After photographing the Antwerp Mansion for so long, I started to realise that the project was not progressing as I hoped - the progress in the building itself was slow, but I also felt that I wasn't capturing anything new and was really struggling to get into the building to take photos during the day (and didn't want to go during evening events as it was the empty quiet of the place in the daytime I liked).
I started to research other forms of community-led regeneration, with a view to basing my MA project on a range of non-council regeneration schemes around the city, and found the Okasional Cafe.
The OK Cafe is a volunteer-led community project that uses empty buildings as temporary sites for a cafe/meeting venue. In other words, the people who lead this group occupy an empty space, squatting for 2-4 weeks before being moved on by the police (or disappearing before the police get the chance to swoop in). I liked the sound of this venture, and paid a visit one evening.
However, on my visit I didn't quite get the feeling I was looking for - this felt like a repeat of The Mansion; lots of lovely, well-meaning people but a sporadic set-up which was destined to be fraught with difficulties in arranging visits. I realised that once again, I would be relying on other people for my project and that was the problem at Antwerp Mansion.