North Perk and the Make Space Project
A couple of years ago, if you followed me on any of my social media, you would have heard me complain repeatedly about the storage building that was being built across from Crystal Pool. Now, it just might turn out to be one of my favourite places in North Park. That isn’t because I all of a sudden have a love of storage facilities, but instead, because of what has gone in on the ground floor. If you go by and visit today, you will find the North Perk Coffee Shop and the Make Space for Art. This is such an exciting piece of social infrastructure right in the heart of North Park.
I do want to be really clear that I am still not a fan of that lot being used for building a storage facility. I would have loved to have seen almost any other use there, that said, almost any other use would not have allowed the Make Space for Art to come to fruition (I should be clear that the maker space is not quite there yet, but getting closer). Certainly, a residential use would not have been compatible with a fabrication space on the ground floor. But, I suppose I should pause for a second, because you might asking what this place actually is? What is a make space or maker space? A maker space is a shared, community driven space, where people can come to together to create things. A maker space uses the power of numbers to allow those that usually wouldn’t have access to certain types of tools and machines to be able to use them. They are generally non-profit collaborative spaces like the Make Space for Art, though there are for-profit make spaces in the US. If you want to get a clearer picture, there is a good definition here.
The Make Space for Art is not the only maker space in Victoria. There is one out at the Vancouver Island Technology Park called the Victoria Makerspace and there is the Community Arts Hub in Quadra Village which is more art focused. Both of these have been around for a number of years and are great places. This new space has two separate maker rooms that seem to be focusing on two different types of work. On the south east side of the building is a wood working room and on the north west end of the building is what is called the Fab Lab, and I believe it will be mostly for sewing, pottery and other craft arts. In between the two maker spaces is a coffee shop called North Perk. I have been here a number of times now and will say that first, the coffee is excellent and second the space is great if you want to sit down and enjoy your coffee there. In theme with the space, there is a lot of wood paneling and furniture. You can get a little bit of an understanding of the layout from the photo below.
I think one of the most amazing things about this project is that it is really being created as social enterprise space with the cafe helping both market the wares created there and also to help subsidize the operations. It is so exciting to see a huge commercial space being used for community building. If you want to get a better sense of the zeal behind the creators of this project, I would encourage you to watch the Pecha Kucha by Jenny Farkas on Youtube here.
As of now the maker spaces are not open, but I understand that they will be soon. I am very hopeful that they will get going and be quite established before we see the fall of Crystal Pool as that will be a number of years without a large source of potential coffee customers. I was at North Perk on the weekend just before heading to a birthday party at the pool and there were quite a few people that were all doing the same thing as me, which is awesome to see currently. If you have not been down to North Perk yet, go have a coffee there it is great, also they have a wonderful membership option currently available here. For thirty dollars a month you get quite a lot of perks including a number of free coffees.
I would love to know what you think of maker spaces and if you have been down to North Perk yet. Also how can we encourage more social enterprise commercial projects in our city?
