This month Councillors and developers in Sheffield have being defending their decision to invest nearly £100,000 of public money on installing a full size helter skelter in office buildings designed for creative and media companies. In the current climate, and with politicians under the spotlight for frivolous spending, it’s perhaps not surprising that this decision has been questioned.
The move has been defended as being a good example of risk-taking designed to inspire the creative companies and their visitors who come to work in the Electric Works building. The experience, which is not open to the general public, has been described as the equivalent to having a coffee or screen break – a rare opportunity for employees to refresh themselves by taking the ‘exhilarating’ ride to the ground floor. In many ways, I can empathise with this argument – we all need to be inspired and the physical space in which we work really matters in this respect; especially in the creative industries.
I suspect that the uproar is as much bad timing as anything else – if the helter skelter had been unveiled during the good times the planners, architects and Councillors in Sheffield would have been roundly applauded for such an innovation. And if the offices were packed to the rafters with successful and buoyant creative businesses, rather than being only 20% occupied during a recession it would all look very different. But now that we are in a much more austere economic environment the project has been condemned by opposition politicians, the media and small business owners. In reality, the planning decisions that allocated the funding for this building were almost certainly made before the credit crunch set in, so it does seem somewhat harsh to condemn the whole thing retrospectively.
It’s important to see the positives in these kinds of innovations – the publicity it has brought to the city of Sheffield; the continuing regeneration of an industrial city; the inspiration and motivation it can bring to workers now and in future when things get better. Does your working environment matter to you? Look around you – is it inspiring or stultifying? Would you like to see your own Helter Skelter or even just a new coat of paint on the walls?
You can read Yorkshire Post’s coverage of this story at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/100000-of-public-money-to.5242403.jp
