What empty spaces are there in Butetown, and could they be put to use? What would you
like from buildings and organisations that are currently closed but that could re-open in the
future? What about buildings that are permanently closed and not being used for anything?
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Meanwhile Butetown was a 6-month project looking at how empty or closed buildings can be
turned into useful community spaces – or ‘meanwhile’ spaces - by and for the benefit of
local people. The aim was to create a resource or toolkit so that people can do this in
Butetown and, if it works, potentially the rest of Wales.
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What's taken place within the project?
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The project consisted of a few different activities:
Power mapping
‘Power mapping’ of buildings in Butetown - identifying which buildings are empty, who owns them, and if/how we can work with them;
Workshops
Getting advice from experts on different and radical types of governance, financial models and legal aspects of developing meanwhile spaces;
Being involved in the project has developed skills and knowledge in the areas of community
development, research, regeneration, governance, documentation, budgeting and finance,
lobbying and communication, and negotiation.
We hope to build on this and create a network to to gain insight on challenging developments and possibly creating a community space that we can programme and use, for your own purposes, on your own terms.
Our vision is that we as a collective could make it much easier for groups such as Butetown Connect in the
future to create network in bringing spaces to community ownership, and could set a precedent for other groups across Wales and wider.