Urban Scrawl /// Spode Works /// Special Issue

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Introduction

What is this?

URBED (Urbanism Environment Design) was established over 40 years ago and was registered as as an employeeowned cooperative in 2006. We work as urban designers and consultants to a range of public and private sector clients. In doing this we are involved daily in discussions with communities, developers, local authorities and businesses about urbanism.

We launched Urban Scrawl to explore some of the ideas and issues we come across in this everyday practice as urbanists: not things that we are being

paid to look at, but things that we think are worth questioning and exploring further.

In Urban Scrawl we will resist the temptation to talk about our work or promote our services – we do that on our website, www. urbed.coop, which has been developed as an on-line archive of our work. However, as Urban Scrawl is owned and controlled by URBED it is driven by our world-view and the principles that guide us. We hope that these articles that interest us will also interest you.

What’s inside?

We take a reflective journey through the last decade of Spode’s life. Reviewing our URBED masterplan project developed and delivered between 2009 and 2010 - a masterplan that was envisaged under the motto “Grow Your Own Regeneration” where the vision masterplan was to be grown organically and that seems to have become reality through the fantastic and fascinating work of the British Ceramic Biennial in the last 10 years.

We were able to reflect back on this passed time and the changes that Spode has seen within its perimeter walls and buildings but also beyond, within Stoke on Trent too.

We asked a number of contributors to help us draw memories, lessons learnt, hopes, reflections,

admirations and

hopes for the future.

Contributors included past and present URBED members as well as collaborators of the British Ceramic Biennial (BCB).

We wanted to also share far and wide the fantastic outreach projects that BCB have been bringing to local communities across Stoke on Trent. We are thankful for the material BCB have been happy to share with us, which we reproduced in this Urban Scrawl edited version, with their kind permission.

We conclude this edition by sharing some of our work for BCB looking ahead and celebrating the beautiful and always thought provoking British Ceramic Biennial exhibitions through photos taken by David Rudlin during his visit of the 2019 Biennial.

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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What’s next?

We are planning a number of Urban Scrawl pamphlets, smaller versions of the extensive Urban Scrawl publications that focus on one particular subject of current topics of interest.

The first editions of pamphlet editions will focus on the topic of the Future of Planning. We will be looking at the subject of strategic spatial planning, a process which aims to develop a long-term, highlevel guide for the development of housing,

Photographs : URBED p. 8,11, 14, 16, 17, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,52, 54, 55 Lorenza Casini, p. 31 Helen Morgan p. 25, 35, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 Cedric Price p. 40 David Rudlin p. 56, 57 Luca Rudlin p. 26, 27, 28 ,29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 42 Conference Report by Kat Evans, Jo Ayre and Helen Morgan p.18-24 http://www.thepotteries.org/ P10, 11, 12 Distributed under a CC-BY 2.0 license : Front page © Donald Morris P15 © Photograph by Steven Birks P16 © Photograph by Jonathan Hutchins

employment, transport, greenspace and social infrastructure within a particular area.

In July 2020 we have published the first of these pamphlets revisiting our Wolfson Prize winning entry on Garden Cities fit for the 21st Century and exploring what the future of planning may look like in 30 years’ time through an imaginary journey alongside the hero of our story, a young planner of the name William Guest.

URBED : URBED Urbanism, Environment & Design Fith Floor 10 Little Lever Street Manchester M1 1HR t. 0161 200 5500 email: scrawl@urbed.com web: www.urbed.coop

Editorial team : Lorenza Casini, Théodora Fischkandl, David Rudlin.

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Introduction

Editorial We first visited the Spode site in 2010 after URBED had been commissioned to prepare a masterplan for the site. It felt like the workforce had just popped out for lunch and never come back. There were vats of clay, kilns loaded with the next batch for firing and work benches with half painted cups. You could walk through the factory and see the entire production process frozen in time. Not that it was very pretty. There were, it is true, historic parts of the site and a few listed buildings, but it was a factory first and foremost and the the twenty or so bottle kilns that had once graced its skyline had long been demolished to make way for modern electric kilns and functional buildings.

The loss of the big names of Stoke’s Ceramics industry is a very recent wound.

Of course the city remains a major ceramic centre, but the closure of the Royal Doulton works in Burslem and the Spode works in Stoke upon Trent happened at about the same time in the late 2000s.

The former was bought by a developer,

demolished, except for its gates and war memorial, and remains vacant to this day (although plans were announced to develop it as an estate of starter homes early this year – a depressing end to a great industrial legacy).

The Council in Stoke were determined that the same wouldn’t happen to the Spode factory when it closed down in 2006. In a leap of faith, in the teeth of a recession and on the eve of austerity the council stepped in and bought the site. This was something the city could ill afford and in preparing a strategy they were keen to recoup their investment.

There have been times since then when the political pressure has veered to selling to a developer, however a combination of tenacity, market weakness and creative indecision has seen the strategy drawn up

by URBED in 2010 largely implemented.

After buying the site the council held a competition to appoint an ‘international team of consultants’ to come up with a masterplan for the site. URBED teamed up

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

with Gehl Associates from Copenhagen (to make our team international) along with Cushman Wakefield and ARUP and were delighted to find that we had been shortlisted alongside industry giants like Foster Associates and BDP. In our submission we adopted what at the time seemed like a risky strategy. Rather than a grand vision of what the site could be like in 20 years time we emphasised a ‘grow your own regeneration’ strategy, gradually bringing the existing buildings back into use over a number of years while growing demand and values.

Fortunately this approach appealed to the council.

The ‘grow your own’ strategy was based on the realisation that the market in Stoke-upon-Trent was at the time very weak. While it may have given its name to the city of Stoke-on-Trent and was the location of the town hall and station, Stoke-upon-Trent was in many ways the least of the six towns. At the time 30% of the shops in the town centre were vacant, the market for housing and other uses

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was weak and its roads were clogged with traffic trying to get somewhere else.

Losing the Spode works and its workforce in the heart of the town seemed like the final blow from which the town couldn’t recover.

There is always a temptation in masterplanning, particularly when done through a competition, to ignore these market realities and to propose something iconic with lots of new shiny buildings. This was not something that even URBED’s ‘grow your own’ plan could entirely avoid. Our final plan did indeed show a new new quarter built behind the station with a bridge into the site over the A500. We proposed that the vacant rear part of the site should be developed as a supermarket, the only way in that case to generate value to repay the council’s investment along with a hotel and new apartment buildings.

I’m not sure at the time that anyone really believed that this would be built, it was just what was expected and what would

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Introduction

grab the headlines in the local paper.

What was more important was the stepby-step process of getting from where we were then to that future vision. This was something that we constructed very carefully, proposing a strategy to gradually develop the site and to ensure that if the process stopped at any point (as it surely would) the result would still be OK. The strategy was based on the idea that in the absence of developer interest we would have to grow demand. We drew inspiration from the work of organisations like Creative Space Management who were behind the original development of Camden Market in London and Bennie Grey who developed the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham. As our report pointed out, the area around the site was full of people and spending power.

Millions passed through the station every year and along the A500, the University was a stone’s throw away and there were lots of people working in the town hall and Civic Centre and living in the surrounding

districts. All we had to do was to find a way to attract some of these people and their spending power onto the site.

We also discovered that Stoke has a rich artistic community, there was a thriving music scene, a strong ceramics sector (as witnessed by the Ceramic’s Biennial) and unexpected sectors such as an animation scene that had repurposed the skills of the craftspeople who once hand painted pottery. The ingredients were all present to bring the Spode Factory back to life if only there could be found people with the entrepreneurial skill to make it happen and to persuade the hard pressed councillors not to sell to a developer.

The first step was to secure the buildings to prevent further deterioration. We started with the China Hall, the large manufacturing space that has an amazing (if a little leaky) undulating concrete roof.

The council raised a bit of money and we got contractors in to strip out the asbestos, and sort out the fire escape so that it could become the venue for

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

the Ceramic’s Biennial even before the masterplan had been approved. The space has since hosted raves, theatre performances and music events and remains the home of the biennial.

Following this some studio space was created along with the opening up of the old board space as a museum of Spode’s history. As income and activity increased it was reinvested in refurbishing more space that has been taken over by the studio association Acava. They currently operate 43 studios in the building and planning has recently been granted for an £830,000 investment to expand the studio space. Once this is complete the site will support almost as many jobs as it did when Spode was still trading.

A chunk of space has also been leased to Dog and Bone, a property company run by the developer Jeff Nash. He has created a cafe, bar and venue and is developing a linked apart-hotel.

Meanwhile the Ceramics Hall, goes from strength to strength and has just hosted its 5th Ceramics Biennial.

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The journey has not been easy. The hope had been that the supermarket in the original plan would have generated a capital receipt to repay the council’s investment and generate funds to kick start the regeneration. It wasn’t long after that the big supermarkets shelved all of their development plans. At one point the council decided to close the adjacent Civic Centre and put the whole of the site on the market. The idea was to move the council offices into the city centre which makes sense for the wider city but would have been a backward step for the Spode site. In the event this didn’t happen and the council had little option but to stick to the original plan. Through a period of austerity and economic uncertainty this has been incredibly difficult. But the council has stuck to its guns and now has the opportunity to make good on its investment, both in financial terms but also in jobs and the regeneration of Spode and Stoke-upon-Trent.

David Rudlin

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Contents

2-3 Introduction 4-7 Editorial

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

12 - 17 Past and present We review the learning from the city’s past & present

18-24 Open up, Moving in, Moving on Based on the Conference Report by Kat Evans, Jo Ayre and Helen Morgan

25-37 Photos

By Lucas Rudlind, Lorenza Casini

38-41 Stoke(-upon-Trent) Town Masterplan Looking back on the vision and project, By Paul Bower

42-51 China Hall Looks like tower blocks, by Helen Morgan

52-55 Future Legacy Looking ahead - British Ceramic Biennial

56-57 The 10th Biennial 2019 - the 10th anniversary of the Biennial

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

Past and present We review the learning from the city’s past & present The former Spode works closed in 2009 and unlike other industrial towns, that have had many years to recover from the loss of their core industries, in Stoke-on-Trent the wound is very fresh. Further more this blow was has been inflicted in the heart of a recession and at a time of public sector austerity. The history of Stoke Town explains why the smallest of the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries ended up giving its name to the city as well as becoming its administrative centre.

Past : started as apprentices working in the Whieldon Works (which stood south of City Road on what is now the Sideway ‘Stoke’ means ‘place’ or ‘place of worship’

Tunstall Burslem

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Of the six towns only Burslem and Fenton are mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1087), however the stone church of St. Peter Ad Vincula dates from 805AD and was built on the site of an older church which was surrounded by a moat. ‘Stoke’ therefore means ‘place’ or ‘place of worship’ and the church, probably built to serve nearby Penkull, is a great deal older than the town.

For centuries, other than St. Peter’s, Stoke Town was little more than a row of houses on the turnpike road from Newcastle to Longton (now Church Street). This changed rapidly with the development of the ceramics industry in the mid 18th Century. Many of the potters who were to make their name in Stoke

Hanley Fenton Stoke Longton

Stoke-on-Trent: Six town centres

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The ‘Big Works’ on the corner of Campbell Place and Church Street.

site). Both Wedgewood and Josiah Spode started there in the 1850s, the latter going on to buy an existing pottery works in 1776 that became the Spode works until its closure 232 years later.

This was to become one of three major ceramics works in the town. In 1881 Thomas Woolfe opened the Big Works at the Junction of London Road and Church Street and a few years later the Minton Works opened on the site now occupied by Sainsburys expanding to include a tile works on Shelton Old Road (now occupied by Caldwell Communications) that produced 2 million tiles a month. Minton was the largest company in the town, bequeathing the Minton Memorial and Library buildings on London Road and being remembered in the name of Campbell Place (named after Colin Minton Campbell).

Josiah Spode died in 1797 and

was succeeded by his son and later his grandson. The factory thrived on innovations in the production of bone china and underglaze blue printing and became one of the first nationally recognized brands in the early 1800s.

The Trent and Mersey Canal through Stoke was opened in 1777 and is thus one of the earliest canals in the country.

It was designed by Brindley, and Josiah Wedgewood cut the first sod when construction commenced. The Newcastle canal was not completed until 1800 and ran in a four-mile stretch from the Trent and Mersey canal to Newcastle. It was used by the three main potteries in Stoke but was otherwise a financial disaster. It was closed in 1921 but the first section in Stoke Town remained navigable until the A500 was built in the 1970s.

The six towns of Stoke-on-Trent were amalgamated in 1910 and received city status in 1925. Stoke-upon-Trent gave

The Minton Works where the Sainsburys stands today

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Bottle kilns at the Spode works c.1900-1930

its name to the new city despite Burslem and Hanley being much larger because the six towns were all in the Stoke Parish.

It’s not quite clear how it came to be the Stoke’s pre-eminence as a ceramics centre faded in the 20th century. Aerial photographs from as late as the 1960s show a town dominated by bottle kilns and potteries.

administrative centre. This was possibly because neither Burslem nor Hanley were prepared to be administered by the other and possibly because Stoke had the biggest town hall and was a natural centre being next to the station.

Stoke’s pre-eminence as a ceramics centre faded in the 20th century. Aerial photographs from as late as the 1960s show a town dominated by bottle kilns

and potteries. With the closure of the Spode site in 2009 Portmeirion remains the last pottery in the town. This was founded in 1961 when Susan William Ellis (daughter of the founder of Portmeirion in North Wales) bought a company in Stoke and moved into the Goss Crested China Works on London Road.

Portmeirion pottery remains popular and the firm now also owns the Spode Brand.

14 Present : 6,688

The population of Stoke Town, 44% of whom are aged 20-44 which is 20% higher than the regional average

757

Number of new homes planned per year in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme, 11,523 number of homes allocated or identified (15 year supply)

83%

Traffic in Stoke that is just passing through with no business in the town

577

Number of off street parking spaces in Stoke Town Centre

28%

Proportion of shops that were vacant in 2010

View along Church Street towards the town centre

artificial figure because the built up area of Stoke is made up of a networks of towns and neighbourhoods that flow into each other.

Stoke Town is therefore not an isolated settlement but part of a conurbation of 360,000 people. However this city-wide population is predicted to fall by 4% by 2029. The recent Housing Market Renewal programme developed a strategy to deal with this falling population by improving the housing

Stoke Town is not an isolated settlement but part of a conurbation of 360,000 people.

People The population of Stoke Town is just 6,688 people which is only 2.8% of the population of the city.

This however is a slightly

market. 15000 houses were strategically demolished and rebuilt at a higher density, so that these homes could be rebuilt and the population stabilised over the coming decade.

The population in Stoke Town is younger than the national average and 93% is white. Unemployment stands at 5% and economic activity rates at 61.4% which is better than the city centre but lower than the West Midlands figure (65.9%).

Many local people work in manufacturing 22.6% compared to a national average of 14%. Wage levels are similar to the rest of the city but below the regional average and the Stoke Town wards feature in the bottom 20% of the most deprived in the UK. However the loss of Spode

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

and the extent to which its population is reliant on manufacturing makes it vulnerable in the current economic climate.

Housing The housing market in Stoke town is complicated. The town sits at the point where the dense terraces of the city centre give way to the more suburban housing to the south and west. The poorest housing is around the station with high levels of private renting (probably to students of Staffordshire University) and low values.

The terraced housing to the south of the A500 is stronger but even here there are some problems with housing condition and vacancy. The review found some evidence of young professionals moving into the area, which may reflect its affordability and proximity to the station.

Church Street

Stoke-on-trent terrace housing

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16 Transport

Church Street

Shops Stoke Town centre is a small local centre and faces strong competition from the city centre and Newcastle. Its level of non-food retail is substantially below the national average and its vacancy rate is 28%.

Stoke Town suffers from a network which cuts the town in two, severing the main part of the town from the railway station and the University. The town centre also has to cope with significant amount of through traffic – more than 80% of traffic neither starts or ends its journey in the town. To cope with this a complicated one-way system has been created which channels significant amounts of traffic around the edge of the centre, further cutting it off. There have been discussions about a possible bypass to address the problems created by this system. In terms of public transport the town is well served. Most housing is within walking distance of a bus stop and the station which means that rail connections are unrivalled.

These are called Figure Ground plans. They show just buildings (black) and take away all other detail so that you can see the bones of a place. They illustrate the extent to which the centre has changed over the last 100 years.

Figure ground 1900

Figure ground 2000

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Opening Up, Moving in, Moving on Based on the Conference Report by Kat Evans, Jo Ayre and Helen Morgan The Opening Up, Moving In, Moving On event took place on the 27th October during the fifth British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) in Stoke-on-Trent and aimed to explore the relationship between shared studios and professional practice. The event was prompted by the development of the BCB’s own Shared Studio space but was set against a background of sustained growth in makerspaces and communal studios where artists and makers share equipment, skills and inspiration. The 50 attendees represented artists, makers, shared studio founders, managers and researchers from across the UK. In 2015, I (Jo Ayre) became the studio manager for the British Ceramics Biennial. This appointment coincided with my relocation back to North Staffordshire following a decade of living and working in London. I had grown up on the immediate outskirts of Stoke-onTrent and began my early career working at both Wedgwood Visitor Centre and Gladstone Pottery Museum. My own experience of shared studios at this point was setting up with fellow graduates from the RCA, and some years prior to this, a short spell of sharing with Rita Floyd, a bone china flower maker, in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. I was excited about being given the guardianship of what was, at the time, a ramshackle, cold, abandoned series of rooms within the now-closed Spode factory. Excited, and a little daunted; the first time a friend came to

see the space he uttered the prognosis ‘It’ll be great, with a lot of hard work.’

The role of the studio at this time was predominantly as a resource to support the education and engagement I was excited about being given the guardianship of what was, at the time, a ramshackle, cold, abandoned series of rooms

Workshops

20 programme, providing facilities and opportunity for people to work in a live workshop environment, as well as creating products connected with the BCB festival.

My first job was to support high profile British artist Bruce McLean with the making of a large number of works for the 2015 festival. As that festival passed, I spent a lot of time with visitors, volunteers and local artists. It became clear that opportunities for makers to have access to the appropriate facilities

The Jubilee Group in the BCB Shared Studio

The BCB Shared Studio, image by Kim Graham, Clay Comrade

Jo in the Studio, image by Stephanie Rushton, Photographer

had become a rarity within the city.

I was aware of the burgeoning provision of shared / open access ceramics studios within London, such as Turning Earth and Kiln Rooms, and I felt that there could be (as setting would necessarily dictate) an alternative Opportunities for makers to have access to the appropriate facilities had become a rarity within the city.

approach to a similar set-up within Stokeon-Trent. I began with a series of informal courses in the early months of 2016 (the least hospitable time of year to welcome visitors into an unheated ex-industrial space). These proved to be popular and after numerous conversations it became clear that there was an interest in a more open provision of the studio.

In May, following a significant tidy-up and re-organisation of the space, we opened the doors on a Thursday from 1 - 8.30pm to local makers. Instantly popular and successful, this open access has continued since then, necessitating the addition of a second weekday in 2017. The courses that had been provided, shifted too. Through a partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, we were able to begin a series of beginners and intermediate ceramics courses at an accessible price point for all who were interested in the local area.

Other projects that have taken place within the studio have sought to widen participation in creative activity.

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

These include Clay Together, a monthly drop-in session which encourages families and friends to explore making side-byside and World in One City a project run alongside members of Burslem Jubilee, a support group for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

The Clay Comrades at “Lost Gardens of Stoke� commission

The British Ceramics Biennial Open Studio and the Clay Comrades

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The Clay Comrades and the public engaging at “Lost Gardens of Stoke” commission

The why, where, who and how of shared studios

One of the real triumphs of the studio has been the collaboration between members. This has grown out of a shared enthusiasm not only for material and process but for place (Spode Works and Stoke-on-Trent) and community. The motivation and energy required for the initial battle with the cold, pigeons and cat pee, during the first few weeks, has been sustained throughout the past two years and shows no signs of abating. In fact, the goodwill, generosity and creativity of those involved with the studio, has grown emphatically, and provides clear evidence of the drive and determination to develop the studio further and to have a positive impact upon the quality and breadth of cultural activity within the city. Members have been involved with sharing their enthusiasm and expertise

all over the city, supporting the city’s bid to be City of Culture and participating in other regional cultural events. Many of the members have played a crucial role in volunteering during the BCB festival.

The ambition and confidence of the group has grown, partly thanks to the acclaim received for their collaborative work, but most importantly, through the satisfaction felt by the members involved.

The studio has grown and evolved as a reflection of the users of the space. At this moment in time, BCB are exploring ways in which to develop their studio provision from the current scenario, which feels at times like a permitted ‘squatting’ to a more permanent solution, we hope within the Spode site.

The agency of the members is a rich resource, and offers integrity and depth to the collaborative development of this ‘new’ space. The relationships developed around the existing studio have a special quality and it is essential that this is reflected through more than tokenistic consultation, that expansion grows genuinely out of the solid foundations established so far. Stoke-on-Trent, undoubtedly, is somewhere with a great deal to offer to those working with clay.

We have aspirations to improve our international residency opportunities, as well as providing somewhere to showcase local heritage skills, whilst also - most importantly - providing an intersection between different approaches to material exploration.

JO Ayre, British Ceramics Biennial

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

Following presentations by the three speakers, break out groups discussed the Why, Where, Who and How of shared studios.

Individuals in each group asked their own questions. These valuable enquiries have been recorded as prompts for further discussion and research. Beneath these questions, a short summary of the wide-ranging discussion has been recorded.

Why :

Why do people use shared studio spaces?

Why do organisations set up shared studios?

How can shared studios impact on individuals, the sector, community?

Is it better to have a mission (to know why you are setting up) or organic growth that responds to demand?

How do you maintain informality whilst moving forward?

How can you manage a space that is relevant in the present but meets future needs?

Artists use open studios to share knowledge, risk, cost, and specialist skills. Motivation can arise from need, as individual studios are expensive and can require a long term commitment.

Shared studios offer a flexible resource to overcome these barriers.

People are also drawn to shared studios from a desire to come together in person, not in a virtual

space, through a love of materials and processes, and a desire to experiment, and to meet others.

Organisations set up shared studios to support artist development and build capacity in the sector through providing space for visiting artists or short term residencies.

An informal or multi-use studio space can form part of the ecology of a city such as Stoke-on-Trent. Existing beyond the formality of accreditation and Individual Learning Plans, it can bring people together, nurturing talent, skills and thought and creating a physical space where creativity can be enacted and shared.

The physical design of a space inevitably influences what happens within in it.

Studio design can create opportunities for interaction or spaces for quiet making, equally the space itself is likely to influence the

Where :

What issues do artists face working in different geographical locations?

What solutions are there to finding a space that has sufficient flexibility to manage change with sufficient stability to mitigate the risk of upfront investment?

Is place-making a consideration?

How does the existing identity of a place impact on the demand and interest in studio spaces?

ethos of those who use it.

Staffordshire University’s plans for a National Ceramics Centre in Stoke-on-Trent seeks to build on the city’s existing assets.

Finally, rurality presents its own challenges. Shared studio spaces would seem to present a solution to artists’ isolation but finding a financially viable model is challenging when travelling distances are factored in.

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Who is the studio for? How does it affect the local community?

Should access always be open?

How do you promote a studio?

How can you get in new people rather than recurring practitioners?

How can you keep everyone happy?

A shared studio could be used by beginners, people at an advanced place in their career or people returning to their practice after a break. These people may represent different ‘communities of interest’ but inside the studio can become a community in their own right. This new community has the potential to positively impact upon the local community, becoming a resource that others can draw on.

As studios become more established, experienced studio members can take on roles and responsibilities for further developing and managing the space.

New studio members can be recruited by running classes or short workshops, promoting the studio through the local authority, schools and heritage organisations, approaching art groups, community groups and other studios in the area, or by targeted outreach work e.g. weekly open access to young people. The networks of existing studio members are one of the best ways to promote the studio to new members.

The why, where, who and how of shared studios

How :

How do you strike a balance between being organised and creative?

How do you manage the use of materials and equipment?

How should health and safety issues be managed?

How can a studio be sustained and how can income be generated?

Identifying and learning from successful models of shared studios can support new studios to address many of the questions above. Developing and utilising strong online communities of practice, where studio managers can ask for help will also support learning from prior experience. Establishing a good team, with both technical and business skills, is crucial in making a studio sustainable. Possible income streams including members’ fees (an online booking system can streamline this), groups paying to use the space, selling work, teaching private classes or those subsidised by the local authority.

Identifying a studio’s assets (technical expertise, physical space, equipment), can be a good starting point for identifying further income generation strategies.

by Helen Morgan

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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by Luca Rudlin

Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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by Luca Rudlin

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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by Lorenza Casini

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by Luca Rudlin

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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by Helen Morgan

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Urban scrawl: Spode 10 Years on

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Stoke(-upon-Trent) Town Masterplan

By Paul Bower Nearly a decade on from winning the 2010 Stoke Town Masterplan design competition, former colleague and design team member Paul Bower remembers URBED and Jan Gehl Architect’s successful entry and briefly reflects upon what was hoped for and what has happened on the ground in the intervening period since the masterplan was delivered.

The 2008 credit crunch and the subsequent Coalition Government’s austerity driven budget cuts had decimated public-sector masterplanning work to such a state that I still remember the general stir, surprise and slight unease in the URBED office to hear about Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s ambition to commission a town masterplan, whilst simultaneously having to cut its operations and public services to the bone. One of my earliest memories of this project was visiting the City Council’s Civic Centre for the client inception meeting and walking through near empty open-plan offices, and being told of the redundancies and cuts that were in the process of being taken across the city and its six towns - a stark reminder of the context and decade in which we were about to enter.

Cedric Price, who had proposed the unrealised ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ in 196466 for a network of higher-educational learning in the then declining ceramic industrial heartlands of Staffordshire.

With Stoke Town very much at its revived I was walking through near empty open-plan offices, and being told of the redundancies and cuts that were in the process of being taken across the city and its six towns

My only previous connection to Stoke was through the work of radical architect The URBED Routemaster bus at the public consultation

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Cedric Price, Potteries Thinkbelt, 1966-67. Photomontages of housing sites 7 and 17

Cedric Price, Potteries Thinkbelt, 1966-67. Perspective of Madeley Transfer area

heart using the railways and highways as educational arteries feeding the neighbouring potteries communities with knowledge and skills. The ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ has been claimed as a prescient forerunner to the Open University established in Milton Keynes later that decade and of course Stoke’s own Staffordshire University founded a few years later on the northern edge of the Stoke Town masterplan area in 1971.

de-industrialisation, several crippling economic recessions and the continued rise of globalisation. However, it wasn’t all bad, we also experienced a place with innovation and creativity; ceramic knowledge; preserved built heritage; unique industrial and green infrastructure; a mainline train station and good highway connections; a growing university; and a relatively young and educated population.

Our proposal was no less radical or ambitious than Price’s in its concept to ‘grow your own urbanism’ and to see the masterplan for the town develop in several slow and bottom-up phases in part led by local groups and people with a personal investment in Stoke, which was and continues to be in stark contrast to the rapid regeneration and top-down development approach that many other towns and cities in the UK often adopt. Whilst ‘meanwhileuse’ and providing affordable creative workspace is quite common place today within regeneration schemes, at the time this was still relatively untried and untested for many Northern cities, and certainly was not openly received at first.

Our proposal was no less radical or ambitious than Price’s in its concept to ‘grow your own urbanism’

But URBED and Jan Gehl Architects faced some further challenges to Price’s, as the Stoke we encountered had been compounded by further The consultation material on display inside the URBED Routemaster Bus

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Roundtable workshop discussion

The go slow approach is only starting to reap the rewards in the town and its surroundings nearly 10 years on, especially as the masterplan took in an area that is equivalent to a large city quarter. The British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) has returned a cultural beating heart to the Spode Works site at the centre of Stoke Town. It continues to galvanise confidence by bringing visitors, investment and interest to the centre of Stoke-uponTrent; around which more everyday spaces and facilities for local residents, businesses, ceramic

practitioners, producers, hospitality and students continue to gather pace.

All of which allow roots to establish and for Stoke to grow a more resilient and longer term form of regenerative urbanism.

Paul Bower About author: Paul Bower worked at URBED between 2008 and 2012. He is now a part-time design tutor, researcher and academic supervisor in architecture at the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester. He is also a voluntary director of Levenshulme Market CIC (est. 2013); a twice weekly food, drink, craft and vintage social enterprise run market in South Manchester.

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China Hall Looks like tower blocks, by Helen Morgan Spode had always been a place in my consciousness since moving to Stoke on Trent.

As a Crafts student at the local University it was a place of trips, a place of reference and a place of Craftsmanship. We went to buy whiteware for transfer projects, where to buy the house teapot or the cafe for parental visits. When visiting Spode as a working factory there were places you saw and remembered, but the collosal space of the China Hall at that time was almost dwarfed by the kilns, equipment and processes it held.

On the 5th of January 2016 I returned to Spode to take part in a ceramics course run by the British Spode had always been a place in my consciousness since moving to Stoke on Trent.

Ceramics Biennial (BCB).

It was during the period of this first course and subsequent courses that I became intrigued and at times even slightly obsessed by the China Hall. The China Hall and the BCB studio have an almost symbiotic relationship, because of the relationship and proximity of these two spaces (connected

by a large sliding door) and the wider use of the China Hall as the location for the BCB Festival.

October 2016

In May 2016 I began documenting, through photography the China Hall (and specifically the large windows that fill the far wall) everytime I visit the site. When I started I also began to use the hashtag #looksliketowerblocks as a way to represent what the windows resemble when the lights are of in the

44 space. I have also used my instagram account as a way of tracking my visits.

The group that use the open studio over the years have become known as Clay Comrades. The China Hall is a vast space and is my backdrop to Spode and our backdrop to the studio.

It has seen our comings and goings; it is where we go when we need more space, it is where we close the door to block out the festival; it is where we cross to get to the Rose Garden, it is where we go for some solitude and thought.

Helen Morgan

July 2016

November 2016

About author: Helen Morgan is an artist and teacher, her work spans Art, Design and Photography. She is based in Stoke-on-Trent.

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Future Legacy Looking ahead - British Ceramic Biennial Over the last 2 years, URBED has been supporting British Ceramic Biennial (BCB) begin thinking about the next steps and their life beyond the walls of Spode. Prior to looking at a particular building and space, URBED has outlined a collaborative-based process of brief development that BCB can take on board and implement when commencing early feasibility studies.

When we visited Spode Works again at the end of 2017, we were welcomed

by BCB as old friends and we were there during the 2017 Biennial Programme.

We were struck by how far the Biennial had come along since the inaugural British Ceramics Biennial festival in autumn 2009 and its very first Programme in 2011. It was evident that the Biennial has gone from strenght to strenth and has become a major attraction for Stoke on Trent and showcase of national and international scale.

Amongst this inspiring context, we listened to the aspirations, wishes and

requirements that BCB holds and the hopes that a new home for BCB will fulfil for the organisation.

We understood it to be a practical as well as a creative hub for both staff

and visitors. A space and base to develop BCB work, to bring the team together, and to have a physical presence in Stoke in which to deliver exciting programmes both with local

The wish to continue BCB collaborative approach to their work within local communities is to extend to our design approach

communities but also with other national stakeholders.

We also understood this space to have the potential to become a window into BCB activities and work as well as a cradle to foster new creativity and new relationships.

A place where work can

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URBED exploratory stakeholder mapping

develop in conversations, through making, sharing food, celebrations and exhibitions, to name only a few.

We picked up key themes during our visit, which gave form to a concept drawing we feel embodies all these elements together. We hope this drawing can also become a reference point to draw out new conversations, to come back to for reflection on progress and finally to represent the overall vision for this new hub.

These themes are weaved into one another and relate to all the activities and programme that a new BCB hub will accommodate and embody as well.

We see these themes also as drivers in developing thematic workshops with staff, Stoke residents and visitors alike.

We see the journey in finding a new BCB hub beginning from conversations,

to site explorations, through to testing and developing plans and options for the building in a truly collaborative manner, as BCB already holds knowledge, experience and creativity in participatory tools, this to work towards accommodating requirements and fulfil ambitions.

These plans will help BCB find and apply for the most suitable funding needed to deliver the project.

From our initial discussions, we have visualised an initial stakeholder map, we see this as a working diagram that we will use to kick-start further discussions and conversations. This development of this diagram will also help us understand who else, or what other organisations, should be part of this map to inform the brief and spatial understanding of the building.

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URBED illustration of BCB’s aims and aspirations

A place where work can develop in conversations, through making, sharing food, celebrations and exhibitions, to name only a few.

56 The 10th Biennial 2019 - the 10th anniversary of the Biennial David Rudlin visited the 2019 International Ceramic Festival and captured the richness and talent showcased during this special edition marking 10 years since the very first Biennial.

More about this 10th edition can be found [here]

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URBED (Urbanism Environment Design) Ltd Fith Floor 10 Little Lever Street Manchester M1 1HR t. 0161 200 5500 email: scrawl@urbed.com web: www.urbed.coop

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