IMAGE: Pexels
What is coworking?
Coworking spaces offer an open and supportive shared working environment for people in the creative industries. This is a fairly new model of work and is particularly popular amongst freelancers, start-ups and small businesses.
The importance of community
Coworking spaces are both a part of and support the wider community, whilst fostering their own community of members within the confines of the space itself.
QUOTE: Coworking Europe
The Sustainable Studio
In 2016, sisters Julia Harris and Sarah Valentin went in the search of work space for their growing sustainable fashion company Zolibeau. What they found was an old munitions factory in Cardiff, and so they decided to set up a coworking space for fellow makers, creatives and artists. This was the start of The Sustainable Studio.
Making it what it is today
Julia and Sarah did not have any funding to help set up their coworking space, instead they created the space themselves, with only £5,000 (to cover fire safety and electric) and the help of family and friends (luckily, dad is an electrician).
Growing a community
Julia and Sarah held two open days to find people to join The Sustainable Studio, and their deposits were used to help fit out the space. From there it continued to grow organically, thanks to their serving a need for work space in Cardiff. Now they have over 40 members, from artists to designers to jewellery makers.
QUOTE: The Sustainable Studio
Their ethos
What is apparent when you enter The Sustainable Studio and talk with Julia and Sarah is their value of community. From their fashion business, they have brought across important relationships with people from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, asylum seekers, and those from deprived areas.
This desire to give back is also reflected in their ties to the University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Bridgend College and Cardiff and the Vale College, as they provide the younger generation with opportunities for work experience, work projects and work space. This is helping to inspire the creatives of the future.
QUOTE: The Sustainable Studio
The danger
The land that their building sits on has been taken over by Vastint UK, and with plans for redevelopment of the land, The Sustainable Studio are being asked to move out by the end of the year.
This would mean that all of Julia and Sarah’s hard work would be wasted, the workers housed there would be displaced, and all of the community links that they have spent so much time building would be lost.
Their hope
Julia and Sarah strongly believe that they are so entwined with the community that they should be part of the new redevelopment.
This demonstrates the importance of location to coworking, as they feel that by up and moving to a different area, they will be losing a massive part of their identity.
Coworking is all about relationships, support, collaboration, skill-sharing and most of all community.
So, here’s hoping that Cardiff doesn’t lose a valuable part of theirs.
CREATIVE CONVERSATION 