Blackburn's town centre creative hub, Making Rooms, is poised for a £1.5million expansion after securing additional funding add two additional floors.
A planning application has been lodged to repurpose the basement and roof space of their current building on Exchange Street. The Making Rooms, which neighbours Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, houses the team behind the award-winning National Festival of Making and Culturapedia.
If the planning application is approved, the refurbished basement alone would double the production capacity at The Making Rooms, with a broad scope ranging from agricultural robotics to cyber security, podcasting, ceramics, metalwork, plastic recycling, textiles and device repair. The proposed design includes more than 10 new workspaces.
An extra storey is also planned for the roof space, featuring a study room, breakout area and outdoor terrace. This would be converted into a dedicated Eco Lab, offering opportunities to study biomaterials and experiment with robotic farming equipment.
The new proposals also aim to make the entire building fully accessible, reports Lancs Live.
Since its inception in 2016, The Making Rooms has become a beacon of innovation and creativity, providing tens of thousands of visitors from across Europe with the skills to explore everything from ceramics to the technological wizardry of 3D printing, electronics, and mould-making. Initially established by Blackburn with Darwen Council, the hub transitioned into a Community Interest Company.
The facility's lab director, Tom Macpherson-Pope, said: "The potential this proposed expansion offers is just incredible. It'll help transform The Making Rooms into the leading makerspace in the UK."
"This new planning application is the next step in this exciting journey. The Making Rooms already has a great range of opportunities for people to get started in making or develop their skills – everything from classics like laser cutting and 3D printing to mould making and electronics development.
"We are one space, but we have many labs. We also work incredibly hard to make these free to our end users.
"Since opening in 2016, we have given tens of thousands of people making experiences and accelerated a 'maker movement' here in the borough – something we are really proud of and are eager to build upon with these new plans."
Cllr Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "The Making Rooms is a huge success story. They deserve this new funding and for the chance to make their expansion plans a reality to the huge benefit of our community."
"We have visitors travelling from right across Europe here to Blackburn to visit The Making Rooms. You only have to walk through the doors to see what an impact it's having – people of all walks of lives all coming together with a shared interest of technology and innovation."
