Creatives will move out of Sydney – here’s how to keep them

Creatives are being priced out of Sydney, with some paying more than 60 per cent of their income on rent.

While Sydney is already seeing the results of the affordability crisis, the city’s cultural workforce is shrinking four times faster than the national average.

On top of the housing affordability crisis, there was now a crisis for affordable creative spaces.

Last week, the Committee for Sydney launched its Making it in Sydney report, and with the launch event at Rozelle’s White Bay Power Station came an expert panel discussion moderated by the committee’s culture policy lead, Matt Levinson.

Joining him was WilkinsonEyre Architect director Sebastien Ricard, Create NSW portfolio director Roslyn Mayled, The Nest co-founder Daniel Bourne, and Mirvac’s project director for Waterloo OSD (over station development) Ryan Thomas.

“Creatives come in all shapes and sizes,” said Levinson in his opening keynote speech. “There’s almost this sense that creative people in creative spaces should be grateful for the spaces they were given.

“Though there’s a transaction happening, these creatives are helping the values of these places, and that is a value delivered to the developers and the people who live in these places.” 

According to Levinson, there needs to be long term, affordable and accessible spaces for creatives if we want them to stay in Sydney.

One powerful thought that helps is to “not think access is an impossibly high bar,” but instead “something we work towards”, he said. Proper accessibility in the city for creatives would be a space that supports learning, day access, ventilation, light, access to a computer etc.

Four things needed to “shift the needle on the creative field”:

• protect what we have – creative spaces take a long time to establish, and it is not just fitting out and getting them open; it’s building a community around them
• getting to plan and funding mechanism right – this includes backing creative space operators to succeed
• plan for what we need – there needs to be specific guidance on what creative space is needed and where
• provide new creative space

Designing fit for purpose spaces

According to the report, we need to earmark spaces for creative uses or risk unrealistic expectations that affect long-term viability of the space.

We need key people to come to the table, the report said. Among them are creative space operators, the property sector, government landowners, funders, operators, compliance actors, and public institutions such as public libraries and other cultural spaces.

The report points to creative space design guides by the City of Sydney, developed in collaboration with Arup and Left Bank Co, which have been expanded into Creative Victoria, the City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government Architect’s Office.

However, the one big idea that would “shift the needle” was the investment of the City of Sydney and the NSW government into creative land trusts, which would involve an asset-holding property entity dedicated to owning and managing creative spaces.

The report finds that philanthropic actors and the government can deliver more creative spaces. We can see examples of this in San Francisco, London and Austin.

Create NSW and the City of Sydney have now engaged the committee to perform a feasibility study on the issue with the potential to go ahead if deemed feasible.

Create NSW portfolio director Roslyn Mayled said during the panel discussion that while a discussion paper on planning levers for creative spaces was about to be released, it would focus more on long-term changes than immediate issues.Instead, the focus should be on the committee’s feasibility study, Mayled said.

“In the background, Create (NSW) and Placemaking (NSW) are identifying properties that might be suitable for that trust. It’s tricky because Create (NSW) has 13 properties.

“We don’t want to put one of those in the trust because that’s not increasing space – so we are trying to get our hand on other departments – it’s a delicate dance, as you can imagine. They’re probably more afraid of the idea of a creative land trust than us.”

“We don’t want to put one of those in the trust because that’s not increasing space – so we are trying to get our hand on other departments – it’s a delicate dance, as you can imagine. They’re probably more afraid of the idea of a creative land trust than us.”

“Meanwhile” spaces have their (inbuilt) limitations

Mayled was also nervous about the popularity of “meanwhile activations”. This is a temporary change of use for vacant or under-utilised buildings to provide critical housing or space shortfalls.

These spaces can be “super creative” and “meanwhile” can be long enough to be viable for creatives – but they can be “a bit of a band-aid and emergency measure to put a stop to that increased loss of space,” Mayled said.

The definition of fit for purpose spaces also differed from those of creatives.

“I’ve worked on The Gunnery art space project, and having 10 studios there that are fit for purpose is a game changer for artists there – I don’t think we should move away from the design guide that the City (for Sydney) have put out.”

“We don’t want to put one of those in the trust because that’s not increasing space – so we are trying to get our hand on other departments – it’s a delicate dance, as you can imagine. They’re probably more afraid of the idea of a creative land trust than us.”

Creative spaces are more embraced overseas

WilkinsonEyre Architect director Sebastien Ricard said his involvement with one of the oldest concrete buildings in Bristol in the United Kingdom was a “love story” with “historic and industrial fabric.”

The mixed-use building designed to be “flexible and which can evolve” has now become the centre of culture for Bristol, which hosts university students and several creative startups.

The project springboarded his team to take on the Maritime Museums Swansea in Wales. Ricard said that was where he and his team learnt about “making creative additions” rather than complete retrofit. “You don’t have to be strict about just the building you are in, as long as you do it with respect for local culture.

“We used local slate, which comes straight from the quarry… near the city, where we use that in a very contemporary way.

“We’ve realised that creating an upgraded cultural education place is what actually puts yourself on the map as a very vibrant, trendy, and generational space.”

The Nest Creative set for closure, with 90 artists now looking at joining the long queue looking for space

Daniel Bourne, who co-founded The Nest Creative Space in Sydney’s Alexandria, was a bearer of bad news. The space that he and his partner had operated out of on a demolition lease had now been earmarked for redevelopment soon. They have until February to move to a nearby building.

The space provides 74 workspaces for around 90 artists – but Bourne said he knew it was coming.

“People just can’t find space. We have a waiting list. So many places have closed down,” Bourne said.

Mirvac, the Waterloo Metro and the value of planning

Mirvac’s project director for the Waterloo Metro over station development, Ryan Thomas, said that while planning is the trigger to getting creative spaces onto the developer’s table early, creating a mixed-use precinct with creative spaces needed to be integrated as early as possible.

“The later it gets, the harder it gets.”

There can be a conflict between creative and commercial space.

“It’s all about acquisition. I think planning has a role to play in terms of giving space and the opportunity to do things that aren’t business as usual; there’s a real opportunity to allow flexibility for creative spaces.

“Some developers will see the value, and others won’t. Planning is a way of creating that requirement from the outset, which is super important. I think it will be more successful because it’s understood from the outset.”

Thomas added that having design guidelines in place for creative spaces was important to ensure creative spaces were fit for purpose and “not one dimensional”.

He said that more positive activations for multi-purpose use buildings should be needed to deliver spaces that artists and creators don’t want to leave.