Reclaiming Sydney’s lost creative space: a blueprint for recovery

The Purpose

Between 2012 and 2017, Sydney saw its creative space erode by 110,000 square metres due to a variety of urban pressures. The creative economy lost employment and productivity and shrank from the third to the fifth largest sector in the city.

The Challenge
The creative space emergency was further compounded by damage to cultural organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge here is the erosion of creative space and the negative impact on the creative economy.

A year into the initiative, it has already sparked discussion on how land-use planning can increase the inclusion of cultural spaces in city development

The Solution
In August 2021, Left Bank Co launched the Making Space for Culture Incubator Program – free professional development for a diverse group of property developers and creative and cultural organizations. The program offered six months of workshops, networking events, one-to-one mentoring, and homework tasks. This initiative aimed to create a shared learning program and bring the creative and property sectors together. It provided knowledge, tools and relationships for participants to implement new projects jointly, and helped develop empathy and respect across the two fields.

The work was funded through a City of Sydney knowledge exchange sponsorship and drew case studies from successful projects in other world cities. The immersive program, provided by a third party, has created a model where the City can step back because conversations are taking place between cultural and property sectors, independent of its interventions. At the same time, Incubator participants had a clearer idea of the role the government can play, as well as identifying the potential for intermediaries to take on strategic roles.

The Impact
A year into the initiative, it has sparked discussion on how land-use planning can increase the inclusion of cultural spaces in city development. It has created a shared understanding that traditional methods of maintaining cultural infrastructure aren’t working and that the property market is not delivering suitable, affordable supply to meet demand. Importantly, the conversation is shifting, recognizing that a city’s culture needs to be preserved both as a good in itself and for vital socio-economic reasons. By facilitating engagement between sectors and creating a shared language, new networks and opportunities are emerging, which may help turn the tide against further loss of creative floorspace.

The City of Sydney has committed funding to continue the incubator program, explore pilot projects that will embed creative space in new developments, and maintain these new alliances, so when new opportunities arise, property developers, government and the cultural sector are well positioned to work together.

Source: World Cities Culture Report 2022