The hobby room (second floor, creative workshops, Churchill College ) requires a move, a slight change.
Why.
Laser cutter incoming.
The Makerspce on the first floor of the bill brown creative workshops. Was the one room in the building I got to with as I liked. And as such it’s been pretty sorted and unchanged after about 8months of opening. The only real change after that was turning the laser cutter 90° so we could fit in another workbench.
In contrast, the hobby room, the one I am writing about today, was stagnant for its first year. Unused, and annoyingly fucking boring.
Since October 2025 though, it has been changing fast and now gets a decent amount of use. Not yet at the level of the Makerspace, but getting close.
The next change closes that gap. A second laser cutter arrives next week. Smaller, easier to use, and likely to bring in new users.
Adding the sewing machine needed a small shift. The laser cutter needs more.
The room has three small windows, and one can vent extraction after filtration. Right now there is a workbench in the way. That has to move.
The dark corner would work in theory. Underused, out of the way. But it is as far from the windows as possible, and I do not want ducting running across the room.
Sewing changes things as well. Venting matters more now. Fabric holds onto smell.
Another option is placing the laser opposite the windows under the shelving. But that is the best lit part of the room. It is where the plants are starting to live, and people like that. It softens the space. And makes a small piece of the workshop a bit garden like. I would rather lean into that. Build a small green corner, 3D print plant pots, test self watering systems.
Proposed layout. Trying to make all of that work in 6m by 3.5m. It will not look exactly like this, but I was playing with AI image generation and it is close enough to be useful.
The aim is simple. Two workbenches that can have four people each hammering away. Space for one person on the sewing machine and one on the laser cutter. Enough room that people are not in each other’s way.
It is a small room. It has to work hard.
It already carries a lot. Wall mounted photography backdrop, projector, badge maker, vinyl cutter, laminator, hot wire cutter, plus all the usual paints, brushes, pens, pencils, whiteboards and everything else that builds up.
The difference now is that it is being used. If this lands well, it stops being the spare room and becomes something closer to the Makerspace. Not the same, but just as active.
I expect the hobby room to hit its stride like the Makerspace has done.
The Daily Make | Jonathan Woolf