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The real forces that make ?creative clusters? work and thrive are not necessarily always understood, says Robert Sakula.

The essential power comes from the individuals who have been drawn together by a desire to work in close proximity and create a critical mass of activity. Often the catalyst is an existing area with the right mix of spaces where rents are very cheap and the character of the physical environment encourages an organic growth of like minded artists and creative professionals. Economic forces within a city can destroy just as easily as encourage such activity. A more pro-active approach to protecting existing clusters and finding new spaces for creative people is a big challenge facing all those who value diversity amid a sea of service industries.

As architects we have taken up this challenge in working with Free Form Arts Trust to create the Hothouse, a new centre on a narrow brownfield site in Hackney, East London. The Hothouse will provide a new base for Free Form, a public arts organisation which has been active in Hackney since the 1960?s and now implements public art commissions around the country. Their motto ?Making art work for the environment? summarises their experience in using art as a vehicle for urban and community regeneration. Hackney itself is a case in point, currently aiming to create a vibrant Cultural Quarter in the heart of one of London?s poorest boroughs. The Hothouse project forms a link between this new Cultural Quarter and the open spaces of London Fields.

The Hothouse building wraps like a boomerang along the park boundary. On the park side a continuous glass window overhangs a green heavily planted ground floor wall with small irregular openings. On the railway side staggered brick panels with gridded projections protect the building from noise and vibration. Artists? studios colonise the roof. The centre contains a wide variety of differing artistic activities including the Green Bottle Project which recycles green bottle glass into translucent paving bricks: their clients include the new London mayor.

Managing a project like this, with a large group of clients, has called on all our creative reserves. But there has been a shared understanding that we are designing a set of changing scenarios rather than making a paradigm for future working. Certain original concepts which made people excited by the project have been fiercely defended through the rough and tumble of regulation and design development even when relegated to a future phase of building. That in part is what creative clusters are about: nurturing a shared vision and making things happen.

Robert Sakula is a partner in Ash Sakula Architects, t: 020 7837 9735 e: {robert@ashsak.com w: www.ashsak.com}