Placeshaping

NMBU..Place-keeping: Landscape Management in Practice.pptx

Collaborative landscape management

Place-keeping: Landscape Management in Practice, Ongoing

Dissemination of findings from several EU and ESRC funded collaborative partnership projects that explored innovative approaches the long-term management of open spaces.With Dr. Nicola Dempsey, various EU and UK universities, and local authorities.Presentation, Design, Participation, Placeshaping, Mel Burton

689c67b560992.pdf

Urban rooms as a methodology

Urban rooms and the expanded ecology of urban living labs, August 2025

This paper is for a 'Living Labs: Agents for Change' special issue of the Buildings and Cities journal. It draws on a decade of 'live' work developed using the urban room methodology to foster co-production in Castlegate, Sheffield. The ‘urban room’ (UR) is an embryonic spatial typology for diverse actors and citizens to co-create city futures. This paper examines how the situated, hybrid and participatory methods of the URs compare with the 'laboratisation' of the world by the more established methodology of Urban Living Labs. This reveals similarities and differences in building community and civic resilience. URs are positioned as place-based infrastructures and active sites of multiplicity, where diverse communities can transform the city, decentring experts in urban transformations. A UR case study of collaborative civic regeneration in Castlegate, Sheffield, UK, is explored through a situated and diffractive analysis, revealing how the UR provides new tactics that engage diverse actors and give voice to marginalised people. This long-term, situated and additive practice can transform the diversity of engagement, foster a plurality of urban futures and create novel forms of hybrid governance.Urban rooms and the expanded ecology of urban living labs - Buildings and Cities JournalJournal Article, Design, Inclusivity , Participation, Placeshaping, Carolyn Butterworth, Emre Akbil

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

URBAN ROOM NETWORK FILM.mp4

Urban Rooms Network

Urban Rooms Network Film, May 2025

An Urban Room is a space where people can come together to help create a future for their local area. This film showcases Urban Rooms from across the UK, including Live Works, the School of Architecture and Landscape's Urban Room in Sheffield city centre.Live Works is the first permanent university-funded Urban Room in the UK, established in 2014. Director of Live Works Carolyn Butterworth founded the national Urban Rooms Network and has chaired the Network since 2015. This film was produced to explain the role that Urban Rooms can play, and the impact they can have in community-led placeshaping. It also introduced the Urban Rooms Network, the Urban Rooms Toolkit to a wider audience who may be interested in setting up their own Urban Rooms. The film was funded via Knowledge Exchange funding by The University of Sheffield and was the culmination of the Urban Rooms Roadshow that ran in 2022-23.Urban Rooms Network, Urban Rooms ToolkitFilm, Inclusivity , Participation, Placeshaping, Carolyn Butterworth

Castlegate Common Manifesto - reduced.pdf

Castlegate

Castlegate Commons Community Pavilion, February - May 2024

Inspired by the vision developed by students through the Live Project 'Castlegate Commons' in Oct-Nov 2023, Live Works was commissioned by Sheffield City Council to facilitate a co-design process with local stakeholders. This work builds on the last three years of co-production that have developed a clear community-led approach to the development and use of the park and its facilities. Using the 'Castlegate Commons Manifesto' as a foundation, we have worked with local community stakeholders to develop a vision for the design, operation and stewardship of a new pavilion in the Castle park.Throughout each stage, Live Works has aimed to facilitate a transparent, representative and effective co-production process that delivers meaningful engagement with local stakeholders and the public towards the development of the Castle site. We held two workshops and a study trip to London:

Workshop #1 Foundations: Sharing knowledge and aspirations, reaching common understanding, establishing good principles of design, developing an initial brief.
Study Trip: Visiting inspiring community/ecology/cultural venues and meeting the people who run them to understand how the projects were developed and are now used and managed sustainably
Workshop #2 Vision: Considering governance & time-scales, developing an initial spatial brief

Report, EDI, Design, Participation, Placemaking, Case Study, Design, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

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

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

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15710882.2023.2268596

Co-production

Co-designing a housing and livelihood toolkit with low-income older people for future housing in Klong Toey, Bangkok, Thailand, August 2023

The purpose of this article is to examine the co-design process of a research project which was implemented to support an initiative led by low-income older people in Klong Toey, Bangkok. The primary objective was to co-produce a design toolkit that can guide the development of live–work housing for low-income older people in Klong."Many congratulations on this publication. Thank you all for your support." Prof. Karim Hadjri SSoA Journal Article, EDI, Placemaking, Satwinder Samra

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

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

Live projects

Liveness Charter and Web Resource, 2023 - 2024

The Liveness Charter has been created as an advocacy tool, to celebrate, connect and support all members of staff involved in live community engaged learning in the School of Architecture.The Charter seeks to share the ethos of Liveness with everyone in the School of Architecture, as well as our external partners, so that they have an understanding of the activities, values and aims of the Liveness approach. It is our aim that this will galvanise our work and articulate the benefits of Liveness to all stakeholders. The Liveness Charter and Web resource has been included in the Elevate Directory of Good Practice at the University of Sheffield.Website, EDI, Participation, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Participatory, Leo Care and Carolyn Butterworth

Perspectives on teaching architecture and urbanism

Urban Design Pedagogies for Staying With a Broken Planet, 2023

The book chapter aims to position the Masters in Urban Design programme of University of Sheffield School of Architecture, within the broken world pedagogies and reflect on the thematic framework that nurtures common tools and methods to endure, encounter, and co-exist with emerging uncertainties facing urban environments on a broken planet. We use ‘Ecologies of Care’ as a reflexive framework that critically repositions urban design pedagogies within three theoretical registers – the planetary as an image of interdependent worlds and source of disruption for the image of the globe as a colonial artefact; radical unknowability as a process-oriented approach to knowledge co-production that embraces incompleteness of urban life with gaps, margins, and interstices as central to knowledge resources; and cosmopolitical localism that reimagines urban ecologies as real-life laboratories for prefiguring just urban transitions that pays attention to shared vulnerabilities through mutual care amongst urban actors.Book, Climate Emergency, EDI, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Design, Emre Akbil

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

Urban rooms network

Urban Rooms Toolkit, January - September 2022

The Urban Rooms Toolkit is a public resource to be used, downloaded and shared by anyone interested in situated creative community engagement in placemaking. Here you will find all you need to know about setting up an Urban Room. In this Toolkit you can read the STORIES, get the KNOWHOW and discover the METHODS that have been tried and tested by the Urban Rooms Network. The Toolkit consists of a website with links to download the whole Toolkit, or individual sections:

Urban Rooms? introducing the Urban Room as a tool for place-based community engagement - its ethos, the forms it can take and who might benefit from setting one up.
Stories: case studies of Urban Rooms across the UK - how they were set up, their aims, challenges, activities and the impact they had on their place.
Knowhow: how to make the case, set up, resource and operate an Urban Room - based on real experience from the Urban Rooms Network.
Methods: the activities, techniques and tools that have been tried and tested in Urban Rooms to foster inclusive and creative engagement.

The project was funded via HEIF Knowledge Exchange funding by The University of Sheffield. The Toolkit was produced by Live Works, co-created with the Urban Rooms Network, in partnership with The Place Alliance, UR Folkestone and the Greater London Authority. The project also included the redesign of the Urban Rooms Network website."The Place Alliance set up the Urban Rooms Network as one of its working groups in 2015 because urban rooms can play a vital part in working with communities in helping them to appreciate and improve the quality of their places. The Toolkit will play a valuable and integral role in continuing the Place Alliance’s campaign for improving place quality nationally by encouraging the establishment of more urban rooms." Prof. Matthew Carmona, Chair of Place Alliance, UCL Bartlett School of Planning"We are pleased to have partnered the University of Sheffield on the UR Toolkit project which holds immense value to individuals and groups in helping them to develop civic participation in planning and architecture, and the built environment more generally." Diane Dever, Chair of Urban Rooms NetworkWebsite, Book, Toolkit, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, Carolyn Butterworth

"We are pleased to have partnered the University of Sheffield on the UR Toolkit project which holds immense value to individuals and groups in helping them to develop civic participation in planning and architecture, and the built environment more generally."

Diane Dever, Chair of Urban Rooms Network

Castlegate Common Manifesto - reduced.pdf

Castlegate

Castlegate Commons Manifesto, November 2021

Live Works was commissioned by Sheffield City Council to deliver a series of workshops with local stakeholders to inform and enhance the regeneration of the Castle Site in Castlegate, building on 8 years of research, visioning and engagement by the School of Architecture in the area. This co-production process aimed to support the development of the new public realm so that it benefits as much as possible from the extraordinary potential of this unique site and its rich community context. The workshops engaged existing members of the Castlegate Partnership and other local stakeholders to ensure representation of the diversity of the area's population and grassroots activities. The workshop themes were:

Revealing the Outdoor City
Revealing Innovation
Revealing Arts and Culture
Revealing Heritage

The award of Levelling Up funding required meaningful community engagement to inform directly the project design. 13 co-produced recommendations from the workshops were presented in the 'Castlegate Common Manifesto' and these recommendations informed directly the planning application that was submitted by Sheffield City Council in February 2023. Beyond the stakeholder workshops, Live Works ran the 'Castlegate Futures Urban Room' in November 2022 that gathered public feedback on the Manifesto recommendations, further informing the Council's plans. Report, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, Case Study, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil

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

Co-design workshop

Harnessing the Elements: Towards Zero-carbon Neighbourhoods, March 2021

This online publicly accessible event sought to explore the potential for online platforms as tools for community-led design. In collaboration with The Glass-House Charity, the workshop used the universal elements of earth, air, fire and water as themes for creative co-design activities to explore how we can activate both citizens and the different sectors as collaborative placemakers. Using the area around London Road in Sheffield as a starting point for discussion, we explored how local placemaking can be informed by and drive forward the zero-carbon agenda. This was an active space, where students, practitioners, policymakers and citizens worked together with The Glass-House and with Year 2 students and tutors from The University of Sheffield School of Architecture to explore and co-design creative methods of engagement around the zero-carbon agenda.Designing Sustainable Places - The Glass-House 2020/21 Event SeriesEvent, Digital Learning, Climate Emergency, Participation, Placemaking, Emre Akbil, Ian Hicklin 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

Feminist pedagogy

Feminist School of Architecture Teachout, 5th March 2020

20 years ago SSoA staged a 'Feminist School of Architecture take over', where organisers and collaborators took over the tower for a day, running a series of events exploring gender, politics, power and space. This year's strike provided the opportunity for teaching staff and students alike to come together this time out in the city to restage this event 20 years on and to explore what a 'Feminist School of Architecture' might mean. The tone of the event was both critical and celebratory, with a range of discussions on topics from intersectionality and housing through to feminist pedagogy and more interactive/performative pieces including testimonials and a feminist activity mapping exercise. The event captured a growing resurgence of feminist activity within the school and has planted ideas for further events and initiatives, such as the SSoA Feminist Library.'We have been teaching online for a week now and I had the chance to talk to some of the students who were at the teach-out. During the tutorials they express with enthusiasm how the event was a transformative experience for them and explain how this influenced their manifestos and positioning. These are brief but powerful moments that show how the Feminist School of Architecture have created alternative routes of thinking for students.I wanted to share with you the invisible consequences of our collective experience that I think is as powerful as the invisible virus intruding in our collective bodies'Emre AkbilEvent, EDI, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Catherine Skelcher

Interview

Cities of the future: Where will we live? January 2020

Cities of the Future: Where will we live? Interviewed by HubBub UK along with Marcus Fairs, Dezeen. "The interview has come out really well, thank you so much again for your time." Sarah Divall HubBub UKFilm, Climate Emergency, Participation, Placemaking, Satwinder Samra

Y2 Housing Newspaper DIGITAL ONLY.pdf

Student project catalogue

Community: Housing Newspaper, 2020

Community is a design project undertaken by 2nd Year undergraduate students in collaboration with South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA), and forms a key part of an architecture school-wide initiative. The Housing Newspaper is a compilation and reflection on the student design projects that is thematically organised into different approaches to the design of social housing.The Newspaper format was chosen to make the work accessible to a wide range of readers and for easy distribution. The newspaper is a limited print run, but a digital version is also available online.Community - digital versionBooklet, EDI, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Participation, Leo Care

MArch project archive

Studio Learning Culture archive, 2020

The Studio Learning Culture web resource disseminates a collated and collective body of student work from 2015-2019. Organised into 8 thematic areas, each is a lense through which learning has been explored; revealing a series of crucial contemporary societal, spatial and environmental challenges. Projects exhibited here have formulated innovative approaches and critical design responses to these challenges; raising many questions as well as solutions.Since 2015 Studio Learning Culture has explored what it means to learn; to acquire skills or gain knowledge, to study or be taught, to educate or engage in a pedagogical process.Studio Learning Culture comprises a group of Masters Architecture students based in Sheffield School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield. Led by Leo Care the studio has collaborated with a range of stakeholders from academia, local authorities, charities, interest groups and schools.Based in South Yorkshire and the Sheffield City Region, this body of work forms a collective set of ideas and visions to transform learning in the region and transform the region through learning.Website, Digital Learning, Climate Emergency, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Leo Care

Project archive

SYHAxSSoA Project Stack, 2019 - 2024

Welcome to the SSOAxSHYA Project Stack Archive!The School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield and South Yorkshire Housing Association have been working together on a number of collaborative projects since 2019. We call this the SYHAxSSoA Project Stack. This archive collects and celebrates all the fantastic work created so far from across the School, including the Y2 Housing Project, PG Live Projects, MArch Dissertations and SAS Case Studies.The archive is organised in 3 themes:

New Homes: To meet the housing crisis and to meet demand, SYHA have to build new social housing. Through the project stack, SSOA and SYHA are exploring how Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and other sustainable techniques can be used to deliver fantastic new homes with excellent environmental credentials.
Futureproof Homes: Making our homes ready for the future is a multi-faceted problem, with the two main issues being the climate crisis and an ageing population.
Living Together: Living Together healthily and happily at all scales, from neighborhood level down to communal facilities, is an increasingly important area of study and development.

The work that SYHA and SSOA have done together to asses and design new ways of living together is already having an impact within SYHA, who are now "thinking, more and more about how we can create a sustainable public realm." and are using the tools created by students and researchers to, "influence our our policy and what we do in development going forward"Website, Climate Emergency, EDI, Building Performance , Participation, Placemaking, Carolyn Butterworth and Sam Brown

"At SYHA, we've got over 6,000 homes and we need to make sure that they're going to be fit for the future" [working with SSOA] "challenges us to think in different ways about them and builds on our knowledge...to influence our policy and what we do in development going forward."

-South Yorkshire Housing Association

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

Urban Commons - HandbookUrban Commons Research Collective presents the Urban Commons Handbook The commons are regarded as a means to generate social processes that can maintain, reproduce, and reinvent our lives in times of uncertainty. This handbook is a compilation of definitions, experiences and references around some

Co-production resource

Urban Commons Handbook, 2019 - 2022

The commons are regarded as a means to generate social processes that can maintain, reproduce, and reinvent our lives in times of uncertainty. This handbook is a compilation of definitions, experiences and references around some of the key questions that arise when thinking about commoning the city. It aims to contribute to an emerging field of practice, help to recognise the work of existing experiences, and provide material to support a variety of learning environments that operate between practice and research, dissemination and pedagogy, production and reproduction, concepts and artefacts, resources and desires, present possibilities and future needs. The handbook was curated by the Urban Commons Research Collective comprised of Emre Akbil, Alex Axinte, Esra Can, Beatrice De Carli, Melissa Harrison, Ana Mendez De Andes Aldama, Katharina Moebus, Thomas Moore and Doina Petrescu, with the contribution of Eleni Katrini and Julia Udall.The handbook was made possible with support and funding from institutions sharing the ambitions of the group. We acknowledge the generous support from the Sheffield School of Architecture for providing the space for gatherings of such diverse people and practices and for their research support that funded the design and copy-editing of the handbook. We also acknowledge contributions from the School of Art, Architecture and Design of London Metropolitan University for hosting the research seminar On the Commons and contributing with funding to the publication.https://dpr-barcelona.com/urban-commons-handbook/Book, Event, EDI, Placemaking, Pedagogy, Participation, Emre Akbil

Urban regeneration

Love Wolverton, 2019 - 2022

'Love Wolverton' is a redevelopment of the Agora Centre in Wolverton, Milton Keynes. Within my role at URBED I was responsible for initiating the project. It won the Midscale Framework and Masterplans awards at the National Urban Design Awards 2021.The redevelopment working in collaboration with MOLE, Mikhail Riches and CIVIC Engineers will restore a historic street, Radcliffe Street, which was originally lost forty years ago as part of the Agora Centre’s development. The creation of two new, car-free, “little streets” also echo the historic streets of Wolverton and will connect key parts of the town, providing social and play-friendly spaces for residents, neighbours and their children. The scheme has been designed to be one of the most environmentally ambitious regeneration schemes in the UK with and includes collaboration with Community Energy Wolverton to deliver a community energy network. The project will also house Still Green, an over-50s co-housing community based locally.The development is being brought forward by the developer TOWN who were responsible for delivering the Cohousing Development Marmalade Lane in Cambridge. Jonny Anstead and Neil Murphy, founding directors of TOWN, co-ran our MArch Studio, “Degrowth” last year.Film, Built Project, Design, Placemaking, John Sampson

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

Collaborative production

Towards a new model for sustainable housing in the UK, June 2019

I was approached by a guest editor to submit a paper to Sustainability Journal on the future of sustainable housing. Through the use of desktop research into national white papers and industry led responses combined with case studies I wrote a 5000 word article exploring the nature of house building in the UK today. I used examples from my own practice based work and collaborated with an alumni led practice, Edge Urban Design.Book, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Howard Evans

www.ribabooks.com/demystifying-architectural-research-adding-value-to-your-practice_9781859465783

Participatory practices

Demystifying Architectural Research: Adding Value to Your Practice, 2019

I was invited by Prof. Flora Samuel to contribute a section to her Book Demystifying Architectural Research: Adding Value to Your Practice. The book published by RIBA Publishing provides a practical, hands on introduction to the basics of undertaking research in day-to-day architectural practice and aims to help practitioners to exploit the growing opportunities on offer. It explores how developing a research specialism can improve the quality of your projects. My contribution focused on the value that participatory practices within the design and visioning process can bring to architectural and urban design projects. This sat within the Visioning section of the book.Book, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

How we build homes_URBED.pdf

Housing delivery models

How we build homes, December 2018

In December 2018 I was invited to present alongside the critic and designer Phineas Harper to the RIBA Housing Group. My presentation drew upon my experience working with URBED (Urbanism Environment Design) Ltd and also my teaching experience working with Disseration students looking at housing delivery models.I have subsequently updated the presentation over the past 4 years and most recently presented the work to students within the MArch programme.Presentation, Event, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

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

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

Interview

How power of communities can break the Broken Windows effect with HubBub UK, June 2018

Interviewed as Architectural Expert discussing the role of design in developing communities."Thanks so much for the interview today – it was fantastic!" Sarah Divall, HubBub Uk Film, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, Satwinder Samra

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

Teaching approaches

Inspirational Academics, January 2018

How to be an inspirational academic: Satwinder Samra describes his teaching approach at at Sheffield University.Film, EDI, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Satwinder Samra

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

Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods 2022 - Y2_reduced.pdf

Teaching resource

Climate Adaptive Neighbourhoods, 2018 - 2022

This is an evolving presentation that I have put together over the past 4 years that captures approaches to developing climate adaptive neighbourhoods. The presentation draws heavily from my own practice experience at URBED (Urbanism Environment Design) Ltd and references a number of award winning urban design projects. I have presented versions of this presentation across different programmes within the School of Architecture and the School of Landscape. Most recently I presented the work in 2022 to the Year 2 Undergraduates as part of their housing project.Presentation, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

Arrival City Exhibition Board.pdf

Student exhibition

Arrival City International Exhibitions, 2018 - 2019

During 2018 and 2019 the work of my MArch Arrival City Studio was exhibited in Mannheim and Milan in local venues in collaboration with local partners. 2018 at Klokke, Mannheim. Exhibition of student work in collaboration with Mark Stancombe and Yanni Pitsillides and Klokke.2019 at Mapping San Siro, Milan. The exhibition of student work in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano.Exhibition, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

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

AAE 2017 Slides Final.pptx

AAE Conference 2017 Extended Abstract CB.docx

AAE Conference 2017

Mind The Gap - live pedagogy in an era of localism, September 2017

A joint-authored presentation given at AAE 2017, Oxford Brookes University with MArch graduate and PhD candidate Tom Moore.“We present this work as a reflection upon the evolving role of ‘live pedagogy’ as a critical and transformative practice that operates simultaneously in academia and in real urban contexts. The capacity of live pedagogy to empower citizens and build local resilience is apparent now more than ever as the socio-political context shifts towards co-production. This paper will explore the opportunities that our staff and students have ‘to make a difference’ through our engaged teaching and research – to build capacity within local communities, to develop effective design solutions, to open up support networks and access to funding and ultimately to facilitate the production of better quality environments. We celebrate these opportunities while exploring the ethical and pedagogical challenges that arise from them. The ambition of co-production is to close the gap between local citizens and the structures that produce our built environment. We believe our challenge is not to merely bridge that gap but to transform the nature of service provision in the process. Universities and, in particular, schools of architecture are well-placed to become ‘agents for change’, reconfiguring the gap between communities and traditional structures as a place for innovation and transformation, a place to take care, nurture and be ‘mindful’ of possible local futures.”This is part of an ongoing ‘live evaluation’ of our live projects and live works partnerships done via interviews with clients. students and alumni focussing on four case-studies:Doncaster, Castlegate, Blackburn & Barnsley/Dearne ValleyPresentation, Journal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, Participation, Placemaking, Carolyn Butterworth

community-place-initiatives-post-austerity-and-how-a-civic-school-of-architecture-might-support-them.pdf

Community place initiatives

Urban Education Live, 2017 - 2021

This paper is by Urban Education Live Sheffield (UEL:SHEF) – Carolyn Butterworth and Maša Šorn from the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield and Tatjana Schneider from the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture and the City (GTAS), Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany. UEL:SHEF is part of a co-funded multi-disciplinary research project Urban Education Live (UEL), with partners from across Europe funded by JPI Urban Europe’s ERA-NET ‘Smart Urban Futures’. All UEL partners are engaged in developing models of collaboration between universities and communities. Although their situations are different in many ways, they are similar in the lack of effective and meaningful dialogue that occurs between communities and civic decision-makers in the production of the city. The shared aim is to develop methods of creative co-production that can open up the processes of urban production to those who are generally excluded from these conversations, building capacity in those communities to effect change. This paper focussed on highlighting the challenges faced by Community Place Initiatives in Sheffield (Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, Israac and Heeley Trust) and on their recent collaborations with the University of Sheffield School of Architecture, within the context of the Urban Education Live research project. Through this research we sought to explore ways, beyond these specific cases in a specific city, in which schools of architecture can be more effective in their contribution to local place-based urban capacity building and future resilience.arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 4Journal Article, EDI, Participation, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Carolyn Butterworth

Masterplanning

Living the Region, 2017

In November 2017 URBED were delighted to be invited to take part in the DAM- Lab workshop “Living the Region” at the Frankfurt Hypermotion fair. The workshop was organised by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and designed as live project taking place within the fair itself.URBED were one of five teams and were joined by AWP from Paris, LOLA Landscape Architects from Rotterdam, KCAP Architects&Planners from Rotterdam and feld72 from Vienna.Over three days we were tasked with developing a vision for the future of the Frankfurt RheinMain region, bringing together innovative housing and transport solutions. At the same time we also had to illustrate how this future vision might manifest itself at a smaller scale, by designing a conceptual urban quarter based on a fictitious town within the region.We had great deal of fun working on this project, sharing the workshop space with our international colleagues and exploring Frankfurt in the evenings. The workshop culminated in a short presentation by each of the teams, but the project doesn't end there! All five teams are now working up their concepts to be displayed in an exhibition in the DAM next year. We look forward to sharing our ideas and seeing what the other teams have developed.http://urbed.coop/projects/living-region-dam-workshop Book, Exhibition, Workshop, Placemaking, John Sampson

Participatory design

Little City of Makers, September 2016

‘Little City of Makers’ was a project by Live Works in partnership with Arbourthorne Community Primary School for the Festival of the Mind. Staff, students and graduates from the University of Sheffield School of Architecture helped 60 ten year olds from Arbourthorne Community Primary School to construct a model of the future Sheffield that they would like to see. We worked with the children at their school and at Live Works using a variety of materials to make the buildings, structures, green spaces and transport systems of their future city. The children suggested the themes of Play City, Working City, Animal City, Night City, Nature City and Moving City. As they build their city they have were encouraged to ask: How will the city be made in the future? What will it be made of? Who will make it?Through the Festival of the Mind the city has been exhibited to the public as it grows. The project aimed to provide a valuable experience to the children, giving them the opportunity to learn new skills and introducing possibilities for their future interests and livelihoods. If our cities of the future are to be vibrant, inclusive and sustainable places to live and work we need to include children in their design. This is a chance to develop imaginative ideas for the challenges of the future including climate change, scarcity of resources and changing demographics. Along the way we also hope to inspire the children to become the architects, planners, engineers, policy-makers and engaged citizens of the future.Event, EDI, Design, Participation, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

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

Copy of Everyone teaches L&T Workshop Slides.pdf

UoS Learning and Teaching Conference

Everyone teaches, everyone learns: The mutual benefits of live pedagogy, 2016

The School of Architecture has a national & international reputation for live projects. For 16 years our students have collaborated with external partners in the professional MArch curriculum through Live Projects. Recently we have enhanced and expanded our learning and employment opportunities for our students through Live Works, SSoA’s new Urban Room, in Sheffield city centre. Live Works combines graduate employment on projects for external clients with opportunities for students and staff to engage the public in their learning and research. We will showcase two L&T projects that have developed via the combination of the Live Projects and Live Works initiatives. The projects demonstrate a hybrid model of learning where graduates, external clients, students and staff construct projects together. Clients and students engaged in these projects will reflect upon the mutual learning resulting from their involvement. Attendees will be helped to map and develop similar opportunities within their own curricula via a matrix developed for the session.Presentation, EDI, Pedagogy, Placemaking, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

European City of Science

Allotment of the Future, 2016

Manchester was the European City of Science 2016 with the aim to bring Manchester alive with science and provide exciting activities for audiences that explore how science connects to our daily lives and to imagine the possibilities for the future. The Science in the City festival (22nd-29th July) ran alongside the conference and engaged the public in all aspects of science. One of the key content strands for Science in the City was food; activities, experiments, tastings, conversations unpicking the science of taste, truth & myths about food and health, and imagining the farms, factories and menus of the future. A key element of Science Feast was an allotment of the future in St Ann’s Square.Co-ordinated by Marketing Manchester, I led a team at URBED to design the allotment. Content partners included Squirrel Nation, the University of Manchester Plant Science department, the University of Salford School of Environment and Life Sciences, Sow the City and Real Food Wythenshawe. Salford based m3industries worked with us to turn the designs into reality.http://urbed.coop/allotment-future-featured-urban-design-journalhttp://urbed.coop/projects/allotment-futureEvent, Design, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

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

Imagine Castlegate.pdf

LW Project Summary Imagine Castlegate.pdf

Castlegate

Imagine Castlegate, September 2015

I edited a 112p book, 750 copies printed, exploring how a mix of vibrancy events and real projects are transforming Castlegate including:

work from SSoA and Dept. of Landscape
ReMake Castlegate
community groups FOTH and FOSC
Castlegate Festival & Sheffield Bazaar

Sept. 15 the book was launched to 100 delegates at the international conference ‘Architecture and Resilience at the Human Scale’ & distributed across TUoS, stakeholders, national and international networks.Aims: To produce a book that showcased the work done over 12 months by The University of Sheffield in Castlegate, an area of Sheffield city centre in decline. The intention was to demonstrate the value of the teaching and research that had taken place in the area, in collaboration with local organisations and community groups.Report, Book, EDI, Participation, Placemaking, Case Study, Carolyn Butterworth

Provocateurs or Consultants.pdf

Co-production research

Architecture and Resilience, September 2015

This paper presents co-production as the means by which dialogue can be fostered and control devolved to communities, by exploring how partnerships between SSoA, SCC and local partners have been formed through recent activities in Castlegate. Opportunities and tensions inherent in this relationship are often manifested through questions about the role a university can and should play in building community resilience. Drawing on interviews with students, academics and local partners in Sheffield, the differing priorities, timescales and expectations inherent in this partnership are examined, and suggestions made, so that it might serve as a model for future co-production in urban regeneration. In doing so, the aim is to explore how work produced in academia can maintain its critical pedagogical position while still fulfilling a useful role in facilitating co-production in local communities with, and even on behalf of, local authorities.The paper has now been published as an interview in the book ‘Architecture and Resilience’.Journal Article, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, Pedagogy, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth

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

'This is not about gentrification’: the pie shop reviving an Anfield street

Participatory design

2 Up 2 Down, 2015 - 2020

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and International artist Jeanne Van Heesvijk to co-design and develop a community bakery and retrofit local housing with local young people. The project has been widely published and featured in the Observer and The Guardian. Within my role at URBED I was involved in the design and implementation of both the participartory design process and the bakery fit out. More recently I inputted into an exhibition of the work in at the BAK Gallery in Utrecht running from the 14/09/2019 through to 12/01/2020. I used the experience from the project to create a lecture which I have given regularly as part of the Participation in Architecture and Urban Design Module.http://urbed.coop/projects/trainings-not-yet-exhibition-utrechtPress Article, Built Project, Event, EDI, Design, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

Sheffield Garden City_Options for long term urban growth.pdf

Masterplanning

Sheffield Garden City: Options for Long term growth, 2015

One of the main contributors to the report Sheffield Garden City commissioned by Sheffield City Council looking at how the ideas developed by URBED within our winning Wolfson Prize Entry, could be applied to Sheffield. The resulting report focused on how 100,000 new homes could be integrated into Sheffield by co-locating new development with sustainable forms of transportation infrastructure. The knowledge I acquired from this project fed directly into my studio teaching and dissertation supervision. I have also given talks on the project to various cohorts within the school.Report, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, John Sampson

Participative design

ASRM Festival of Architecture, Frankfurt, 2015

In 2014, URBED were invited to take part in the Architektursommer Rhein-Main ASRM Lab 2014: Region im Fluss, organised in association with the German Architecture Museum (D.A.M) and Kulturfonds Frankfurt Rhein-Main. This was a multi-disciplinary workshop in Frankfurt looking at some of the region's most problematic and neglected urban and semi-rural spaces, and in doing so explore ‘the regional city’. Over the course of 4 days participants visited several sites, discussing the constraints and issues facing each area with local practices and planners, and collaboratively exploring initial ideas and approaches.The subsequent ASRM Expo 2015 Region im Fluss exhibition at the German Architecture Museum (D.A.M) gave URBED an opportunity to present ideas for the region based on our central theme: cities growing together. It also gave us an opportunity to focus the discourse on Offenbach, a vibrant but often neglected part of the Frankfurt conurbation on the southern bank of the River Main.These events culminated in November 2015 in the ARSM Future Pavilion situated in the Goetheplatz in the centre of Frankfurt. The pavilion, codesigned by URBED and Ian Shaw Architekton, formed a public forum for discussion and debate around urban and regional development. URBED took a week-long residency within the pavilion following its inauguration, running a participative public exhibition to highlight the significance of Offenbach as a building-block of the creative city. To stimulate discussion and debate we built a scale model of the Frankfurt conurbation with the public over a number of days, and exhibited the attached drawings of Offenbach and the Northern Quarter in Manchester, the latter having some similarities as a cultural quarter.I utilised links established with DAM to set MArch Studio in Offenbach, Frankfurt. arrivalcity.studioBuilt Project, Event, Design, Placemaking, John Sampson

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

ReMake Castlegate Culture Consortium.pptx

Castlegate

ReMake Castlegate, September 2014

ReMake Castlegate was a project developed in partnership with Yorkshire Artspace and commissioned artists Simon le Ruez, Anne-Marie Atkinson and Clare McCormak to explore the past, present and future of the Castlegate area of Sheffield. As part of Festival of the Mind 2014 local people were invited to work with a large physical model of Castlegate, to express, record and share memories, opinions and ideas for the area. The project was hosted at Exchange Place Studios, where, over the course of the Festival, we invited local people and businesses to add to and remake parts of a large physical model, capturing what has been lost, what remains, and what could be. Over the week we had 800 visitors and saw Castlegate re-made by many hands, all revealing the area’s diversity and idiosyncrasies. The findings from the project were presented at Urban Design Week and to the Culture Consortium and SCC. The project was the catalyst for years of SSoA working in Castlegate through multiple Live Projects, Live Studios and co-production with SCC and local stakeholders.Presentation, EDI, Design, Participation, Placemaking, Case Study, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

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

Copy of A Live Currency Journal Article.pdf

AAE Conference 2014

A Live Currency: introducing The SSoA Live Projects Handbook, 2014

At Sheffield School of Architecture, with fifteen years of Live Projects, we are reflecting upon the value that Live Projects bring to our students’ learning, skills and employability. The Live Projects Handbook is central to this, demonstrating to our students the relevance of Live Projects in contemporary education and practice. This paper describes the Live Projects Handbook, highlighting its key role communicating Live Projects as both complement to and critique of the design studio. Our students gain immediate learning from Live Projects, while using them as critical tools to reflect upon architectural education and practice. The Live Projects Handbook is an important addition to the support we offer our students in this reflective and critical process. Featuring past projects and contributions from clients and students, the Live Projects Handbook makes explicit how Live Projects can problematise and expand upon the roles of the design studio, the architecture student and the architect.Journal Article, EDI, Placemaking, Pedagogy, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care

Housing development

Space to Park - 2014

Home Improvements, an AHRC-funded Knowledge Exchange programme, aims to improve the quality and value of new housing by enhancing communication and knowledge exchange between volume housing builders and architectural practices. The project is a collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield (lead partner), Edinburgh and Kingston, in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA),housing industry stakeholders, including Taylor Wimpey, Design for Homes and Radian as well as 3 practice partners.As one of the practice partners on the project URBED in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Design for Homes prepared the Space to Park study. This tests assumptions about parking provision in residential developments using data collected on more than 400 new house schemes in Kent, six case studies, residents’ survey and focus groups.Space to Park has resulted in a web-based, user-generated resource of best practice for those seeking parking solutions in new build residential developments.Its final report and findings were presented at a parliamentary launch in Westminster on 12th February 2014 by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.The project was also nominated for an RIBA President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research.A copy of the full report along with the executive summary and good practice case studies can be found at the Space to Park WebsiteEvent, Journal Article, Website, Placemaking, John Sampson

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

Urban regeneration

Trent Basin, 2012 - 2018

Within my role at URBED I was responsible for leading the development of the Trent Basin Masterplan located on the northern bank of the River Trent, 20 minutes’ walk from Nottingham city centre. The scheme developed by Blueprint aims to create a new type of neighbourhood that is neither entirely urban nor entirely suburban. To do this we drew heavily on Dutch precedents for the way that the scheme relates to the water. The design creates a strong 3 and 4 storey waterside terrace punctuated by narrow streets.In many senses the scheme is a reinvention of the suburb rather than a lively urban neighbourhood. The idea is that the blocks, set back from the waterfront, feel calm and relaxed and not dominated by cars. In collaboration with Nottingham-based architects, Marsh Grochowski, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and landscape architects Landscape Projects, we have set out to create a neighbourhood based around cycling, dog walking, jogging, fishing, reading, chatting, exercising and working. Trent Basin won the Urban Design Group Practice Award 2015, see the video hereI was also involved in securing InnovateUK funding for the project to accelerate the adoption of a pioneering Community Energy Storage proposal for the development.I also worked with Nottingham City Council to develop a strategy for the wider Waterside area of the city.Trent Basin is currently being built out - creating a new and unique residential neighbourhood on the edge of Nottingham city centre.Book, Film, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Design, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

UD132_magazine.pdf

URBAN DESIGN 132 Autumn 2014 | URBAN DESIGN Journal Issue | Urban Design Group

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

URBAN DESIGN 120 Autumn 2011 | URBAN DESIGN Journal Issue | Urban Design Group

Urban regeneration

Brentford Lock West, 2012

A new sustainable neighbourhood in Brentford for ISIS Waterside Regeneration Ltd.Within my role at URBED I worked in collaboration with Johannes Tovatt Architects, Klas Tham, Tibbalds and Camlins to achieve an outline planning for a 500 home mixed use neighbourhood.The design process was one of collaboration with the local community based on URBED’s ‘design for change’ technique. This started with workshops run over two evenings at the start of the process in a local café. Residents and stakeholders from the area used the first to develop a shared understanding of the area today. The second evening focused on generating a number of different options for the site through ‘collages’ and plasticine models.The project was Awarded the Urban Design Group Practice Award 2012. The project continues to win architectural awards as it is built out.http://urbed.coop/projects/brentford-lock-westPress Article, Built Project, EDI, Design, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

20111031_ALPHA FARM Report Web.pdf

Design research

Alpha Farm, 2011

Alpha Farm: A design-led research study commissioned by Manchester International Festival exploring the delivery of a Vertical Farm in Manchester. The project was a collaboration between URBED, Lancaster University, Cambridge University and Biomatrix Water. The team concluded that by taking a comprehensive approach to the integration of nutrient, water and energy flows within the building a vertical farm has the potential to be developed as a resource ‘sensible’ model. By this we mean that the farm has the potential to grow food using less energy than conventional farming based on the input of large numbers of pesticides and fertilisers and the transport of food over large distances.This resulted in a demonstrator growing project called the Biosphere being constructed at Manchester College that integrated fungiculture, aquaculture, hydroponics and vermiculture. The project won a National PACE Award for Environmental Sustainability.Exhibition, Press Article, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Design, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

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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