Reimagining a room with a view at Evermore

Sara McKee, Evermore Founder and Director of Market Innovation, on the Evermore journey. the creation of the first Evermore community in Wigan, and the Italian influence!

I’ve escaped to Italy – Florence in fact – to indulge in my passion for Art, both history and practical, with the occasional glass of Prosecco to keep the creative juices flowing. I’m in great company with my friend and fellow art lover, Penny, who has an unsurpassed knowledge of the city and its famous Renaissance residents.

For me, this trip is a way of recharging and also renewing my thinking. After five years of pursuing my passion for developing Evermore, it’s hard to believe that we’re on the threshold of turning my initial scribbles into physical bricks and mortar with our tribe of Mulinellos soon creating positive lifestyle choices for our customers.

According to John Hagel, Deloitte Centre for the Edge, passionate people are deeply creative in seeking out and pulling in the resources they need to pursue their passion, but it goes farther than that. Hagel says:

“People who pursue their passions inevitably create beacons that attract others who share their vision. Few of these beacons are consciously created; they are byproducts of pursuing one’s passion. Passionate people share their creations widely, leaving tracks for others to find them.”

Indoor / outdoor garden in Florence

Before I left for this break, we had a fantastic session with our architects discussing the design for our two apartment block community in the centre of Wigan. Without giving too much away at this stage, we’re creating apartments which maximise space and light both inside and out.

We’re designing a domestic household to encourage participation, companionship and conviviality amongst our residents and our Mulinellos. Space designed to foster togetherness over solitude – yet maintaining independence and control with your own front door.

Wandering around the streets of Florence, taking a sneak peak through Palazzo archways to see magical inner courtyards has inspired and influenced Evermore’s outdoor offering. We will emulate these calm retreats with full height atrium circled by a cloister. We will use more modern materials in our design I’m sure…I think Carrera marble would probably bust the budget!

Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence

What we can promise is an aspirational property with multiple opportunities to engage in your favourite pastimes, either solo or with the new friends you will make. Art will be at the heart of our proposition as we develop our partnership with our fellow creator and SoulScape painter Louis Parsons.

We want our customers to feel free to have fun and be fearless in pursuing their passions – gardening, painting, sculpting, music, sewing, games, sport and a myriad of interests I can’t hope to list here! We don’t see “activities” as someone’s job to keep people entertained or stave off boredom. We want to create the space for you to do what you want, when you want. That’s how we want to live too.

I’m impatient to open the doors to our customers in Wigan and in other places we’re identifying around Greater Manchester. It’s not too long to wait I’m assured!  If you keep an eye on our website and Facebook page we’ll keep you up to date on our progress. And if you want us to create an Evermore community in your neighbourhood, then drop me a line and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to absorb the history, architecture and art from my own ‘Room with a View’ in Florence.

A room with a view, Florence

Borrowing from EM Forster ….”Only connect!

Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.”         EM Forster, Howards End, 1910

Sara

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Sara McKee, Evermore Founder and Director of Market Innovation

Follow Sara on Twitter @SaraMcKeeFRSA