A few weeks ago some OU design academics plus regional and part-time staff signed up for a tour of the “Makerversity” located in the bowels of Somerset House in London. Makerversity is, undoubtedly, the biggest maker-space in the UK. With space for more than 350 members and spread over two basement floors, it offers a range of making facilities with workshops for wood, engineering , textiles and digital making as well as a sound studio. The space also offers desks and lockers for members, which can be rented in a number of ways, as hot desks or permanent spaces and with free access to Autodesk Fusion.
The stated aim of the organisation is ‘to bring together people with all kinds of creative and technical expertise’ to ‘play together and inspire each other’. Makerversity also involve their members in running learning programmes for young people to inspire the next generation and to increase diversity within the creative industries.
Our trip to the space was inspiring, the prospects of working within an iconic building, with views across the Thames has strong appeal. But the strongest appeal is the access to a wide range of making equipment, for a membership fee rather than needing to make a large capital investment in equipment and space as a lone maker.
The stories from the members of Makerversity, which can be found on its website, overwhelmingly tell of how the mix of creatives with different expertise is a rich source of ideas and problem solving. Many of the makers are embryonic start-up companies seeking to prototype and explore ideas. The technical support and expertise available enables these innovators to focus on their creative work without the worry of large overhead costs. When makers reach a point where they are ready to move to the next level, then there are a number of larger spaces in the vaults of the building which can be hired for companies to expand into, whilst still having access to the facilities of the maker-space. For example, innovative fashion design company ADAY, which is primarily based in New Yor, rents a vault at Makerversity for its London design team, and their involvement in the making community has led to the cross-fertilisation of ideas and the use of innovative textiles in their designs.
Another designer, at the start of building a business, is Oliver from Fuzl who has invented flat pack furniture that can be assembled and disassembled quickly using packaging clips as fasteners. Through his membership of the community he found out about a Design Council funding programmes (and was successful in applying to it), he has also got assistance from other members, for example, to create canvas bags for his product to enable it to be sold plastic free. Having designed his products, his next step was a Kickstarter campaign and a pop-up shop and he is now searching for seed investment to scale up production.
The opportunities afforded by a space such as Makerversity are enormous, enabling designers to test and develop ideas within a creative community at a relatively low cost. To be able to do this in the heart of London, in such a prestigious location, also has enormous benefits as the designers from ADAY attest. Whilst the makerspaces in many other towns and cities are to be celebrated, this model of working which is a hybrid of a makerspace and a co-working space is something that could make a huge difference to independent designers and makers; it would be great to see it rolled out more widely.
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