Lunchtime Talk: Making Meanwhile Count

Explore how temporary spaces can create lasting social impact and shape the future of our towns, cities and communities. How can temporary spaces create lasting social impact, and what happens to the value they create when the projects themselves come to an end? Join Jan Kattein Architects and Meanwhile Space for a lunchtime talk exploring how we understand and value temporary interventions within processes of urban development that are usually focused on long-term or permanent outcomes. Jan Kattein Architects, a London-based architecture and urban design practice, and Meanwhile Space, a social enterprise specialising in transforming vacant spaces for community benefit, have been collaborating on time-limited urban projects since 2016, using vacant sites to provide affordable workspace and community space in the short term. The value of meanwhile use is increasingly recognised within planning and regeneration: local authorities may use it to bring activity back to high streets, while developers can use temporary projects to establish place identity, test new uses and support emerging local economies. But what happens beyond the ‘meanwhile’ period? These projects can also test more sustainable uses, build local capacity and networks, and create a more participative, organic and phased approach to development. Understanding that longer-term influence requires us to look beyond conventional measures of social value. Blue House Yard, the first meanwhile project delivered collaboratively by Jan Kattein Architects and Meanwhile Space, is approaching its tenth anniversary. Originally intended to remain for just five years, it will eventually make way for comprehensive redevelopment. This moment provides an opportunity both to understand and, where possible, quantify its impact, and to ask how the relationships, activity and value created there might endure after the project itself has gone. Drawing on Blue House Yard alongside other case studies and recent research collaborations with the Politecnico di Milano and UCL, the speakers will explore how the influence of temporary projects can be understood at neighbourhood scale. Combining data with stories of personal and community impact, the talk will consider how social value is created, who gets to define and measure it, and how lessons from temporary projects can inform longer-term regeneration. Expect a visually engaging discussion bringing together the perspectives of architect and operator, and opening up wider questions about how we can make meanwhile uses count long after the ‘meanwhile’ has ended. Speakers Gabriel Warshafsky Director of Urban Strategy, Jan Kattein Architects Gabriel is an architect and educator committed to socially engaged design practice. As Director of Urban Strategy at Jan Kattein Architects, he works with communities to develop stakeholder-led regeneration projects for high streets, town centres and housing estates. His work promotes inclusive, creative dialogue as an integral part of the design process, spanning furniture and public art installations, transformative meanwhile projects, long-term masterplanning and policy. He also teaches interdisciplinary design at the Bartlett School of Architecture and is a founding associate of STORE C.I.C., an educational initiative dedicated to broadening access to creative careers. Jan Kattein Architects | LinkedIn Jen Storan Projects Director, Meanwhile Space / Meanwhile Foundation Jen has spent the last seven years exploring ways to repurpose vacant land and buildings for local communities. Working across Meanwhile Space CIC and its sister charity, the Meanwhile Foundation, she leads new project development and meanwhile use strategies. She is currently delivering a National Lottery-funded programme to increase the social value generated by existing meanwhile use sites and equip more people to develop their own projects. Her interests include how temporary and experimental urban interventions can catalyse incremental neighbourhood transformation, including projects such as LJ Works in Loughborough Junction. She holds an MASc in Global Urbanism from UCL. Meanwhile Space | Meanwhile Foundation | LinkedIn About the Building Centre's Lunchtime Talks Our Lunchtime Talks bring together people working across architecture, design and the built environment to share ideas, explore new approaches and encourage discussion. Free to attend. Booking recommended. Have an idea for a talk? We're always looking for fresh perspectives and interesting projects to share with our audiences. Find out how to propose your own Lunchtime Talk through our open call.