Five districts and 11 town centres have hosted Makespace’s regenerative interventions to refurbish 27 vacant buildings, housing 56 organisations at affordable rents in former retail and offices spaces. Five mixed-use spaces serve as multi-occupier hubs in Oxford City, Didcot, Abingdon, Wantage and Chipping Norton.

 

 

Who is on the project team? 

 

Makespace Oxford (lead); Transition by Design; Aspire Oxfordshire, Wild Property, Soha, Fusion Arts, Meanwhile Space CIC.

 

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

 

In February of 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, The ‘Meanwhile in Oxfordshire…’ programme launched, curated by Oxfordshire’s 4 district councils and Oxford City Council, who secured a £1.9m capital grant from OxLEP via MHCLG’s ‘Getting Building Fund’. The programme was designed to help tackle the rising number of vacant units in urban centres whilst promoting a fairer economic recovery.

 

Makespace Oxford CIC led the delivery through a consortium, using ‘meanwhile use’ as the catalyst to allow entrepreneurs and activists to test, start, or grow community businesses, social enterprises, cooperatives and other activities that would support the activation of the high street and a more inclusive economy. 

 

Our goal was to increase the accessibility of spaces regardless of an individual’s identity or background, especially those who have previously been excluded - physically, financially or socially. 

 

Oxfordshire is made up of a diverse array of neighbourhoods and communities, unique in character, with a striking gap between richest and poorest. 25% of the population live in Oxford City, one of the least affordable cities in the UK with an 15-year difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods and the third highest ethnic minority population in south-east England.

 

The county is also home to a fertile network of social enterprises and community groups tackling the climate emergency, social exclusion, youth support, arts, music and beyond. Many of these groups have been priced out of spaces in their local towns and cities, despite the 369 vacant buildings Makespace identified through the programme.

 

Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way?

 

Across the five districts and 11 town centres, Makespace and partners identified, secured, refurbished and reanimated 27 vacant buildings in only 18 months through COVID lockdowns.

 

56 organisations have been housed at affordable rents (between 40-80% commercial value depending on a variety of factors) and £400k in match funding was raised to support community building activities and further rent subsidy.

 

We knew we had to bring a design thinking and placemaking approach - fresh thinking to processes all too often driven by accountants, agents and markets. We achieved this by involving a wide range of stakeholders at every stage of the scoping, feasibility, design and delivery. 

 

We conducted research and community engagement working with local architects, Transition by Design Cooperative, community actors, activists, and artists to determine the needs in different places. This informed the selection of buildings, the design approach and how to address local inequalities and barriers to accessing space.

 

Makespace worked with stakeholders to champion meanwhile as a catalyst for community ownership and place based renewal. 

 

Informed by placed-based strategies, the team created five mixed-use, multi occupier hubs in Oxford City, Didcot, Abingdon, Wantage and Chipping Norton. Transition by Design led the design and development of these spaces and created a toolkit capturing the essence of the Makespace approach. This included interior design and branding using local artists and reused materials, energy efficiency improvements using One Planet Principles, design interventions drawing best practice from Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE), physical accessibility, gender inclusion and building relationships to place.

 

How did you engage the community?

 

We reopened 27 buildings and connected 56 purpose-led organisations with affordable space, supporting 130 jobs. The vacant buildings reanimated include retail units, a former health centre, halls, offices, restaurants, community centres and a chapel.

 

Case study: Oxford Covered Market 

 

In 2021 Oxford’s historic Covered Market saw reduced footfall and unit occupancy in line with national trends. We refurbished and reanimated five vacant units, supporting start-up social retailers into occupancy on flexible leases and rents. We saw a rapid change in the footfall and engagement with people in the market. By September 2022, footfall had surpassed its pre-pandemic peak which has been sustained into 2023. 

 

Case study: Wantage community hub

 

The team transformed a former health centre which had been closed for over five years. As a result the nearest community space was 12-miles away from a neighbourhood with high levels of social exclusion and isolation.

 

The new community hub, which launched in December 2022, features a community cafe using food surplus called ‘Down to Earth’. The space also has a community garden, coworking space and makers studios, informed by community engagement.

 

Since opening, a sharp increase in footfall has been achieved, spaces are fully occupied and the cafe has surpassed all expectations. The space gained nationwide coverage after featuring on Yahoo News for its forward thinking approach to tackling the cost of living crisis.

 

Working in collaboration with local partners, Makespace has supported or facilitated over 60 events in the past 18-months, fostering collaborations and connection to places.

 

Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution?

 

The approach to the Meanwhile in Oxfordshire… programme has been to foster an inclusive economy. 100% of occupiers are committed to Makespace’s principles of mutual support and solidarity, and to building an inclusive economy. Over 58% of our organisations are supporting people with protected characteristics, including people who identify as from the global majority, or living with a disability. 

 

We know the most sustainable building is one you don’t have to build: The reuse of buildings and materials has been the foundation of this programme. It’s been our responsibility to improve the energy efficiency of these buildings (from E to C), being creative with limited budgets, and adopting smarter building management.

 

Where possible, we have retrofitted buildings with insulation and double glazing. We’ve replaced boilers or switched to electric IR heaters and installed LED lighting. Appliances are demountable so they can be uninstalled and relocated. All our buildings run on 100% renewable electricity and green gas. Designs prioritise reused materials to fuel the circular economy.

 

Makespace have nurtured relationships with groups often less heard and historically less able to access space. We’ve secured grants to provide rent support and worked with global majority led groups to secure space for key activities in the arts, music, theatre, domestic abuse and criminal justice reform.

 

We wanted to ensure that the buildings we reanimated create an environment that is genuinely safe, welcoming and accessible for all; becoming a positive role model of how we can address deeper issues of inequality in our county.