Episode Four

Episode Two

Episode Two

Placemaking

Building value beyond the obvious

Show Notes

Show Notes

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

This podcast series is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

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