Building a Green Room

Lots of different services take up space in London. Food banks, warehouses, galleries, charity shops, libraries, health services, schools, universities, barbers, hardware stores, florists, supermarkets, corner shops, restaurants and office spaces all vie for attention and investment.

So what kind of space does climate action take up? Does it take up space in a mall, a library, or a bookshop? If it’s on its own, what does it look like? A shop? A café? A therapy room? A gallery? A grocery store? Something else entirely?

Does it even take up space? I spent a lot of time at the Design Council gathering resources and talking about the long and bumpy road to change. I also ran two virtual residencies over the last two summers. I think of our upcoming transition as being partly about learning things, meeting people to learn with, meeting someone to keep changing with, building enough camaraderie to maybe change energy providers, pension plan, jobs. Technically you could do all of that online too.

So why take up space?

A brick and mortar feminist library, mental health clinic a LGBTQ+ centre or the Vagina Museum signals to a community larger than the people who walk in that what they’re doing is important and worth taking up space. But it doesn’t have to be forever? How often does it have to appear for it to be more than a quirk? And how visible does it have to be to imprint itself in the imagination of the passerby?

How do you make a space accessible, diverse, representative of the community you take up space in? Who feels excluded when you open? There are lessons to be learnt from Cereal Café, makerspaces and LTNs. It’s about more than a virtual tour of the space.

Then there’s the financial underpinning of the space? How do you make that work? How do you ensure employees and contributors are paid a good wage, are unionised and are treated well? What happens in the space that could give you enough income to survive London rents? Do you set it up as a membership organisation or a cooperative? Do you sell LEDS, books, home batteries, solar panels? Do you help people understand climate change or find a green job? An EV charger installer? Do you help them repair their toaster?

All questions I have and I’d like to explore with others to build a prototype of sorts in time for COP28. If you’re interested, I’ll be having coffee in the Barbican Kitchen at 10am on Friday 14th of July and will be on Zoom too. I’m alex at designswarm dot com if you’d like to talk before that.

Update July 11th 2023: Started a Notion page with more thoughts.