Toolkit

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

Student resource

Retrofit Resources, January - June 2024

This is a shared resource developed by Sheffield School of Architecture in collaboration with Architecture Students for Climate Action (Sheffield) and Bath Climate Action Group. The aim of the resource is to to collate the collective knowledge within the 3 organisations on Retrofit into a single location. The intention is that the tool can be used by both staff and students.The shared resource was initiated in response to a Architects Journal survey of students within architecture schools in 2022 that recognised a retrofit teaching gap within architectural education. The survey asked important questions around where schools were teaching enough about the climate emergency and reuse/retrofit with the results set out below.Retrofit Resources miro boardTeaching Resource, Climate Emergency, Digital Learning, Building Performance, John Sampson

Inclusive co-production

Inclusive Learning Toolkit, 2023 - ongoing

This 'project in development' is being co-produced by students and staff from the Sheffield School of Architecture to support and promote a culture of inclusive learning within and beyond the school as part of our ongoing work as a 'social school of architecture’. We acknowledge that being an inclusive school is very much a ‘work in progress’ and that there is much work still to be done.Taking the format of a googlesite, the toolkit includes our inclusive learning manifesto, which articulates a collective understanding of what inclusive learning means for the Sheffield School of Architecture. The manifesto is structured as a set of values and a forward looking agenda. A library of best practice case studies and downloadable learning templates then serves as a resource to distribute responsibility for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the school, empowering staff and students alike with the tools to build and sustain an inclusive learning environment that reflects our values. Our future ambition for the site is for it to become an open platform sharing ideas across schools and this would be the first step in moving towards that.Toolkit, EDI, Pedagogy, Participation, Critical pedagogy, Wei Chan Chia and Cith Skelcher

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

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

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

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

Student resource

Around the Toilet: Design Toolkit, 2018

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

Equal access to architecture

The Careers Compendium, 2017

The Careers Compendium is part of a suite of educational resources, created in collaboration with Doncaster Civic Trust. The aim is to offer an accessible and easily digestible series of career information related to Architecture, Planning, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. The compendium was created to sit alongside a study bursary scheme for Doncaster residents.Toolkit, EDI, Participation, Leo Care

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