The Great Indoors (Stylist)

All copy as provided to the publication.
Photography by Anya Holdstock

Spring has officially sprung, but it’s still not quite warm enough to head out into the garden, cocktail in hand. Stylist discovers how to enjoy the great outdoors from the comfort of your central heating.

The days are getting longer, the sun is getting brighter, and yet it’s still not what you might call warm. All is not lost, because the latest interior design trend is all about bringing the outside in. Pioneered by architects like Frank Lloyd Wright in the mid 20th century, it’s not a new idea, but the current revival for all things mid-century combined increasingly convincing research supporting its benefits make it the latest antidote to our ever-more digital lives. Research shows that houseplants can reduce stress, improve concentration, and even lower blood pressure. “By altering the balance of humidity and air quality, indoor plants not only have a positive affect on our energy and efficiency levels,” says Tor Harrison, founder of botanical studio Toro (toro-studio.com), “They also dramatically lift our spirits.” It takes more than just sticking a spider plant in the corner though, so we asked the experts for some tips.

4.    Living Wall

For the ultimate space-saving, high impact way to bring the outside in, create a vertical garden or ‘living wall.’ Ferns, grasses and ivy all work well to provide instant cover, and if you’re keen on a kitchen garden you’ll be glad to hear that herbs, lettuce and strawberries will thrive too. “Simple living walls can be created by training climbing plants up a trellis,” says Gary Grant, the man behind the UK’s largest living wall (greenroofconsultancy.com). “Most house plants can be used, the issue is matching water and light requirements.” Choosing plants with similar needs appropriate to the space is key, but choose right and almost nowhere is out of bounds – even dark spaces can be fitted with artificial lighting systems. Large-scale vertical gardens should be installed by professionals but for smaller scale installations, modular systems and ‘planting pockets’ are available. The modular Wolly Pocket system (woollypocket.co.uk, from £29.99) is easy to hang yourself and comes with an optional irrigation system.

Top five Instagram accounts to follow for green-fingered inspiration:

·      Gardening coach, photographer, and wannabe urban farmer @gardengirl_la is full of clever ideas for growing food in tiny spaces

·      London’s oldest (and swankiest) garden centre, @cliftonnurseries is worth following for ideas, even if your budget won’t stretch to actual purchases

·      Toronto-based Darryl Cheng of @houseplantjournal shares pictures of (mostly) indoor plants together with tips and tricks for looking after them

·      @plantsofbabylon finds and photographs tiny signs of life in even the most hostile urban environments, proving that plants can flourish anywhere

·      English gardener John Tebbs shares products and stories inspired by the garden @thegardenedit

What is the UK’s second city for creatives? (The Spaces)

All copy as provided to the publication.
Photography by Daniel Chapman

With horror stories of rents doubling overnight, creatives are being forced out of London, but where are they going? Katie Treggiden investigates.

According to Zipf’s Law, a capital city is typically twice the size of its second city, three times the size of its third city, and so on – most countries broadly follow this formula. With a population of almost 8.7 million, London dwarfs Birmingham’s 1.2 million, earning Britain its ‘one eyed monster’ reputation. London contributes 47% of the UK’s design economy and employs a fifth of the country’s design workforce. Its reputation as a centre for creative excellence is global – but perhaps not for long. As rising rents push creatives out of town, we investigate five creative contenders for the UK’s second city.

Manchester

With a population of 0.5 million, Manchester is smaller than Birmingham, Britain’s official second city, but it is growing at a rate of 19% versus Birmingham’s 9% and it beat Birmingham – and Edinburgh – in a YouGov poll for a new second city in 2015. Dubbed “the engine of the powerhouse of the North” by George Osbourne, it has already tempted the BBC away from London in their 2011 relocation to Salford’s Media City (in Greater Manchester), and at 3.8%, the city’s employment growth is predicted to exceed that of Paris, Berlin or Tokyo over next five years. An annual design festival, Design Manchester, attracting 20,000 visitors in 2014, and developments like The Sharp Project – a former electronics factory now home to 60 entrepreneurs specialising in digital media and TV and film production – support that claim.

Edinburgh

Coming third in a YouGov survey to find a second city for Britain, ahead of Leeds, Glasgow and Liverpool, Edinburgh is the most visited city in the UK after London, and of course, it’s also the capital of Scotland. The hub of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century, it’s now home to the world’s biggest arts festival and mecca for comedians worldwide – the Edinburgh Festival – which receives 400,000 visitors a year. The festival, together with a year-round programmeof events, generates £200 million for the local economy and supports almost 4,000 jobs. Add to that Edinburgh’s status as the world’s first UNESCO city of literature, and you’ve got a real second city contender for creatives across disciplines.

The_Spaces_2nd_City_04.jpgGlasgow

Arguably Scotland’s second city, Glasgow actually has a higher population than Edinburgh and is home to both BBC Scotland and Scotland’s only public self-governing art school offering university-level programmes in architecture, fine art and design – the Glasgow School of Art. The Charles Rennie Macintosh designed building was extensively damaged by a fire in the summer of 2014 and is currently being restored by Scottish architecture studio, PagePark, at a reported cost of £35 million. The fire hasn’t dampened the city’s spirits though – it tops the UK’s economy recovery list with a value of £19.3 billion in the wake of the recession – and Glasgow’s International Arts Festival, which runs from 08 to 25 April 2016, features 78 exhibitions and over 50 events including work from over 220 artists from 33 countries.

The_Spaces_2nd_City_02.jpgFalmouth

At the other end of the country, Cornwall is undergoing a creative revolution. The South West is the most significant region in the design economy after London and the South East, with total turnover at £2.3bn and design workers contributing an average of £48,200 per head – and Falmouth is leading the charge. It was one of the first towns in the UK to reach 95% superfast broadband coverage, which many creative businesses cite as the reason for the county’s creative upswing. The University College Falmouth, ranked by the Sunday Times as the number one arts university in the UK for the last two years running, produces more than 1,300 graduates per year, 95% of whom are in employment or further study within six months of graduating. Many of them move from the University campus next door to the Tremough Innovation Centre, an incubator for new businesses – in fact four times the national average become self-employed or set up their own business.

The stats:

Population                 Average rent

London:                     8.7 million                  £2,916 pcm

Manchester:               0.5 million                   £929 pcm

Newcastle:                 0.3 million                  £792 pcm

Edinburgh:                  0.5 million                   £1,471 pcm

Glasgow:                   0.8 million                  £664 pcm

Falmouth:                   0.02 million                £781 pcm

You can read this article online here.

Designing Futures (Milliken)

In April 2016, I was invited by Milliken and Jade Ilke to chair a panel event exploring how we can lessen the barriers for young people entering the design, manufacturing, installation, building and construction industries. The panel event was part of Designing Futures, a programme of workshops, activities and work experience for young people during Clerkenwell Design Week.