A makers' community in the basement of Somerset House, London, that offers low-cost workshops and desks to design, making and manufacturing businesses and runs free youth learning.
Makerversity is a community of makers, designers and small manufacturing businesses based in the basement of Somerset House in London. Somerset House's own page describes low-cost workspace for businesses in making, design, digital, manufacturing and materials innovation. Members can use workshops for woodwork, fashion, engineering, digital fabrication and electronics, as well as a Land Lab for material exploration, and film, photography and podcast studios. It also offers free business support and community events.
Makerversity began in April 2013 in about 25,000 square feet of disused space at Somerset House. It was started by Tom Tobia, Andrew Merritt, Paul Smyth and Joe Smith. Its stated mission, in a Nesta profile, was to "teach, support and inspire practical or creative young people" and to become "a genuine alternative to other forms of higher education". Somerset House now says its ethos is "to ensure all creative talent is included". It opened a second site in Amsterdam, though we could not confirm whether that site is still open.
In the UK, Makerversity is in central London at Somerset House on the Strand, which is run by a registered charity. Somerset House says it has more than 300 members across different sectors and that members run training programmes for young people. Members are start-ups, freelancers, design studios and not-for-profits, who pay a fee and are expected to help with the mission. It also offers free time in the building for people under 30 (three months) and for what it calls Makers with a Mission, who work on social, environmental or manufacturing change (six months).
On culture, Nesta described it as a co-working space with a twist and a thriving community, working with schools and children's charities to offer free learning opportunities. The community includes people who build products, and the presence of tools and space is meant to let people try ideas quickly. These are descriptions from Nesta (2016) and Somerset House, not independent reviews. We did not find the names of current staff.
Makerversity is mostly a place where people work rather than a company with many staff, but it still needs community managers, workshop technicians, programme and events organisers, youth and schools learning staff, and operations teams. Members themselves run businesses in areas such as product design, fashion, engineering and film. If you like making things with your hands, learning machines and meeting people who run their own studios, it is worth looking at the workshops and open studio events on its website.
Website: makerversity.org
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