A journey into space…

Whether we’re creating space for culture and community to connect, working with architects to design better spaces, developers form places communities enjoy, or working with young people and communities to find their voice and use it, we understand the value of space. 

As a creative practice ourselves, we’ve had our own journey into space. 

Beyond The Box is a registered Community Interest Company (CIC) and we are committed to investing our profits back into the communities we work with, building cultural and civic capital along the way, but this often comes at a cost.  

Over the past four and half years of operation, we’ve been innovative with the spaces we operate from, often in response to a lack of access to space when working within communities. We’ve worked with youth communities in a Mcdonald's drive-through, a disused drying room on the fourth floor of a housing block and even on park benches. We’ve hired community spaces from community centres when available, to deliver community programmes,investing back into the local infrastruture wherever we can, but a space of our own has been a challenging journey. 

Founding Director of Beyond The Box CIC Neil Onions FRIBA , said:

“Through our work at Beyond The Box and over my 20-year career, I have witnessed first-hand how marginalised communities and the spaces designed for them, are done so with little to no understanding, engagement or support for how people are going to both activate or operate them in the long term”. 

“I recall my first job at 19 years of age working with neuro-diverse adults in a daycare setting, the centre was based in an industrial estate! When I took back, the environment and the message it gave to those who accessed the centre was appalling, and far from inclusive”.  

“I have worked in neighbourhoods where there are several community spaces that are sitting empty, some are even spaces that communities helped fund so the local authority could build them, to only end up being run by private companies who then charge that very community to access them - as the operation of ‘community space’ is rarely considered at the design stage”. 

"In my early twenties, I spent several years working with looked after children and saw the environments where some of the most vulnerable children in our country were housed – you wouldn’t call some of them a home.”

“All of these experiences position us well in working with designers and communities to understand what assessible, inclusive, and equitable spaces could and should be.  

Beyond The Box has received support from friends and other businesses with hot-desking, but never a space to grow and build. 

Four years into our journey, we were contacted by our friends and collaborators at Morris+Company who approached us about a residency in their new Mare Street offices in Hackney. This has already been a game changer for Beyond The Box, and we’ve been in the space for under a month. 

Joe Morris , Founding Director of Morris + Company said, “Our new studio has been designed with the capacity to explore a series of residencies with like-minded and driven organisations. Sharing our facilities and spaces with Beyond the Box is an exciting and rewarding experience, offering insights into the brilliant work they do, and revealing areas for collaboration and mutual support. The People's Pavilion 2023 is the first such opportunity to reflect on this partnership, and we hope the first of many future projects”.

Our mission at Beyond The Box is a society where everyone has the opportunity to shape our world, and through this collaboration, we will certainly be able to do this with the community of Hackney and beyond. 

Our first collaborative event will be Thursday 23rd Feb when we open the People’s Pavilion 2023 Exhibition hosted at Morris + Company. During the exhibition opening, attendees will be invited to cast their vote for their favourite pavilion design, whilst enjoying food from the hyper-seasonal, low-impact restaurant MOCO+HOME . The exhibition will remain on display for three weeks in the window front of Morris + Company on Mare Street, Hackney in East London, with the public being able to cast their votes via interactive QR codes.