The Plot is a project initiated by Nudge Community Builders to reinvigorate an empty ground floor commercial unit on Plymouth’s Union Street – part of a continuing effort to breathe life back into vacant properties by a passionate local team, for the benefit of their own community.

In its new format, The Plot opens up the site to create a pedestrian route linking homes to the north with shops to the south, providing a lively connection between the local community and the social and commercial life of Union Street.

Inspired by allotments, Nudge are renting out the space patch by patch to local businesses and individuals who want to grow a great idea.  Amongst the first tenants is Jabulani, a collaboration between BAME entrepreneurs and the Diversity Business Incubator (DBI) to create an international food court.

Studio Skein provided planning and building services consultancy and interior design concepts to help get The Plot and Jabulani get established, ensuring that all commercial building consents were in place for its new use.

With a very humble funding pot and a huge amount of volunteer time, we supported the Nudge ethos of inventive, low-cost, vibrant transformation through a combination of reduced-fee and pro-bono time.

The interior design for Jabulani was being finalised just as the corona virus lockdown struck, prompting some quick-thinking from the team.  Working with the DBI, Nudge, and food-court traders, the team devised a bootstrap alternative layout housed in mobile catering pods that allowed Jabulani to start trading whilst meeting emerging Covid-19 restrictions.