about atelier owners she knows in this area and beyond across France.
Meanwhile at St Quentin-la-Poterie, a village a few miles north of Uzes, whole streets are lined with atelier units. This is a village which, as its name suggests, is famous for pottery. A live/work village....
High quality ceramicists work alongside one another in St Quentin, which also boats a Michelin star restaurant that attracts high spending visitors. Many live above their workshops which are generally open to buyers even when the potters and artists are hard at work.
It's a classic 'quarter' or cluster, where people doing similar work gain from proximity to one another, rather than seeing each other as just competitors. But in a village rather than a town/city context. View more here and here
Perhaps this side of the channel the Victorian zoning apart of homes, shops and offices - only recently coming under review - made the atelier approach harder to sustain after the industrial revolution.
'Living above the shop' is a reasonably common set up in UK towns, cities and villages. Living above the workshop less so today, though the evidence suggests that this was much more common place in the past when many settlements had artisans such as blacksmiths, jewellers and other craftspeople within their communities.
In the UK today, the shop front for craft, fashion and other products of creative individuals is often just that - a shop front which retails someone else's work. It can also be the website - an online shop front which appeals to UK buyers more and more, recent sales figures show.
There is also in the UK a debate under way about the way market towns are losing their individual character, with many looking more and more identikit (wandering past Next, Edinburgh Woollen Mills, Costa and Waterstones - which town is this exactly?)
In this context, where even the shops all multiples, it is hard to see how ateliers fit in. But they could. Many towns and villages have the right people doing this kind of work. They may be hidden away in the backstreets and they may not have ground floors 'shop fronts' because they don't want to pay business rates or they are not in the commercial part of town.
In rural France, in contrast, many towns and villages are humming with individual businesses. Atelier 'live/work' properties are easy to come across and often help to create lively town and village centres.
It is not hard to see how UK market towns and villages could regenerate declining quarters with an atelier approach. Perhaps this is live/work's equivalent of back to the future?
Published Apr 23, 2007 - 06:32 PM
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Briefings- HOMES MEAN BUSINESS - FULL CONFERENCE REPORT
HOMES MEAN BUSINESS was held on March 17 2006 at Bristol's Watershed centre. The conference was jointly organised by Live Work Network and the Commission for Rural Communities to explore the needs of home based businesses outside the big cities.
At the event, the Commission launched a report produced by Live Work Network: Under the radar, tracking and supporting home-based businesses (available here in downloads)
Published May 08, 2006 - 12:51 PM
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