History and Theory

Knowledge roundtable co-facilitator

Swimmable Cities Summit, 28th May 2025

Swimmable Cities alliance is comprised of signatories that include academics, activists, municipal bodies, research institutes, to mention a few who are interested in the urban waterways and reintegrating them into the everyday life of the citizens.
Swimmable Cities organised their first international round table in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2025. As part of that summit I participated with other international academics as a co-facilitator in the Knowledge Roundtable to workshop ideas, views and experience on swimming infrastructure as placemaking in cities.Event, Design, History and Theory , Inclusivity, Placeshaping, Naina Gupta

The Empire Pool and the Municipal Pool

The British Empire Games, Otto Koenigsberger and the Staging of an Independent India, 2024 - 2026

This research will study the early days of British Empire Games (1930-1945) with a focus on two swimming pools—the Empire Pool in London and the municipal pool in Bangalore, with the aim of discussing colonial relations as one of dialogue, exchange and the constitution of a progressive ‘international sensibility’. History and Theory , Naina Gupta

A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility, 2024 - 2025

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility: A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation presents an alternative history of internationalism and modernism, with a focus on the role of architecture and spatial practices.Beginning at the tail-end of the peace movements— the turn of the twentieth century— and ending with the Nuremberg trials, the book highlights the part played by individual agency, social reform and architecture in moulding a working everyday definition of what it meant to be international during this time. By viewing internationalism through the lens of the individual and the body, both as initiator and subject, it is repositioned as an integral part of everyday life, rather than simply understood to be concerned with geopolitical relations between nations and their institutions.The book furthers a research methodology that is multidisciplinary and transnational. It will therefore be of interest to researchers and students of architecture and international history.https://www.routledge.com/Modern-Architecture-and-an-International-Sensibility-A-Curious-Cross-Atlantic-Constellation/Gupta/p/book/9781032841076Book, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

AArchitecture article

A Frog's Eye View, 2024 - 2025

The article discusses the ‘new nature writing’ through the work of Roger Deakin. It questions if access to nature is equal and if everyone has the right to it. Naina Gupta, ‘A Frog’s Eye View’ in AArchitecture 49, Architectural Association School of Architecture Publication (2025).Journal Article, History and Theory , Inclusivity , Naina Gupta

The role of swimming pools in FDR's vision of polio rehabilitation at Warm Springs

Physiotherapy and Play, 2024 - 2025

In the early twentieth century Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio, which left him paralysed from the waist down. In search of a 'cure' he found the mineralised waters of Warm Springs in Georgia, USA. In due course, FDR in collaboration with his physiotherapist Helena Mahoney, and his architect Henry J. Toombs founded a polio rehabilitation clinic which set out a holistic definition of rehabilitation. In this article I discuss the role that was played by the swimming pools, and the centre, towards forwarding a definition of rehabilitation that involved physiotherapy and play towards reconstituting the sense of self of the person with disabilities during a time when disability was less understood and accepted. I argue for the role that architecture played in the treatment plan. The article uses archival research in conjunction with biographical research to layer the public and the private intentions of FDR portraying an alternative way of reading the project within FDR's presidential timeline. The focus is on Warm Springs and its design while FDR was directly involved in the project; however, but the article also questions the consequences of his celebrity on the knowledge and the legacy of the project. Naina Gupta, ‘Physiotherapy and Play: The role of the swimming pools in FDR’s vision of polio rehabilitation at Warm Springs’ in arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, special issue Vol 28; “Histories of Disability and Deafness in Architecture, ed by Nina Vollenbroker and Stylianos.Journal Article, History and Theory, Inclusivity , Naina Gupta

Knowledge Sharing

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, 2nd July 2024

Learning how to update and create Wikipedia pages to shining a light on under-represented academics and research from The University of Sheffield.Workshop, EDI, Participation, History and Representation, Jennifer Kerr

100 Women - Jennifer Kerr B.pptx

Book Launch

100 Women: Architects in Practice, 21st May 2024

Women within architecture have always been underrepresented. This highly illustrated book provides a flagship reference for women's contribution to architecture, offering inspiration to readers through 100 profiles.At the launch the panellists were asked:"One of the book’s ambitions is to address different worldviews as well as gender equity. What is your world vision and what is your vision that you bring to architecture?If advancing gender equity and the diversity of perspectives in architecture depends on established knowledge, how should the architectural profession and education expand what is valued as knowledge?Many architects in the book assert that they are not a woman architect, but simply an architect. How do you think it is possible to promote the positive representation of women's contribution to architecture while also embracing the diversity of perspectives in the profession?"Event, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Inclusivity, Jennifer Kerr

Public Facebook Group

Sheffield Philosophical Society, January 2024

Sheffield Philosophical Society is a public Facebook Group which provides an intersectional forum in which architects, students of architecture and anybody with a passing interest in architecture, buildings and place can chat and express opinions. Members can share their pictures and experience of place with respect and encouragement and without judgement. Occasionally a meeting is arranged or an urban theme for contributions is suggested. Members are welcome from around the world."An intersectional space for lovers of place. Perhaps an opportunity for informal and inclusive gatherings. Post your own photography of your moments in the urban realm." Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/825649619246161 Facebook Group, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, History and Representation, Jennifer Kerr

RIBA Research Fund

Traces and Tracing, 2024

The paper is part of the research that is funded by the RIBA Research Fund. In this conference I discuss my research method and the fragmented nature of the archives highlighting the role that narrating histories from multiple viewpoints can play in revising the knowledge that was produced by nation-centric historiography.The paper was part of the panel organised by Emma Cheatle and Luis Hernan titled Archived Bodies.Presentation, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

03 OUT OUT OUT Chapter.pdf

Inclusion Emergency: Diversity in Architecture

Out Out Out: The Dilemma, November 2023 - June 2024

'Out Out Out: The Dilemma' is my chapter contribution to the book Inclusion Emergency from RIBA Publishing. It is a dialogue between ‘myself’ and my ‘protester self’. The setting is a protest which I had imagined but never enacted in the year 2019. Instead, as ‘Danni’, I have an imaginary conversation with ‘Jennifer’ (my would-have-been protester at the time), to unearth the tensions and story of coming out as a transgender woman.The book, Inclusion Emergency: Diversity in Architecture, is a call to action. Capturing insight and experiences from role models in architecture, it provides a voice for the under-recognised to encourage understanding, reflection and meaningful change. Architecture is at a tipping point. If we don’t collectively listen, re-adjust and change our outlook, we risk limiting the relevance of our profession in today’s society and, ultimately, the places we create. Capturing insight from leading voices in the profession, this book addresses critical questions, providing steps towards meaningful change. It will help those who are under-recognised to find the role models, community and tools to feel confident, supported and valued. It will also help those intimidated by change to understand why it’s so important and provoke constructive action.Book, Report, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Jennifer Kerr

Castlegate

Co-production Index, September 2023 - January 2024

This digital index brings together for the first time all the work that students and academics at the School of Architecture have produced for Castlegate over the last decade.Castlegate is the historic birthplace of Sheffield, located at the confluence of the Rivers Don and Sheaf. This now dilapidated area of the city centre was once a bustling home to 800 years of market trading, theatres, industry and one of the largest mediaeval castles in England, demolished in 1650.Since 2014, students, graduates and academics from the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield have been co-producing design work and participatory research with community groups, local independent businesses, public-sector institutions, Sheffield City Council and colleagues from the Departments of Archaeology and Computer Science, to develop an ambitious shared vision for the future development of the area.This co-production process is envisioning, campaigning for and supporting the development of a new neighbourhood, accessible to all, that celebrates the rich heritage and social history of Castlegate while creating a viable sustainable future.The School of Architecture, through its project office Live Works, is acting as an effective mediator between grassroots and the local authority, helping to build capacity towards meaningful co-production at all scales. Our students’ creative engagement activities, research and design ideas have been instrumental in building a vision, shared by all partners, to deliver an ambitious, community-driven, socially, economically and environmentally sustainable new city quarter.Website, Climate Emergency, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, History and Representation, Case Study, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil

OLD.mp4

03 Some People Want to Run Things - James Clarkeson.mp4

Inclusion Emergency: Diversity in Architecture

This is Not an Elephant, July 2023

A presentation in lieu of a performance of 'Elephant' which is the working title for a chapter in an upcoming book titled 'Inclusion Emergency'. This presentation linked to this narrative through the idea of a teacher's 'equation'. It concerns the value of 'creative inquiry' in informing teaching practice in architecture. It is an overview of my creative practices, my life in design and making as craftsperson and my personal perspective on the principles which underpin and drive my design and how they inform excellence in my teaching practice. The event was organised with the support of James Clarkson who also presented his work as a sculptor - People Want To Run Things, Things Want to Run. This was followed by a discussion on the implications for art, design and education. Discussion:04 Discussion.mp4 - Google Drive Presentation, EDI, Placemaking, Pedagogy, Participation, Material Cultures, History and Representation, Jennifer Kerr

Inclusion Emergency: Diversity in Architecture

Elephant, 26th February 2023

"Architecture is at a tipping point. Over the last few years voices of the under-represented in education and practice have been increasing in volume and are agitated for change. If we don’t collectively listen, re-adjust and change our future outlook, we limit the potential relevance of the profession in today’s society and ultimately the places we create. This book will capture insight from leading voices, both academic and in practice, aiming to encourage understanding, reflection and address critical questions, providing practical steps towards meaningful change. Our universities begin as places of diversity, with visible and invisible differences. But as individuals progress in architecture, representation diminishes, particularly at senior levels of practice to a profession dominated by white heteronormative, able bodied men. Disparities between the cultures and identities of the profession as opposed to the broader population are significant and manifest themselves in important ways, both obvious and insidious. It is critical that we address this, as a profession.Who enters the profession, and progresses on into positions of power, determines not only who writes our history, but who feels accepted in the profession, who designs our built environments and how inclusive they are." RIBA PublishingThis piece which also includes graphics produced from a performance art as been described as essential for Queer representation at the Sheffield School of Architecture.Book, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Jennifer Kerr

Architecture of swimming

Extraordinary Pools, 2023 - 2025

A feast of 49 architecturally astounding swimming pools from around the world that explore the relationship between swimming and its influence on the architectural imaginary. A curated collection that portrays the versatility of the swimming pool and the architecture that the swimming body inspired. It displays some of the world’s famous architectural projects from a new point of view—from that of the swimming pool—through a collection of delectable photographs. It catalogues its many facets—progressive visions, ecological connections, private pleasures, technological mastery and unadulterated excess. Extraordinary Pools is a mosaic of exceptional public and private pools, reasserting the protean quality of the swimming pool as a space of activity, pleasure and excess authored by Naina Gupta. It includes 4 extended essays by Anna Font, Iain Borden, Mathilde Redouté, and Tatjana Crossley on various aspects of pool culture.https://www.batsfordbooks.com/book/extraordinary-pools/Book, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

Castlegate Urban Room Public Engagement Report.pdf

Castlegate

Castlegate Futures Urban Room, November 2022

The Castlegate Futures Urban Room ran from 12-20th November 2022 and was set up to facilitate the engagement of stakeholders and local people with Sheffield City Council’s plans for a new public space to be built on the Castle site, and for the future of Castlegate more widely.Live Works and MArch Studio in Residence worked in partnership with Sheffield City Council and the Castlegate Partnership (a collaboration with local community groups, universities, charities, arts organisations and independent businesses) to facilitate a programme of exhibitions, discussions, tours and activities to engage people in the past, present and future of this extraordinary part of our city. The previously co-produced Castlegate Common Manifesto, also facilitated by Live Works, informed directly the public engagement programme.The new public space will open up access to the River Sheaf, provide spaces for arts and community events, and reveal the rich heritage of the area, including the remains of the Castle. It should be a place for people from all over Sheffield of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to feel connected to each other and to their city’s history - where everyone can feel welcome. It is hoped that this will catalyse further regeneration of Castlegate that places people, heritage and the environment at its heart."Since securing Levelling Up funding in October 2021, Carolyn has facilitated an inclusive co-production process, including running stakeholder workshops in November 2021 and June 2022 with a variety of stakeholders, occupiers, and the Council, to support the detailed design of the Castle site development.
She supported a public engagement programme in November 2022 which led to planning approval in May 2023. As part of this, Carolyn set up and promoted the Castlegate Futures Urban Room and ran a variety of public workshops which were invaluable." Lucia Lorente-Arnau, Principal Development Officer, Sheffield City CouncilPresentation, Event, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, History and Representation, Case Study, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil

220316 Remember to Forget: Into Eternity and Deep Time Reckoning.pptx

Temporality in Architecture

Remember to Forget, March 2022

'Remember to Forget' is review of two sources investigating the issues and implications of long term nuclear waste disposal. Both 'Into Eternity' a Film Documentary by Michael Madsen and 'Deep Time Reckoning' by Vincent Ialenti are narratives in 'vast time' of the Onkalo Nuclear Waste Repository in Finland, which consider the practicalities and implications of the belief that we can extend design thinking over 100,000 years.This scholarship was untaken as part of the year 2 undergraduate tutor group CPD. This represented an opportunity to discuss my reading on 'extreme temporality' which is a component of my PhD thesis on Architecture and Time. An argument in the thesis is that time is an ever present and interactive context in which architecture and its actors must exist. It is through rich scenarios such as those presented by Madsen and Ialenti that we can appreciate aspects of this relationship.The presentation was made in the context of a UG tutor CPD presentation session following which the ensuing discussion acknowledging temporality as way to understand how particular types of interaction in the built environment makes that built environment over time.Presentation, EDI, Placemaking, History and Representation, Jennifer Kerr

Student resource

ASCA Climate Resources Hub, 2022 - 2024

Within the School of Architecture we place significant emphasis on supporting and facilitating student led learning. As a Department we have embraced the emergence of ASCA and valued the role they have played as a critical friend. I secured an Education Grant in 2022 in partnership with the group that has helped to invigorate and enhance their activities over the course of the year and beyond.Recognised the long-standing challenge in universities of sharing and disseminating the exceptional work, often laden with specialised knowledge, particularly in light of the climate crisis both with and beyond the school I supported ASCA facilitated by the Education Fund to established a virtual platform called the "Climate Resource Hub." Using the widely accessible Miro platform, commonly used in the school of architecture, this hub initially became a centralised repository for all things climate-related. It featured an extensive, organised reading list, showcases master's level works on critical material appraisals for a deeper understanding of climate-conscious materials, provides an active events calendar, links to talks we hosted, climate-related articles, and fosters collaboration and suggestions from fellow students. Over the summer, the platform continued to evolve into a Climate resource website.Event, Website, Toolkit, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Pedagogy, Participation, Material Cultures, History and Representation, John Sampson

"The response to the Climate Emergency has developed into a real strength of the programme. I was amazed how the school had stepped forward in response to the Climate Emergency over the past 2 years."

Prof. Sussanne Hoffman, MArch External Examiner 2023

211213 The SSoA Voices Survey: A means to support knowledge-based progressive policy making to drive forward positive change at the Sheffield School of Architecture

Inclusion at SSoA

The SSoA Voices Survey, November 2021

The Sheffield School of Architecture has a positive and proactive culture which may obscure the fact that abuse and exclusion do occur.In the summer of 2020, a group of students from across the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) advocated for change through proactive anti-racist activity. As a product of their conversations, they wrote "Anti-Racism at SSoA: A Call to Action", This open letter argued that ‘our school has been and remains complicit in the structures that perpetuate systemic racism within architecture’ and demanded ‘immediate action and concrete change’.The letter, and in particular its powerful testimonials, made for hard reading, asking some serious questions of the school’s claim to be a ‘Social School of Architecture’. Despite actively fostering a pedagogy and culture around ‘gender equality and feminism’, conversations on race had been either minimised or excluded altogether from the discourse.The letter had a powerful impact, with many students and staff adding their signatures, and the momentum generated has stimulated a strong desire and mandate for change within the school. We have seen in response the rejuvenation of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion committee of which the pro-active Student Action Group is an essential component. For those of us involved in EDI at SSoA, the ‘Call to Action' had revealed the provocative power of testimonials for progressive change. In particular, it prompted the realisation that individual narratives and the lived experience of members of our school’s community can lead to and inform action.‘A Call to Action’ declared both the necessity and the urgency of change, impressing upon us that the school must keep these conversations alive and relevant, to continue to tackle racism and other aspects of inclusion as they impact on the whole of the school community and that this needs to happen together with our agendas to decolonise the curriculum, to promote gender-equality and to tackle climate change. As a necessary action in response to ‘A Call to Action’, the Voices Survey was initiated.Report, EDI, Pedagogy, History and Theory, Participation, Jennifer Kerr and Catherine Skelcher

Cohousing

Nubia Way: a story of black-led self building in Lewisham, July 2021 - July 2022

Sam Brown's contribution to this project was relatively minimal, as part of the background research carried out by the main production team.Nubia Way was built in the 1990s by Fusions Jameen, London's first black housing co-operative in Downham, Lewisham. Constructed using the principles of Walter Segal, self-builders were offered long-term discounted rents in return for building the homes. Through interviews with the original self-builders, historians, architects and economists, this new documentary from the Architecture Foundation celebrates the legacy of Nubia Way and examines self-building as an act of resistance against the housing discrimination faced by Black British Communities.Film, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Sam Brown

Walkley Festival & Walkley Library Exhibition, 2021 - 2022

This project explores a range of methods to begin to understand, measure, record and develop both orthographic “objective” methods and perceptual “subjective” methods of representing space. The project culminates in a student led and curated exhibition of their work."Last Thursday we had a visit of Y3, Y4 and Y5 pupils from St Mary’s Academy, Walkley to look at their artwork of Walkley Library, St Mary’s and Ebenezer Churches, St Mary’s School and a number of pubs and restaurants. The Y4 teacher Michelle Grant talks every year about what architects do, and they were all thrilled to look at your students sketches and drawings. The previous Friday, in Ruskin Park, just under 20 Y5 pupils had been really helpful marking out the houses in Harworth Street which was demolished in the slum clearance in the 1970s. The Walkley history tent proved to be very popular at the Fun Day on the Sunday." Chris Reece, Chair of Walkley Carnegie LibraryExhibition, Pedagogy, Participation, History and Representation, Wei Chan Chia

Feminist pedagogy

SSoA Feminist Library, May 2020 - Present

In March 2020 SSoA staff and students organised a Feminist Teach Out to explore feminist foundations, fields and futures and celebrate 20 years of feminist activity at SSoA. Many participants at the event expressed interest in having access to the work produced in the school over the years under this banner.During the last decades, numerous students have produced design and theoretical projects addressing feminist topics and methodologies which remained invisible to the wider School community. Much of the feminist work in the School took more intangible forms such as conferences, events and discussions which remained fully or partially unrecorded.The Feminist Library at SSoA will include an archive, in which previous outputs (dissertations, publications, theses, design projects, event recordings and testimonials) will be documented and stored, and a live part in which new events, activities, and debates will be posted in real time. The Feminist Library will be launched during a special event in November and disseminated across UK and international HE institutions. This will be a key resource for students and staff and will ensure that SSoA continues to set the agenda in feminist pedagogy and research.Website, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth and Catherine Skelcher

Image Equality Project Introduction and Links.docx

Student resource and research

Image Equality Project, 2020 - ongoing

The Image Equality Project has the simple aim of creating a more diverse range of source images of people, for students to use in their design work. The initiative was established in 2020, to create an open access resource for the School that offers png and CAD/vector line images of people that are more diverse in their: ethnicity, ability, activity and social grouping. It is hoped that this will enable students to inhabit their work with people that are more specific and relevant to context, programme, location, brief, agenda and approach.‘Intersectionality’ was used as a critical framework to develop the inclusive archive of bodies that could otherwise disappear in intersectional margins. Intersectionality is a Black feminist concept introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw and was initially used for critiquing discrimination and/or exclusion of black women in feminist and anti-racist politics. Thus it is important to produce embodied representations at different intersections: black+women, asian+disabled, non-binary+white.By introducing 2nd Year undergraduate students to Crenshaw's work and in enabling them to reconsider how we categorise and discriminate by the representation of peoples in their design work, students started to collect a more diverse set of representative people and consider in more depth the implications of their decisions. It also provoked students to consider how the representation of people in their work conveyed a socio-ethical position about their values as an architect. The archive of source images is a live resource that students are encouraged to contribute to, in order to keep it diverse, relevant and useful.Journal Article, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Emre Akbil and Leo Care

Research-led teaching at SSoA

Everyday Reflexivity, Tacit Dimension and Contemporary Relevance: research-led teaching in Master’s written dissertation at the Sheffield School of Architecture, 2020

‘Everyday Reflexivity, Tacit Dimension and Contemporary Relevance: research-led teaching in Master’s written dissertation at the Sheffield School of Architecture’, Contemporary ArchitectureJournal Article, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

Astragal: A miniature doughy metropolisTo Somerset House for the Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City 2019, where more than 100 architects have come together to make a miniature doughy metropolis (masterplanned by Tibbalds).

Gingerbread city

Judge for Gingerbread City, December 2019

The Gingerbread City® 2019 was in the Lancaster Rooms at Somerset House and brought together over 100 architects, designers and engineers to create an entire city made of gingerbread and sweets. The masterplan developed by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design explored the theme: 'The Future of Transport'. "Our big thank you to all the visitors and participants for making this exhibition a success! Over 31,000 visited and more than 10,000 votes were cast during the Gingerbread City 2019 exhibition at the Somerset House." Melissa Woodford, Director, Museum of Architecturehttps://museumofarchitecture.org/for-the-public/exhibitions/Event, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

Panel chair

Standing at the Sky’s Edge: the Stories Behind the Park Hill Musical, October 2019

Standing at the Sky’s Edge: the Stories Behind the Park Hill Musical Charing discussion with Chris Bush, Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till.Evening event at Crucible Theatre. Exploring the musical development and depiction of Park Hill flats and associated histories. Event, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

Stephen Lawrence Memorial Lecture 2019: Connecting People and PlaceWe are delighted to invite you to the 19th annual Stephen Lawrence Memorial Lecture to help raise vital funds for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust,

Charitable work

Stephen Lawrence Memorial Lecture, September 2019

Guest speaker and Panelist at the 19th annual Stephen Lawrence Memorial Lecture.Event, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

Student project catalogue

Studio: Arrival City, August 2019

Over the last 2 years I have asked students upload their projects to a wordpress site so that we have an archive of the studio work. Each student has a blog entry and has uploaded the work. Alongside uploading this years work I would like to work with a 2-3 students to edit and refine the site and the uploaded work, introduce critical reflective analysis of the findings of the studio alongside links to resources that the studio’s have collated over the years.This year Leo Care has secured funding for 3 studios to produce a publication of the studio work. Arrival City is one of the studios to have access to the funding. I propose to use the funding to pay students to assist developing the site, new content and the critical reflection. I will also use the money to pay for hosting over the next 3 years.Presentation, EDI, Placemaking, History and Representation, John Sampson

A Part of and Apart From - Published.pdf

Reflections on student projects

A Part of and Apart From, March & September 2019

A workshop delivered in March 2019 by the authors and MArch students at the ‘School Fundamental’ Festival, Bauhaus, Dessau. The event marked 100 years of the Bauhaus and 20 years of SSoA Live Projects, providing an excellent opportunity to reflect upon our live pedagogical experience within the context of the Bauhaus legacy. The workshop addressed the polarisation that can occur when discussing different types of student projects, using a matrix of four, commonly used terms: real, deliverable, speculative, abstract. Outcomes revealed how a student project can have value as both ‘a part of, and apart from’ the external world. A paper reflecting on the findings of the workshop was presented at the AAE 2019 conference at University of Westminster April 2019 and submitted to the AAE peer-reviewed journal Charette (pending).Event, Journal Article, Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

"I was so pleased to meet you in Dessau at the Fundamental school festival a few weeks ago. I’m still impressed by the work you and your students did and the inspiring talk we had."

Hanna Petruschat, University of Art and Design, Halle, Germany

field-108-akbil.pdf

Image equality project

(Not Just) A Skin-Deep Image Problem, 2019

This provocation asks, in this age of image saturation: how can we represent people in our architectural designs that are specific, appropriate, representative and diverse? Using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s notion of intersectionality, the paper explores the potential of an ‘image equality archive’ created in The University of Sheffield's School of Architecture, to act as an interactive resource for students to question, examine and evaluate the representation of peoples in their design projects. The paper explores the minefields that reside in architectural representation of human figures due to colonial structures that remain untouched. The archive then is proposed as a tool to open conversations around these structures that tend to make figures at categorical intersections invisible. Finally the paper ends with future uses of the archive and a speculative institutional framework that could grow around it in order to ensure that conversations remain open and sustainable in terms of its capacity to make structural changes within the architectural pedagogy of design projects across the school. Journal Article Website: https://www.field-journal.org/article/id/108/ Journal Article, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Emre Akbil and Leo Care

Student project catalogue

The Dreams of Sleeping Beauty, December 2018

Our current third year is the fifth cohort of students to be working on design projects for Scarborough. By December 2018 we will have a repository of over 500 different projects for the town. The projects are based on a variety of briefs which engage with different aspects of the rich history of town and located on many different sites that explore its unique topography. The proposal is to take the best of this work and develop an exhibition and/or catalogue, showing how these sites could be used and new facilities that could be proposed. The intention is to present an optimistic future for the town, developing themes of the urban design framework document ‘Kissing Sleeping Beauty’ produced by West 8 in 2003, which so far has largely remained unrealised.In addition to student work, we could also include staff projects in the town (Markets - Group Ginger, Woodend - P Testa, W McFadden). The aim would also be to provide a didactic commentary to the projects, with input from the Y3 team and our external examiners.Event, Booklet, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Building Performance, Material Cultures, Placemaking, Russel Light

Love Among the Ruins review – beauty and brilliance on the high-rises of Sheffield

Debate chair

Experiments in Living, September 2018

Debate as part of ‘Love amongst the Ruins. A romance of the Near Future’ organised by S1 Art space. Speakers included Lyndsay Hanley and Elaine Harwood.Event, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

FoTM Speigel Latest .pptx

Castlegate

Experience Castlegate, September 2018

Experience Castlegate is a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Partners in the project are UoS academics from Archaeology, Architecture and Computer Science with creative industry and community partners, Human VR and Friends of Sheffield Castle.Outputs from the research were showcased in the Futurecade (Millennium Galleries) for 10 days during the Festival of the Mind 2018. The exhibit was visited by 1000s of people and featured in local and regional press and TV. The project looks at Castlegate in Sheffield as a testbed to explore how immersive digital technologies can engage people in local heritage while involving them in the processes of urban regeneration.In the Futurecade visitors experienced a 3D digital model of Sheffield’s Castle, through Augmented Reality (AR). This was the first public view of a new model of the Castle based on recent archaeological research on this hidden, yet incredibly important, piece of Sheffield’s history. The AR overlaid upon a physical model at 1:150 scale and showing the site of the Castle, and of Castle Markets, as it is now. When the model is viewed through ipads the Castle springs into view, overlaid upon the contemporary site.Alongside the model was a film showing the digital model of the Castle, excerpts from recent archaeological archival research and future visions of the site by architecture students. This exhibit led to a lecture by Carolyn Butterworth, John Moreland and Nick Bax in the Speigeltent to 200 members of the public. Carolyn also gave a lecture to 120 members of the alumni Heritage Circle in Firth Hall on the project. The Experience Castlegate model and AR is due to be shown at the National Videogame Museum in Castlegate for several weeks in spring 2019.Event, Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Placemaking, Case Study, Carolyn Butterworth

Urban leisure spaces

Urban subversion and mobile cinema: Leisure, architecture and the “kino-cine-bomber”, April 2018

This paper introduces our bicycle-based cinema device—the “kino-cine- bomber”—as a vehicle to reimagine disused buildings and obsolete urban infrastructure for re-activated public leisure spaces. It is also a vehicle to conceptualize theoretical relations between leisure, architecture, cinematic geographies and urban spaces. Through these lenses, we focus on a series of Situationist-inspired methods using the kino-cine-bomber to identify buildings that could be removed—as architecture by subtraction—in Coventry (UK). There, the River Sherbourne flows hidden beneath the city, culverted and capped, a relic of postwar urban planning no longer fit for purpose.We explore river “daylighting” plans by postgraduate architecture students using the kino-cine-bomber, first to trace the hidden river beneath the city streets, then to project architectural designs where buildings may be repurposed and the river revealed. We discuss the possibilities of these designs and, befitting a paper celebrating Situationism, we close with a manifesto for urban leisure spaces.Urban subversion and mobile cinema: Leisure, architecture and the “kino-cine-bomber”Journal Article, Climate Emergency, History and Representation, Placemaking, Building Performance, Simon Baker

BBC interview

The Arts Tower and the Paternoster lift, February 2018

Speaking as architectural expert for BBC Look North feature. Interviewed by Mark Ansell.Event, EDI, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

Pedagogy

Study Material: increasing its effectiveness, 2018 - ongoing

Reading lists (sometimes called study or reference material) are often long, non hierarchical, lists presented to students with no context, and usually as full book titles at the end of project briefs. Anecdotally, or at least through marking submitted papers over the last 8 years, I have seen papers submitted regularly that make no reference to the reading lists. This scholarship aims to test if this really is the case and to look at best practice examples, through action research, of how reading lists could be presented more effectively. In addition, this project looks critically at instances of 'male, pale and stale'.Journal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, History and Representation, Stuart McKenzie

A cross-disciplinary, arts-based research project funded by the AHRC Connected Communities programmearoundthetoilet.wordpress.com/

Student resource

Around the Toilet: Design Toolkit, 2018

The Design toolkit was one strand of the Around The Toilet research project, that aimed to create an online resource to help students to understand the importance of toilet design and engage them in the challenges of creating better toilets. The work incorporated gender and disability studies with architectural design and research. The work and outputs from the project were presented at the Disordinary Architecture conference at UCL in March 2018.The project was AHRC funded.Journal Article, Toolkit, Website, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Building Performance, Leo Care

Architectural theory

Superstudio’s lost project for Sheffield, 2018

In my recent research, I have discovered a previously unknown project by the Italian architectural theorists Superstudio for Sheffield, which was part of their Continuous Monument project of 1969. In Superstudio’s presentation of the project one of the montages is entitled 'Coketown Revisited’, without any reference to a specific location. I have identified the background as a photograph of a street in Sheffield taken by Roger Mayne. I have also identified the location of the street (demolished in the 1970s). From this information it has been possible to reconstruct the full plan and extent of the project. At over 2 miles long and 67m high, it dwarfs all of the other major architectural projects for Sheffield that were being carried out in the 1960s, including Park Hill, Hyde Park, Kelvin and the Tinsley Viaduct. I have already produced plans and new photomontages showing the scale and impact of the structure on the city.So far, I have given two talks on this research, the first to accompany the S1 Love Among the Ruins exhibition and the second at the Sheffield Modern Architecture Weekender. I would now like to develop a journal article about the topic. Journal Article, Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Building Performance, Material Cultures, Placemaking, Archival, Russel Light

Research-led teaching at SSoA

Design Investigation, Design Illustration and Design Intervention, 2017

‘Design Investigation, Design Illustration and Design Intervention: Research-led Teaching in M.Arch at the Sheffield School of Architecture’, Urbanism and Architecture, No.261, pp.18-23.Journal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, History and Representation, Satwinder Samra

A Certain Degree of Uncertainty - AAE 2016.pdf

AAE Conference 2016

A Certain Degree Of Uncertainty: Embracing Risk In The Thesis Project Via The ‘creative Survey’, April 2016

A paper presented at the AAE Conference at UCL in 2016.“Over the past 10 years I have developed a pedagogical tool in my design studio, the creative survey. In this paper I suggest that this method can help students cope with, and indeed, welcome uncertainty into the design process and I reflect upon the problems, opportunities and consequences associated with this. Referring to interviews with past and present MArch students from my studio I will describe how this way of working has affected their attitude towards uncertainty within their education and within their ongoing careers in practice.I will describe how, in its development, the creative survey has expanded from a single exercise at the beginning of the design process to become the crystallisation of a broader critical methodology for the production of a thesis project that we believe has wider implications on architectural practice. In the writing of this paper I have found the work of Helga Nowotny around uncertainty in science and social science, culminating in her book The Cunning of Uncertainty (Nowotny 2016), to be very useful and much of this paper’s enquiry is developed through the lens of her theories on the subject.”In Sept 2016 I presented the paper to colleagues in MArch to help frame a discussion on how we might encourage more risk-taking and experimentation in thesis projects.Journal Article, EDI, Design, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Participation, History and Representation, Carolyn Butterworth

The Dengineers - Series 5: 12. Bug DenTwins Becca and Lottie need a den so they can enjoy wildlife and bugs together.

Architectural broadcasting

CBBC ‘The Dengineers’ BAFTA winner, 2016 - present

The Dengineers is a CBBC TV where children build their very own dream den. Satwinder works as on screen designer with the children to both design and build their unique creations. Two 28 min TV shows to be broadcast on CBBC and BBC2."I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all of your help, hard work and AMAZING dens on The Dengineers this year! I have watched all of your episodes, thoroughly enjoyed them and am so happy and impressed that we have managed to raise the bar even higher on this series!" Annette Williams Genre Lead Factual Formats BBC"A massive thank you for another wonderful bunch of dens. And also a sincere, personal thank you for being so fantastic to work with over these last few series. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you both, getting to know you and particularly watching you work – I’ve learned a lot." Jennifer Morrison Series ProducerTV Show, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Satwinder Samra

LW Project Summary Castlegate Festival.pdf

Castlegate

Castlegate Festival, June 2015

Live Works designed and delivered the following for the Festival:

publicity material and map
exhibition in Castle House of student design and research work for sites in Castlegate
engagement activities in Castle House using the ReMake Castlegate (Festival of the Mind) model

Aims:To make a creative contribution to the inaugural Castlegate Festival, 21-22 June 2015. The aims of the Festival were to:

provide family friendly, inclusive activities
increase footfall and engage with the people of Sheffield
promote the area and improve people’s perception of Castlegate
tell the stories of Castlegate’s history and future plans through imaginative art installations, exhibitions and activities

Report, Event, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, History and Representation, Case Study, Carolyn Butterworth

DJary L+T conf slides 2017.pdf

MArch teaching

Working with marginalised communities, 2015 - 2016

This presentation explores the work carried out by students from the School of Architecture in Goldthorpe, a former mining village in South Yorkshire, exploring the value of:

Sustained community engagement
A range of project types and activities
Working across disciplinary boundaries
Working collaboratively to address local needs
Engagement through participation
Research by design

https://studiocollaborativeproduction.wordpress.com/Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Dan Jary

Teaching excellence in social sciences senate award presentation

The Value of Civic Engagement in Learning and Teaching, 2015

The presentation focused on a collaboration with Doncaster Primary Schools and Doncaster Civic Trust. Looking at the mutual benefits of delivering a design competition for schools that is supported by Architecture and Urban Design students. The students design and deliver a workshop in Primary Schools to help children develop and create their design submission. The presentation also focused on the importance of the ‘virtuous learning circle’ that the project establishes.Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Leo Care

AAE LW Workshop.ppt.pptx

LW Project Summary Value of Architecture.pdf

Participatory workshop

The Cultural Value of Architecture, June 2014

Part of an extensive AHRC funded ‘Cultural Value’ research project, ‘The Cultural Value of Architecture’ aimed to develop new ways of evidencing value in the discipline. Live Works were commissioned by Prof. Flora Samuel to run participatory workshops to explore how people perceive different types of value in the built environment and enrich the research through these findings.Live Works ran two rounds of workshops with schoolchildren from Dearne ALC School.

a guided tour of key spaces and buildings in Sheffield city centre, to explore the decisions affecting the design of buildings and the impact buildings have on us
Live Works visited the school to work further with the children on their own built environment The outcomes of these and workshops with Blackburn College students informed the findings of the research project.

Report, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth

aae 2014 conference proceedings.pdf

AAE Conference 2014

Living & Learning, 2014

During the AAE conference, Live Works will be based at Union Street, in the City Centre. We aim to offer an event based around a recent research project looking at the cultural value of architecture. There will be an interactive exhibition based on workshops with members of the public looking at how they value architecture. Delegates will also be offered a Spotter’s Guide, to go out and explore some key buildings in the city centre and appraise the value of them. We hope this activity will provide an interesting counter-point and fringe event to the conference; providing a city centre orientation station and showcase how SSoA engages the people of Sheffield in its work.Presentation, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, History and Representation, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

Blackburn Remade Print Final.pdf

Live Projects

Blackburn ReMade, 2013

(re)create Blackburn was a Live Project by fourteen architecture students from the University of Sheffield. Between September and November of 2013 they collaborated with Blackburn and Darwen Council’s Blackburn is Open programme and the community of Blackburn. The project aimed to revitalise Blackburn town centre through the promotion of the creative industries.Book, EDI, Placemaking, History and Representation, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth

Urban leisure spaces

Cinema Under the stars; Heritage from below, 2013

This chapter takes as its focus an open-air, ‘pop-up’, site-specific cinema in the car park at Marshall’s Mill, Leeds, a Grade II* listed former flax spinning mill. In the shadow of the official heritage of the mill, this was a Do-It-Yourself event. Counter-mapping heritage, cinema and place. Schofield and Szymanski (2011: 7) suggested that heritage might come alive when “artistic practice connects people to place in imaginative and often unforeseen ways.” This chapter celebrates the sometimes surprising possibilities for counter-mapping cultural heritage involving cinema under the stars and heritage from below. In many respects we had created a, ‘Derive’, simply defined in 1958 as a ‘mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of transient passage through varied ambiences.’ ‘’Debord, Guy, ‘’ theory of derive’’ in Andrettotti and Costa, theory of the derive, 1996."Neither of us has much experience in cinema or heritage projects. We started out, for different reasons, simply hoping to enjoy an open air screening of our own making. Brett had grown up during the 1970s with drive-in theatres in the USA; he lectures on youth arts and urban leisure. Simon was planning on showing films in his garden and, as an architect, his practice centres on urban design; he is based in offices at Marshall’s Mill. After weather postponed another small scale back garden attempt we sketched out our initial ideas in the most hallowed traditions on cocktail napkins over pints in pubs. Fuelled in this way our ideas escalated and Simon’s back ground as a practicing architect prompted, ‘Direct action’ not to talk and dream but to act! As our plans for the site-specific cinema grew, we had a series of fortunate windfalls, including a partnership with the UK Green Film Festival. After nine months of planning (and pints), in May 2012 we hosted a screening of the film Happy (2011 Dir. Roko Belic) in the Marshall’s Mill car park. In sum, the event became something far more interesting than we had initially envisioned."Who Needs Experts? Countermapping Cultural Heritage, 2014Chapter 9 p133-146Edited John Schofield, University of YorkIsbn 978-1-4094-3934-9Book, EDI, History and Representation, Placemaking, Simon Baker

Temporal uses

Legacy and Placemaking through Temporal use, Conference 2012, Published 2016

This paper will examine three realized projects in Leeds and York, England, to question the legacy and ‘value’ of temporal use within the city and the connections between affect and place.The three case studies are; an established annual light-based festival, a single night pop up cinema, and an art installation sited on a disused viaduct. Each project questions the future use of our heritage buildings, their sites and context. The case studies form destinations which are not part of an established cultural heritage ‘trail’ or route. The action of ‘making and doing’ reverses our analysis of art and film from a tool we were using to help understand a place, to a medium that helped to define a place as a meanwhile use. Simon Baker is a protagonist who worked to re-appropriate the underutilized spaces and Sarah Mills is a lecturer of Architecture and uses film and Situationist techniques to analyse the subversion of the everyday. Challenging the normative modes of architectural practice engenders collaboration and questions existing policies, guidelines, buildings and the current purpose of place.Book, Presentation, Climate Emergency, History and Representation, Placemaking, Simon Baker

"Preliminary Material" published on 01 Jan 2016 by Brill.brill.com/view/book/9781848884533/BP000001.xml

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