This post marks the beginning of a long line of inquiry into the development of the design research project titled ‘forgotten spaces, creative places’: reinserting creative practice into the forgotten spaces of Sydney CBD.
This post may be updated as more information and thoughts develop over the course of the design project.
Emergence of Creative Amenity
The reduction of artistic space has arisen over the course of decades in Sydney. As the industrial zones of Sydney shuddered during the 1970s industrial crisis(1) and once-productive factories closed down, spatial voids were created within the inner-city urban environment. These ‘empty spaces’, while seen as wasted to some, would be known in the writings of Ignasi de Sola-Morales as ‘Terrain Vauge’. Reinterpreting these abandoned post-industrial sites and spaces as fertile ground for temporary social and creative activity, as observed in Sydney throughout the 1980s and 90s (2). Through the vacancy of large high-ceilinged industrial spaces, paving the way for artists and those in the creative industries to affordably set up communities around newly found creative industrial zones (Glebe, Ultimo, Green Square, etc). As these industrial zones contained not only vast amounts of open space for a variety of creative practices, they were also equipped with less commonly found tri-phase power delivery required for high-powered creative equipment such as kilns. Within these affordable spaces, artist communities could work together and exchange knowledge, and share specialised equipment.
Disappearance of Creative Amenity
However, as Sydney continued to grow since the 2000s, anecdotal evidence suggests this global push was spurred by the 2000 Olympic Games. Costs associated with once-affordable creative spaces in Sydney rose rapidly, driven by increases in property prices resulting from planning goals and rising interest among global investors in developing high-density housing in the inner suburbs of Sydney. Reducing the availability of industrial land as it was rezoned and earmarked for redevelopment, with areas such as Green Square seeing industrial areas reduced by 30% between 2012 and 2017(3). When extrapolated across the broader Sydney area. These pressures, one can safely assume, when extrapolated across various areas around the Sydney CBD, greatly reduce the opportunities for creative industries and practice to take root near key transport and cultural hubs. Instead, being required to move further out of the CBD area into Sydney’s Inner West and Greater Western and Southern areas. Away from the communities required to sustain and grow artistic and creative practice.
Current Creative Practice & Amenity
This gap between Sydney’s artists’ spatial needs and supply is considerable. Due to rising studio costs, young, entry-level, and mid-tier artists in Sydney are unable to start and sustain their artistic practice while balancing the financial demands of everyday life.
Some studio space renters find themselves needing to divide and sublet their spaces to other artists in order to sustain their practice. With others simply choosing to transform their living spaces into creative studios. Through limited contact or creative practice in isolation, artists are unable to connect, learn, and share the intricacies of creative practice, or take advantage of shared resources and tools, increasing the cost of creative practice and therefore limiting their ability to contribute to the Sydney arts and cultural scene and their connection to other artists.
Questioning The Future
Going forward in this design research project, we must question how and in what form the reinsertion of creative practice within Sydney would look. How can we be spatial agents and work within communities and forgotten spaces to provide creative and cultural amenities for artists, addressing some of the limiting factors they encounter?
As of writing, I am speaking with and exploring further the breadth of creative practices within Sydney, and discovering the hurdles they both see personally and more broadly within their creative landscapes.
So if YOU are a Sydney creative practitioner (full-time preferably), please contact me via my Instagram or email. I would love to chat!