WHY? THE CITY, SPACE AND PEOPLE
Affordable space for people who make stuff
London. Its expensive, to live and work. It's becoming a city for those who can afford it. Its a city increasingly dominated by intangibles, cocktails and small talk. People who work on the edges, who are trying new things, who are taking risks, who are pushing boundaries are being priced out.
We believe these people are fundamentally important to what makes London great and should be put at the heart of the city to ensure there is crossovers of ideas, serendipity, creativity and diversity.At the same time so much space in London is left underused, empty and vacant.
For these reasons we are restoring part of the beautiful historic and iconic Somerset House and attempting to bring industry back to the banks of the Thames. We are building an underground bunker of affordable space where people have the room to follow their intuition and energy.
We also believe that by bringing together a community of makers, designers, radicals and pioneers really beautiful, unusual and progressive things might happen. We aim to be the beating heart of London's & the UK’s 21st century manufacturing industry.
WHY? POSSIBILITIES OF DIGITAL
A place for Pioneers and Prototypes
The third industrial revolution? The maker movement? We hear a lot about these changes. It can be tricky to separate whats exciting from the hot air.
But we are excited for two main reasons.
1. Reduces the cost and time barriers to creating prototypes
Firstly new digital manufacturing technologies reduce the costs of prototyping, making and manufacturing in small batches. Making new things, setting up new companies, developing ideas can be expensive and high risk. Through affordable access to shared equipment and access to knowledge and experience there is less in the way of moving from plans to a prototypes.
2. Technological empowerment
We have seen first hand the way that exposure to new technologies having space and time to learn them can be incredibly empowering. Once technologies and machinery have been demystified people really get creative in their uses of them.
Through low cost access to tools and expertise and our members working on the cutting edge, we hope many people outside the fields of design and technology will feel empowered to dip their toes in the technological water at Makerversity.