 myplace Bristol
No Height Restrictions
"Do you have to be a certain age?" The question comes from the audience, from a six-year-old boy called Adam. We're in a dramatically lit, makeshift auditorium in Bristol's former Bridewell Fire Station, in the heart of the city. It's not a question that anyone else has thought of. But Adam has a point. It's a good question to ask. Because at the moment, he's too young for myplace. When he gets his answer, "13-19", he realises that he will have to wait a few years - seven, to be precise.
But it will be worth waiting for. The client team - 12 young people who have undergone a baptism of fire in project management, brand development and spatial awareness - are presenting their myplace vision to the people of Bristol.
And it's a packed house. If you had arrived half an hour before the old, red fire station doors opened, you might have wondered if someone famous was in town. People were queuing like they queued for Banksy, and in fact the client team did go to the Banksy exhibition, as part of their research: inspirational fuel to help them make big decisions about how they want their myplace to be.
With all eyes on the stage, everyone is sitting forward in their seats. The evening has been a heady cocktail of music, colour, flames, energy and laughter, with the audience eager to put their names down to offer help, be it to develop a strategy for free buses or to give pro bono carbon emission advice.
The flames are the new identity, just in case you're wondering. Bridewell Street Fire Station has been given a new, myplace lease of life as The Station, with its bold new logo - a swirling flame - unfurled on banners and worn proudly on the backs of the client team.
But there's another question from Adam."Do you have to be a certain height?"
There is a slight hesitation as everyone holds their breath. "No," is the response. "All heights are welcome."
The sigh of relief from the audience is palpable. Adam is happy. This all-singing, all-dancing centre is going to be genuinely inclusive. No height restrictions apply.
Sparks, one of the client team, looks as if he might be leaving early, but then he comes back and takes to the stage to rap. Has his name been inspired by the building?
"The building has been inspired by me," is his quick-as-a-flash answer. On questioning project director Trevor Jones, it transpires that Sparks may be called Sparks because he's training to be an electrical engineer.
Lily, also a client, looks up at the banner bearing the new identity and says, "I can't believe it. I remember all the discussions we had with the designers, how we all put forward our ideas. It seemed like a dream. And now it's real."
The client team, supported by the Sorrell Foundation, interviewed several firms before appointing local architects Stride Treglown, who the clients all refer to as "Strides", and SPY Design. Would it be fair to say that the clients have gained the skills and experience that are requested in so many job advertisements: "An ability to think strategically, sound knowledge and proven track record in project management, monitoring and evaluation, excellent negotiation skills, experience of contracting and contract management and a firm grasp of community and social exclusion issues"?
"They've definitely gained confidence and learned a lot," agrees Trevor Jones. "And we paid them: £6 per hour, so it felt like real work. 'We are buying your expertise', is what we said to them."
A tour of the old fire station reveals that the clients are adept at conveying the exciting potential of a dormant space. The way they talk about how one of the dark, cold, empty rooms will be brought alive with creativity - when it is reborn as an internet cafe - makes the transformation of this old building feel like a piece of cake.
"We talked about the building being like a Battenburg," explains Kieran Lilley, of Stride Treglown. "To see the potential of a building, you need to slice it up. It's a kind of section drawing: a way of showing floor plans in 3D. If you cut a slice of Battenburg, the marzipan cross in the middle becomes the walls and the floors. With our clients, we talked a a lot about how you can appreciate a space, how it makes you feel. With The Station, we've found a space with heaps of character. It's a peach of a building with a retro feel."
The retro feel, and the fact that the clients feel so comfortable performing on stage, whether it's speaking, rapping, playing guitars or ukuleles, could be inspired by the free-spirited existing tenants - for over a year the building has been a temporary home to Artspace Lifespace, the not-for-profit, volunteer-run co-op formed to create space for artists of all descriptions.
The artists have made the building sustainable and self-supporting, which naturally is the perfect business model to hand over to Bristol myplace, a centre which Trevor Jones estimates will need £300K a year to run.
The Invisible Circus, the performance arm of Artspace Lifespace, breathes theatre into the building, by day and by night. By day, artists wearing bowler hats travel around the old fire truck yard on stilts and unicycles- framed by not only the old fire station, but also a former police station and law courts. Robots try out their costumes in front of the old hose tower, their foil capes glinting in the sun. Billie Holiday sings as they rehearse. At night, their finale at the old fire station will be Carny Ville, a piece of circus theatre that has received rave reviews.
The site looks and feels as if it's been squeezed into a small space. It's cheek by jowl with the Primark building on the Horsefair, originally built for department store Lewis's, which had the first ever escalator to operate in a shop, and its own roof garden. With a view of Primark, and the equally close bus station, Trevor Jones stands on the roof of the old fire station, points out the nesting seagulls, and talks about the plans to grow food up here for the cafe. Trevor and the client team have earmarked rooms which used to provide accommodation for the senior fire officers and their families for spaces for new services. Perhaps the old hose tower would make the perfect climbing wall?
Prior to 1877, fire services in Bristol were provided by insurance companies, and when Bristol City Council took them over and formed a police fire brigade, alterations were made to the central police station in Bridewell Street for the new brigade. In 1927, the Bridewell Street building was demolished and rebuilt, opening on 5 November 1930. The fire brigade moved back into this new building, complete with a thirteen-bay station with offices, workshops and living accommodation. The bays housed the Superintendent's car, the Leyland tender, pump escapes and turntable ladders.
During their presentation, the client team talk about their desire to give new life into this building; to use every nook and cranny for arts, sports, digital media, chilling out and learning. They are proud to be able to say that the most sustainable thing about this project is that they are re-using an old building. They want to open up the big, old fire station doors onto the street and to make the space open to everyone - regardless of height.
And should anyone, at any time, feel challenged by the double height ceiling planned for the main performance space, there's sure to be the odd ladder lying around somewhere - or even a pair of stilts.
The Station Bristol in a tag
Location: Bridewell Island, Silver Street, Bristol
Project value: £5m
Doors open: Summer 2011
Theme: "Somewhere affordable for everyone to go that's fun, stylish, not tacky, offering good activities including arts and sport."
Activities:
Cafe with training kitchen
Parkour
Dance
Climbing wall
Nightclub events for under 18s
Music, film and radio workshop
Art studios
Diplomas for creative media, hair and beauty
Facilities:
Performance space with seating for 450
Creche area
Internet cafe
Retail 'pods'
Cycle and skateboard workshop
Links:
Bread Youth Project, Fairbridge West, Off The Record, ACTA, National Autistic Society, Voscur, Childtime, Connexions West of England, Youth Education Service, Wheels, Barnardos, Priority Youth Housing, Avon Youth Association, YWCA, CEMVO, RIO, The Bridge Foundation, Mencap, Brook Advisory Service, Trinity Arts Centre, Basement Studio, Cooking From Scratch Project, Childtime, EACH - Educational Action Challenging Homophobia, Community at Heart, Theatre Bristol, Bristol Old Vic, Bristol Music Foundation, the Watershed, GWE Business West, Broadmead Board, Bristol City Council - Children and Young Peoples Services, Youth and Play, Sport Services, Arts Bristol PCT, Avon and Somerset Police, City of Bristol College, LSC, University of the West of England
Contact:
Trevor Jones
Tel: 07712 673950
Email: tj@youngbristol.com
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Resources 
The Station Bristol Inspirational (
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