Material Cultures

Technology teaching

Critical Material Appraisal, ongoing

Sam worked with the Students for Climate Action group at the Sheffield School of Architecture to curate and share a set of resources produced by MArch in Architecture students as part of their ARC554 module, Environment & Technology 1. The work is titled the "Critical Material Appraisal" (CMA) and asks students to work in groups to develop a body of design research relating to the material, technical and environmental themes emerging from their design studio work. The brief for the assignment asks students to develop a resource for use by their studio and, if relevant, by the wider MArch cohort, School of Architecture or external partners and collaborators. The work ranges from in-depth worked examples and critique of embodied carbon calculations, to original research into the production of construction materials using waste or byproducts of bio-remediation, as well as the exploration of the vernacular way of building in particular places around the world. The exhibition aims to make the products of tis research available and accessible to other students and to cultivate reflection on the emerging body of knowledge generated by students in the School.BESCA CMA ArchiveExhibition, Online resource, Climate Emergency, Material Cultures, Pedagogy, Sam Brown

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

ARC554 24-25- Lecture 02 - Gando School Buildings_ISSUED

Technology teaching

Gando School Buildings by Francis Kéré, 29th March 2023

Sam prepared an in-depth case study on the school buildings built at Gando in Burkina Faso, initiated and designed by the Burkinabé architect, Francis Kéré. The case study was used as the basis of new teaching content in the MArch in Architecture module, ARC554 - Environment & Technology 1, in support of efforts to include content situated in climate contexts other than western Europe within a diversified offering to students. Presentation, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Material Cultures, Pedagogy, Sam Brown

Technology teaching

The work of Prism Facades: terracotta curtain walling system at Blue+William in Sydney, 8th March 2023

Sam collaborated with the facade designer Troy Donovan of Prism Facades, based in Sydney, Australia, to develop a guest presentation and associated worksheet of teaching resources covering the role of a facade designer in design teams, the innovative approach to digital sketching used by Troy to develop detail design proposals and the application of this in the context of an innovative curtain walling system in use at the Blue+William development in Sydney, designed by Woods Bagot. ARC554 22-23 - Troy Donovan worksheetEvent, Teaching Resource, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Material Cultures, Sam Brown

Student project awards

ASCA Education Prizes, 2023 - Ongoing

Recognising that students are influenced by what the school outwardly recognises as excellent performance I worked with Architecture Students for Climate Action to initiate and deliver a new set of awards presented at the Schools end of year exhibition. In 2023 an award was presented to a student in each year in recognition for the quality of the work in response to the climate emergency. In 2024 I supported the initiation of 2 new awards recognising excellence in climate writing. Recognition, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Material Cultures, John Sampson and Catherine Skelcher

Citizens' Assemblies

Climate Re-assemblies, 2023 - Ongoing

The project aims to rethink how citizen participation is conceived in relation to the formulation, documentation, and continuity of Climate Assemblies. Between October-December 2023, The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is holding a Citizens’ Assembly involving 100 citizens on climate futures, asking participants the following questions: “The way our climate is changing will impact us all. How should we respond, to build a thriving and sustainable future for South Yorkshire?”Climate Assemblies are an emerging form of deliberative democracy employed to provoke conversations around the issues and impacts of climate change within communities. However, there tends to be limited engagement with participants and communities following an assembly, and it is not evident how their recommendations are acted on. For this project, we will specifically explore the potential for innovation in pre event collective agenda-setting, in-event (inclusive, visible, interactive) documentary, and post-event evaluation and progression – and how that, in turn, impacts shared climate future imaginaries, the types of solutions being put forward, and who participates in assemblies. These questions will be explored through a series of workshops on Climate Assemblies and the co-creation of an interactive documentary (idoc) with a diverse range of stakeholders as citizen-researchers, including both academics (from the fields of communication, politics, architecture and art practice) and non-academics from local authorities, community climate-focused organisations as well as communities underrepresented in the climate discourse. Event, Presentation, Climate Emergency, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, Material Cultures, Participatory, Emre Akbil and Carolyn Butterworth

220411a The Pavilion as ‘Research by Design’ Method: Layered concepts of ‘design’ and ‘design research’ in architecture.pdf

Layered Concepts of 'Design' and 'Design Research' in Architecture

The Pavilion as ‘Research by Design’ Method, Spring 2022

My research interests in the field of ‘architecture and time’ have a fundamental nature seeking common or universal patterns that may be true throughout architecture and perhaps even throughout all design disciplines. To approach this research I have needed to consider what would constitute a suitable research platform or vehicle. In this article passage I discuss the merits of the 'architectural pavilion' in 'design research'.Doctoral Times - Research Methodologies, Issue 22, Spring 22 - Page 10 - Danni Kerr:https://www.flipsnack.com/tuostimes/doctoral-times-research-methodologies-issue-22-spring-20.htmlJournal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, Material Cultures, 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

South Yorkshire Housing Association collaboration

SYHA / SSoA Housing Exhibition, June 2021 - ongoing

The exhibition is designed to celebrate two years of student work developed through the School's collaboration with South Yorkshire Housing Association, showcasing design projects, dissertation material and Live Projects.The exhibition is designed to be deployed indoors or externally to reach as wide an audience as possible.The exhibition would expose the excellent work of over 300 students from across the School to the general public, providing an engaging forum for discussion around topical housing issues. It is intended that several students would be involved as key members of the curatorial team.Event, Presentation, EDI, Climate Emergency, Design, Participation, Placemaking, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

Student project archive

Studio Just Transitions, 2021 - Ongoing

Studio Just Transitions is an MArch Design Studio at Sheffield School of Architecture.The world is embarking on an unprecedented transition. To deliver on the global commitments enshrined in the Paris Agreement, the UK must achieve zero carbon emissions by the mid-2030s. Such a change will require the radical adaptation of both our energy system and the way we engage with energy as a society. Energy transitions have always been shaped by social, political and economic structures, and the transition ahead of us is as much a cultural transition as a physical one.This site was created to form an archive of the studio's work both within and outside of the School of Architecture.Website, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Material Cultures, John Sampson

Decarbonise your House NOW Exhibition GuideFirst Edition 211126.pdf

Exhibition and research

Decarbonise your house now, 2020 - 2022

Acting as a research mentor I supported Editional Studio to develop The Decarbonise Your House Now! guide and exhibition.The research commissioned by the RIBA explores the barriers that small practices play in communicating the importance of environmental upgrade to their domestic clients. The research culminated in an exhibition of experimental building fragments exhibited in Editional Studios local high street shop.Exhibition, Research Publication, Climate Emergency, Material Cultures, Building Performance, John Sampson

Live Works Screen Rights Report_v250923.pdf

Equal access to the screen industry

Screen Rights, 2019 - 2023

Screen Rights is a research project by Live Works. It is funded by SIGN (Screen Industries Growth Network) and is exploring spatial and urban barriers to a diverse screen industry in the South Yorkshire region. Currently UK screen industries are less diverse on average than the total UK workforce. This contributes to reduced creative control over narratives, less meaningful representation and exclusion from cultural production and economic opportunities. This project focuses on a placed-based approach to investigate spatial barriers to a diverse screen industry in South Yorkshire and sets the groundwork for inclusive and collaborative place-making strategies for initiating community-led creative clusters.https://screen-network.org.uk/publication/screen-rights-report/Report, Book, Event, EDI, Material Cultures, Placemaking, Participation, Emre Akbil and Carolyn Butterworth

Student project catalogue

Scratching the Surface, Getting Under the Skin: Portland Works, 2018 - 2020

Reflecting back on first year projects by students at the Sheffield School of Architecture from 2018 - 2020 created for Portland Works 2021 May Heritage Open Days Festival Website and Learning Resource. The student's projects 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. Zine, Digital Learning, Climate Emergency, EDI, Material Cultures, Pedagogy, History and Representation, Wei Chan Chia

Case Study 04 - Woodland Community Hall at Hill Holt Wood - Worksheet 21-22.pdf

Technology teaching

Woodland Community Hall at Hill Holt Wood, 7th December 2020

Sam prepared an in-depth case study on the Woodland Community Hall at Hill Holt Wood, an ancient woodland located on the border of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire in the UK. The hall is constructed of rammed earth and native UK timber used "in the round" and has been the recipient of a number of awards in recognition of the innovative means of construction and process of design. The work involved extensive original interviews with a wide range of people involved in the building's construction and use. The case study was used as the basis of new teaching content in the MArch in Architecture module, ARC554 - Environment & Technology 1, in support of efforts to include content on low impact construction techniques within a diversified offering to students. Presentation, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Material Cultures, Pedagogy, Participation, Sam Brown

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

Urban design and planning

New Neighbourhood Planning: The Future of the Food Axis, January 2018

This paper considers the evolving relationship between our two most basic human needs; to eat and to dwell. The phenomena of cooking released us from the constant need to feed and thus allowed us the time to develop culture, agriculture and ultimately civilization. The Food axis, a term coined by Elizabeth Collins Cromley, is the principal structure about which food related spaces are arranged from acquisition to disposal. Throughout the history of the home, the food axis has undertaken periodic redefinition in response to the social, economic and political context of the time. This study projects the future of the food axis. At the beginning of the 21st century the supermarket reigned supreme and the rise of convenience resulted in a deepening disconnection between people and their food sources. This detachment has contributed to the deterioration of health with the rise of obesity and sedentary lifestyle while allowing the individual to disregard their impact on the environment through participation in unsustainable food practices and waste. Can collective action transform waste and waste space into a valuable resource, adding to the quality of life for the neighbourhood, establishing a sense of community/ shared activity and contributing to health benefits, food knowledge and general well-being? It is estimated that 7.3 million tonnes of food waste is generated every year by households in the UK. Our evolving relationship with food and a renewed environmental awareness and responsibility to waste will inform the new public health paradigm.This paper will trace a history of the home, looking specifically at back to back housing in Leeds and Public Health Initiatives to propose a new neighbourhood utility. The proposition re-appropriates the obsolete sites of previous communal wash and latrine facilities to address current needs including waste disposal, energy and food production. The new model can be utilised as a strategy to reuse leftover urban space through the setting up of an enabling infrastructure that is taken over by local residents.HEALTH: THE DESIGN, PLANNING AND POLITICS OF HOW AND WHERE WE LIVEConference AMPS, Architecture_MPS; University of the West of England25—26 January, 2018Page 282Journal Article, Book, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Material Cultures, Simon Baker

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

Grand Designs Magazine _ Walters Way_Selected Pages.pdf

Retrofit and refurbishment

Walters Way, September 2016 - March 2019

Walters Way is the sensitive refurbishment of an original "Segal House" originally built as part of an innovative housing scheme run by Lewisham council in the 1980s. The refurbishment works are extensive and include a single-storey wrap-around extension, improved insulation and glazing, a renewed rainscreen and a modern spatial reconfiguration to suit a growing family. The work was carried out by the clients themselves, working with other trades and contractors where necessary. The design work was carried out by Sam Brown, working initially with Jon Broome Architects and latterly with MAP Architecture.Press Article, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Sam Brown

FINAL You Are Here exhibition boards.pdf

LW Project Summary You Are Here.pdf

Collaborative production

You Are Here, December 2015

‘You Are Here’ was delivered in three parts:

the commission of 3 site specific temporary artworks for Sheffield city centre by international artists Sans façon, Leo Fitzmaurice and The Office for Subversive Architecture
a symposium ‘We Are Here’ about art & architecture interdisciplinary practice
an exhibition at Live Works and a publication presenting the outcomes

Aims: To showcase the benefits of artists and architects working collaboratively on sitespecific socially-engaged projects, sited in the local context of Sheffield, but then drawing out lessons for practice on a national level. ‘You Are Here’ was funded by ACE and delivered in collaboration between curator Jane Anderson, Live Works and SSoA students.Report, EDI, material cultures, participation, placemaking, Carolyn Butterworth

TESS slides LC and DJ 2015.pdf

Teaching excellence in social sciences conference

Liveness in the School of Architecture, 2015

The School of Architecture has pioneered a range of ‘Live’ learning experiences for UG and PG students. The richness and value of such approaches are recognised by staff and students alike, with Live projects firmly at the centre of the School’s identity and student offer. We see Liveness as a central approach to our future teaching, providing a supportive academic environment for students to interact with real people in the real world with real issues to address.One of the challenges that we face in Live project work is making the assessment process an integral part of the learning experience rather than a tick box exercise. But how can we equitably, accurately and sensitively assess Live work, when processes and outputs are heavily influenced by the vagaries of a real life context, client whims and a myriad of public viewpoints?Our presentation will be based around the following key themes, which will act as a framework around which various Live projects from UG and PG will be explored. We will aim to reflect on the successes of the projects in terms of Liveness and look at how our approach can be refined for future students, to ensure that a resilient and sustainable model is in place.Presentation, EDI, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Participation, Dan Jary and Leo Care

Healthy Design Creative Safety Agenda 25 March 2014.pdf

Approaches to health and safety teaching and learning in schools of architecture

Healthy Design Creative Safety Agenda, 25th March 2014

Healthy Design, Creative Safety - WorkshopEvent, EDI, Pedagogy, Participation, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Dan Jary and Leo Care

Healthy design creative safety report 2013.pdf

Approaches to health and safety teaching and learning in schools of architecture

Healthy Design, Creative Safety, 2013

Key findings of this report:

This research has found evidence of innovative and creative ways of teaching health and safety. It has also revealed that such good practice often addresses H&S in indirect ways and knowledge is rarely shared between institutions, resulting in variability of approach and delivery of the subject.
Health and safety is an appropriate subject to cover in undergraduate schools of architecture. There is an academic imperative to the subject and it is not just something that should be dealt with in practice. Many interviewees recognised the need for the subject to be creatively addressed.
‘Health and safety’ is sometimes perceived negatively by students and staff. This is largely due to a misconception that the subject is purely concerned with applying a set of rules in practice.
Live Projects offer an effective context to learn about risk management and issues of health and safety. Students benefit from working with real clients and scenarios, and from an active engagement with the process of making.

Report, Journal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, Participation, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Dan Jary and Leo Care

Cohousing development

Rural Urban Synthesis Society, 2009 - 2023

The Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) is a Community Land Trust (CLT) based in Lewisham, south-east London, with the aim of creating sustainable community-led neighbourhoods with affordable housing. Sam worked closely with the organisation to establish itself, raise funding, find a site for its first project, assemble a design team, run a co-design process, gain planning permission and start on site with its first, ambitious scheme of 36 homes at Church Grove in Ladywell, offering self-build opportunities for local people. The works are due to complete in May 2023.Case Study: The Rural Urban Synthesis SocietyBuilt Project, Participation, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Placemaking, Sam Brown

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