This is the story of how a simple request from two interior designers - could you fill a railway arch with furniture for a couple of days? - became a two-day event in the post-industrial building where they built Rocket.

We meet Beth Lawford at GT3 Architects, who asked the question and then refused to take any credit for it. Philippa Lobb, who carried it back to Workpattern. And Paul Glaister, who booked the biggest space he could find in Newcastle, before the event had a name, a brand, a budget, or a single person signed up to attend.

Along the way: why the North East has nowhere to see the furniture it specifies, what Workpattern lost when it gave up the Queen Street studio in 2016, why nobody at the company can quite explain what Paul does, and what a 1989 Kevin Costner movie has to do with any of it.

Featuring Beth Lawford (GT3 Architects), Philippa Lobb and John Lennox (Workpattern), Terry McStea (RTC / Design Network North), and Paul Glaister.

Work Beyond Walls takes place at the Boiler Shop, Newcastle, on 9 and 10 September 2026. Attendance is free.

Sign up: workbeyondwalls.uk
Follow Work Beyond Walls on LinkedIn for talks and sessions as they're announced.

Work in Motion, series 1: The inside story of Work Beyond Walls, is written and presented by Ian Ellison, and produced by Dave Crackles, for Workpattern.

Subscribe so you get the next episode as soon as it lands - and if you know someone who needs inspiring about how to make work better, please pass it on.

Work Beyond Walls is two days at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle, a former locomotive works, and the kind of event you'd usually have to get a train to London for. Paul needs 500 people to sign up. When we started recording, he had one. Well, two, if you count the one he entered himself to check the form worked.

Series 1 of Work in Motion, from Workpatten, is a six-part series about whether he can pull it off. Not an advert for the event - an honest account of building something ambitious in a region that's never had one, with full access and no shying away from the numbers.

Episode 1 is out Wednesday 12th August. Subscribe so you don't miss a thing.

Work Beyond Walls takes place at the Boiler Shop, Newcastle, on 9 and 10 September 2026. Attendance is free.

Sign up: workbeyondwalls.uk
Follow Work Beyond Walls on LinkedIn for talks and sessions as they're announced.

Work in Motion, series 1: The inside story of Work Beyond Walls, is written and presented by Ian Ellison, and produced by Dave Crackles, for Workpattern.

Subscribe so you get the next episode as soon as it lands - and if you know someone who needs inspiring about how to make work better, please pass it on.