Meet our new sponsors - The Creative Core

Opening a piece about modern-day library-makers with reference to a Victorian textile designer may seem odd - but there are parallels.

William Morris was one of the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which had a huge influence on design, style and taste in Victorian England and beyond - and arguably still does. Morris’s own nature-inspired designs are still very popular today.

The Movement was a reaction to the mechanisation and mass-production of the Industrial Revolution. It harked back to the skills, crafts and traditional production processes of earlier times - particularly the Medieval period - and wanted to remake lost connections between art, design and manufacturing.

Morris’s dream was to bring artists and skilled craftspeople together on one site - where products could be conceived, designed and made from start to finish. He eventually achieved his ambition in 1881 when Morris and Company moved to Merton Abbey Mills, a factory in South London.

Fast forward to today and another collective working from a former mill in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The Creative Core specialises in ‘human-centred design’ for public buildings. With an impressive portfolio of museum and heritage projects behind them, the team’s attention - and talents - turned to libraries. Their recent, exciting redevelopment of Bolton Central Library undoubtedly has the ‘wow’ factor and has won plenty of praise.

Designing Libraries Director Ayub Khan, who spoke at the library’s launch, said: “Public libraries have always reinvented themselves. They constantly adapt to the changing needs, tastes, interests and preoccupations of the communities they serve. Well done Bolton. This is a very fine example indeed.”

Like Morris, the Creative Core brings concept, design and manufacturing functions together on one site, accommodating skilled practitioners and hands-on specialists from a range of disciplines. Their plans for Bolton Central Library stripped the building back to its shell and reimagined the space. The major renovation project took full advantage of the Creative Core’s in-house manufacturing capabilities. Skilled craftspeople made interior fittings of all kinds for the reworked library, recycling or reusing what they could along the way.

Morris was also a political activist and writer who campaigned for social change. Whilst the Creative Core is not politically-motivated, it does believe in people power. Libraries should  not be created just for the people who commission them, but for those who will - or might - use them. Put simply, the more potential users are involved in a library’s design, the more likely they are to go inside, and explore what’s on offer, once it’s finished. Hence the ‘human-centred’ mantra mentioned earlier.

Essentially, the approach “puts visitors and communities first, building connection, meaning and pride through co-creation and human-centred design”. The Creative Core  insists designing or redeveloping a library should be centred on creating visitor experiences - but it should be fun for the commissioners, too:

“Partnering with a designer can feel daunting, but not with us. Our creative process is collaborative and rewarding, shaped around your team and your project, underpinned by shared values and perspectives.”

To find out more:

visit: https://thecreativecore.co.uk/

email: [email protected]

phone: 01484 442 262