A 'mini-town' in the centre of Stroud that; Invites Curiosity; Supports Makers; Encourages Creativity; Culturally Connects.

My project is the proposal of a ‘Makers Street’ in the centre of Stroud. Stroud is a market-town in southern Gloucestershire, with a vibrant Saturday morning market. It has strong community and sustainability morals and a forward-thinking nature.

I began my project by analysing various shipping container villages, and I spoke to people who rent units at ‘The Boneyard’ in Cardiff. From this initial research I developed the key themes that drove my design project; a need for affordable, accessible spaces for small buinesses/makers; shipping container villages have a magnified sense of community & creativity; a need for flexible/varying unit sizes for different scales of businesses/makers; provide a sense of security & permanence.

This resulted in the idea of creating a ‘mini-town’ of creativity and productivity (a progression from the traditional shipping container village design), that accommodates different making professions and scales of small businesses. My key design principles were; Inviting Curiousity; Supporting Makers; Encouraging Creativity; Cultural Connection.

The outcome is a ‘Makers Street’, which hosts a variety of sized spaces (connected by removeable inner-walls that can be removed if/when a business outgrows it’s space), positioned around a central courtyard with pedestrian walkways through and around the site, and stairs connecting to the existing market square. The material choices are either reclaimed brick (from the existing buildings on site), fibre-cement board panels, or clad with items made by the makers on site (e.g. ceramic tiles or timber slats).