Placemaking in the rural powerhouse
BY ED MANSEL LEWIS, FRED WILSON & BECKY WILSON BURROUGHCOURT.COM & STRUTTANDPARKER.COM
Ed Mansel Lewis, Head of Rural Ambition at Strutt & Parker, shares his thoughts on the value of embedding workspace within the countryside ecosystem. Ed recently chatted with Fred and Becky Wilson of Burrough Court to hear their views on the rapidly shifting workspace market and their first hand experiences at Burrough Court.
Fred started his career in commercial property before shifting to residential development and then most recently to creating Burrough Court at the family farm in Leicestershire. Becky began her career in the sports sponsorship and events industry. In 2019, she moved back to Burrough Court to manage the marketing and wellbeing offering within the farm. Burrough Court is a family run 22-acre business park near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire and is home to over 30 businesses and their 350 employees.
Rural economies have a vast amount to gain from embracing modern and flexible concepts of workplace. As in urban spaces, workspace is one of the key elements of rural placemaking and mixed-use environments, providing a rhythm of consumer which no other use creates – a predominantly captive daytime user who is loyal, regular and predictable. Workspace can be the anchor for sustainable ecosystems which can support a rich variety of commercial and cultural activities.
Because there is less stress on space in the countryside, ideas which have become popular in cities have largely been ignored. Built environment in the UK countryside tends to be aimed at single uses, missing the benefits of certain uses sitting side by side. If workplace becomes a mixed-use anchor, that scheme can in turn support a crèche, which, in turn can support a café and so on. Clustering uses and achieving critical mass is essential to success.
Any brand has to evolve, to reflect the needs of the moment and make a best guess at what to invest in. Things that we’re doing now would have seemed utterly daft 10 years ago. Having people walking up a corridor carrying a yoga mat whilst others are working away in their offices would have seemed completely at odds with office life back then.
We’re really trying to create new business in areas where it leverages the innate qualities of the farm that we’ve got here. Why? Because quite frankly, it’s difficult for other people to compete. That’s why we’ve planted 75 acres of trees, as we recognise that the natural capital side is increasingly going to tie in to the value set of our customers.
There were no offices in the rural area that really offered the wellness benefits we do here. We thought, why not put walking routes through the estate? People have walking meetings, which is great. We took the same approach with the pilates and yoga studios. They’re in the centre of the courtyard in what was previously an office, so we did have to sacrifice that rent. But it’s a way for us to get members of the public to come in too, whereas previously you only came to work here. So it’s creating that community and another way of drawing in local residents to Burrough Court and making more awareness, which also adds to the income stream.
Our time at home over the past year has taught us many things. One of the main learnings has been that despite rural homes being arguably better spatially suited to working from home than their urban counterparts, the risk of isolation and lack of human contact is higher. With homes full of distractions, inadequate furniture and substandard technology, some people within rural areas would almost certainly be better off using purpose built workspaces. The 15-Minute City is a concept which has gained traction recently, where communities have access to all the amenities and services which they need within a short walk. The environmental benefits to this concept are clear, with urban residents relying less on polluting motorised private transport. Could the same idea be enacted in rural communities? Where walking, cycling or public transport could replace the car or hours spent every day on a cramped commuter train? This might be a little optimistic with some rural communities being extremely dispersed, but certainly key elements such as workspace could be embedded within a wide range of communities.
We recently spoke with Burrough Court, a thriving rural office complex located on a Leicestershire farm. In an often homogenous market focused on rent per square foot, Burrough Court is an outlier, differentiated by its focus on wellness and premium quality. The mixed-use scheme was started in 2000 by the Wilson family, who have transformed surplus farm buildings and courtyards into high quality workspace.
Hopefully, their core beliefs could in turn inspire others to embed workspace into beautiful natural settings and create sustainable, resilient communities.