Embedded Files
I am Director of ‘Live Works’, Sheffield School of Architecture's pioneering Urban Room that combines live teaching, graduate employment, civic engagement and participatory research. Live Works supports and enhances the socially-engaged aspects of the School of Architecture's teaching and research, including our Live Projects modules where MArch and MA Architectural Design students work with community clients on projects that make a real social impact.
I am a passionate advocate of the value of 'liveness' and of the arts in architectural education. I teach the value of engaging with local communities creatively on site, often in collaboration with artists. Connecting socially-engaged architecture and site-specific art practice, my MArch studio works ‘in residence’, evolving ambitious real and speculative design projects that act as catalysts for change.
I studied architecture at Sheffield School of Architecture and The Bartlett School, UCL. My practice CV includes Director of van Heyningen and Haward in London and my own practice in London and Sheffield. I have experience of running complex building projects from inception to construction, in the education and cultural sectors. I have taught at the Sheffield School of Architecture since 2001 and have been a full-time teacher since 2011. Through Live Works I explore with students and community partners alternate forms of practice where the role of the architect is reconstructed as ethical practitioner and spatial activist.
I am External Examiner for the MArch course at London Metropolitan University, Founding Chair of the Urban Rooms Network and a Director of the Guild of St George, John Ruskin’s education charity for arts, craft and the rural economy.
In 2017 I was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and in 2016 I was awarded a University Senate Fellowship for Sustained Excellence in Learning & Teaching.
689c67b560992.pdfUrban rooms as a methodology
Urban rooms and the expanded ecology of urban living labs, August 2025
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
"We're delighted to publish your paper in the special issue - it's a strong contribution to the issue and to the literature."
Richard Lorch, Editor, Buildings and Cities"We're delighted to publish your paper in the special issue - it's a strong contribution to the issue and to the literature."
AdvancedHE teaching award
Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence, August 2025
Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence, August 2025
The AdvanceHE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) is a national award that recognises and rewards collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning and highlights the key role of teamwork in UK higher education. The winning teams demonstrate innovative approaches to collaborative teaching that have transformed student experiences and outcomes.The winning ELSSA (Engaged Learning at Sheffield School of Architecture) team comprises staff and students who have made substantial contributions to 'live' pedagogy over the last 10 years at Sheffield School of Architecture; Carolyn Butterworth (Team Leader), Leo Care (Deputy Team Leader), Sam Brown, Emre Akbil, Maša Šorn, Tom Moore, Claire Tymon and Rowan Mackay.ELSSA at the University of Sheffield transforms architecture education through engaged learning. Students collaborate with communities on real projects, building vital skills in leadership, communication, and problem-solving. This comprehensive programme of curricular and extra-curricular ‘Liveness’ creates confident, socially conscious architects, impacting both professional practice and global higher education.AdvanceHE Announcement, Sheffield University Announcement (requires Staff login)Recognition, Event, Inclusivity, Participation, Pedagogy, Carolyn Butterworth, Emre Akbil, Leo Care and Sam Brown
“ELSSA has made a profound impact on the education culture at our University. We are immensely proud of the impact our students, staff and graduates have on their communities and professions; ELSSA typifies this commitment to civic engagement and is a beacon initiative for our university."
Dave Forrest, Deputy Vice-President for Education, The University of Sheffield“ELSSA has made a profound impact on the education culture at our University. We are immensely proud of the impact our students, staff and graduates have on their communities and professions; ELSSA typifies this commitment to civic engagement and is a beacon initiative for our university."
URBAN ROOM NETWORK FILM.mp4Urban Rooms Network
Urban Rooms Network Film, May 2025
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
Design research tools
Sheffield DesignLAB, 2025
Sheffield DesignLAB, 2025
Welcome to DesignLAB!An interdisciplinary platform for researchers, educators, and practitioners who use design as a way of thinking, making, and collaborating. Based at the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield, DesignLAB brings together those exploring design as a methodology in research and teaching. It’s a space to share ideas, challenge perspectives, and build connections across the built environment disciplines. Join us in shaping new ways of seeing, questioning, and creating through design! Feel free to explore the design tools in our library, add one of yours or engage with our media content.Website, Design, Participation, Design, Carolyn Butterworth, Dan Jary, Emre Akbil and Leo Care
Castlegate Common Manifesto - reduced.pdfCastlegate
Castlegate Commons Community Pavilion, February - May 2024
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
Faculti interview
A Part of and Apart From, 2024
A Part of and Apart From, 2024
5 Years on from delivering a workshop at the Bauhaus Centenary Festival, an Interview for the Faculti Research Insights Streaming Platform enabled a reflection on the work and the continued development of our teaching around ideas of Live Learning and Speculative design projects. Video Interview, Participation, Pedagogy, Leo Care and Carolyn Butterworth
Castlegate
Co-production Index, September 2023 - January 2024
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, Design, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil
Citizens' Assemblies
Climate Re-assemblies, 2023 - Ongoing
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
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
Castlegate Urban Room Public Engagement Report.pdfCastlegate
Castlegate Futures Urban Room, November 2022
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, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil
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, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Emre Akbil
Urban rooms network
Urban Rooms Toolkit, January - September 2022
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.
"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"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."
Castlegate Common Manifesto - reduced.pdfCastlegate
Castlegate Commons Manifesto, November 2021
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
Community projects
Continuity of Community Projects, 4th October 2021
Continuity of Community Projects, 4th October 2021
I was invited to make a presentation on "Group Dynamics" to an event focusing on "Continuity in Community Projects", drawing on my experience of coordinating the Live Projects Programme. The event was designed to facilitate knowledge exchange between participants and PGR students at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture.Presentation, EDI, Participation, Sam Brown, Carolyn Butterworth
South Yorkshire Housing Association collaboration
SYHA / SSoA Housing Exhibition, June 2021 - ongoing
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
Feminist pedagogy
SSoA Feminist Library, May 2020 - Present
SSoA Feminist Library, May 2020 - Present
In March 2020 SSoA staff and students organised a Feminist Teach Out to explore feminist foundations, fields and futures and celebrate 20 years of feminist activity at SSoA. Many participants at the event expressed interest in having access to the work produced in the school over the years under this banner.During the last decades, numerous students have produced design and theoretical projects addressing feminist topics and methodologies which remained invisible to the wider School community. Much of the feminist work in the School took more intangible forms such as conferences, events and discussions which remained fully or partially unrecorded.The Feminist Library at SSoA will include an archive, in which previous outputs (dissertations, publications, theses, design projects, event recordings and testimonials) will be documented and stored, and a live part in which new events, activities, and debates will be posted in real time. The Feminist Library will be launched during a special event in November and disseminated across UK and international HE institutions. This will be a key resource for students and staff and will ensure that SSoA continues to set the agenda in feminist pedagogy and research.Website, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Critical pedagogy, Carolyn Butterworth and Cith Skelcher
UoS Learning and Teaching Conference
How Engaged Learning Can Educate Professionals For A Sustainable Future, February 2020
How Engaged Learning Can Educate Professionals For A Sustainable Future, February 2020
The presentation aimed to explore the relationship between engaged learning and employability, using examples from both Architecture and Law Schools. The collaboration enabled a discussion and comparison between pedagogical approaches in the two Schools, and explained how engaged learning introduces the complexity of real-life issues into students' learning, as well as the enhanced value of engaged learning in a research-led context. The presentation also focused on sustainable employability skills for professional courses that are at the centre of the two Schools.Presentation to the University of Sheffield Learning and Teaching Conference.Presentation, EDI, Pedagogy, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care
Project archive
SYHAxSSoA Project Stack, 2019 - 2024
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.
"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"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."
Live Works Screen Rights Report_v250923.pdfEqual access to the screen industry
Screen Rights, 2019 - 2023
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
A Part of and Apart From - Published.pdfReflections on student projects
A Part of and Apart From, March & September 2019
A Part of and Apart From, March & September 2019
A workshop delivered in March 2019 by the authors and MArch students at the ‘School Fundamental’ Festival, Bauhaus, Dessau. The event marked 100 years of the Bauhaus and 20 years of SSoA Live Projects, providing an excellent opportunity to reflect upon our live pedagogical experience within the context of the Bauhaus legacy. The workshop addressed the polarisation that can occur when discussing different types of student projects, using a matrix of four, commonly used terms: real, deliverable, speculative, abstract. Outcomes revealed how a student project can have value as both ‘a part of, and apart from’ the external world. A paper reflecting on the findings of the workshop was presented at the AAE 2019 conference at University of Westminster April 2019 and submitted to the AAE peer-reviewed journal Charette (pending).Event, Journal Article, Presentation, EDI, History and Representation, Pedagogy, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care
"I was so pleased to meet you in Dessau at the Fundamental school festival a few weeks ago. I’m still impressed by the work you and your students did and the inspiring talk we had."
Hanna Petruschat, University of Art and Design, Halle, Germany"I was so pleased to meet you in Dessau at the Fundamental school festival a few weeks ago. I’m still impressed by the work you and your students did and the inspiring talk we had."
FoTM Speigel Latest .pptxCastlegate
Experience Castlegate, September 2018
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, Carolyn Butterworth
community-place-initiatives-post-austerity-and-how-a-civic-school-of-architecture-might-support-them.pdfCommunity place initiatives
Urban Education Live, 2017 - 2021
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
AAE 2017 Slides Final.pptxAAE Conference 2017 Extended Abstract CB.docxAAE Conference 2017
Mind The Gap - live pedagogy in an era of localism, September 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
URN Canvas for Community Engagement.pdfUrban Rooms Network
URN Big Meet #7, April 2017
URN Big Meet #7, April 2017
The Urban Room Network was set up in April 2015 with Carolyn Butterworth as the founding Chair. The network’s aim is to share best practice in place-based creative community engagement and promote the value of Urban Rooms across the UK. Our definition of Urban Rooms:“Every town and city should have a physical space where people can go to understand, debate and get involved in the past, present and future of where they live, work and play. The purpose of these Urban Rooms is to foster meaningful connections between people and place, using creative methods of engagement to encourage active participation in the future of our buildings, streets and neighbourhoods.”On the 25th of April 2017, The Big Meet #7: Engaging Communities in Place-Making, organised by a team from Live Works on behalf of the URN, took place in UCL. The ‘Big Meet’ is a bi-annual conference, organised by the Place Alliance, who campaign for place quality along with organisations across the UK who are working in the field of place-based community engagement. 90 delegates including local authorities, housing associations, community groups, regeneration bodies, education and arts organisations attended April’s Big Meet. The event showcased a range of projects from the Urban Room Network including the Sheffield School of Architecture’s Live Works, Blackburn Urban Room and Bristol Architecture Centre. In the afternoon delegates took part in a workshop, using a Canvas for Community Engagement developed by Live Works, to understand the challenges and opportunities in developing their own Urban Room or place-based community engagement project. They were prompted to consider the ethical and practical aspects of the project in order to ensure that the engagement would be locally relevant, sustainable and creative.Presentation, EDI, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth
Participatory design
Little City of Makers, September 2016
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.pdfAAE Conference 2016
A Certain Degree Of Uncertainty: Embracing Risk In The Thesis Project Via The ‘creative Survey’, April 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.pdfUoS Learning and Teaching Conference
Everyone teaches, everyone learns: The mutual benefits of live pedagogy, 2016
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
FINAL You Are Here exhibition boards.pdfLW Project Summary You Are Here.pdfCollaborative production
You Are Here, December 2015
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
Imagine Castlegate.pdfLW Project Summary Imagine Castlegate.pdfCastlegate
Imagine Castlegate, September 2015
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
Provocateurs or Consultants.pdfCo-production research
Architecture and Resilience, September 2015
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.pdfCastlegate
Castlegate Festival, June 2015
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
- 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
ReMake Castlegate Culture Consortium.pptxCastlegate
ReMake Castlegate, September 2014
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, Participatory, Carolyn Butterworth and Leo Care
AAE LW Workshop.ppt.pptxLW Project Summary Value of Architecture.pdfParticipatory workshop
The Cultural Value of Architecture, June 2014
The Cultural Value of Architecture, June 2014
Part of an extensive AHRC funded ‘Cultural Value’ research project, ‘The Cultural Value of Architecture’ aimed to develop new ways of evidencing value in the discipline. Live Works were commissioned by Prof. Flora Samuel to run participatory workshops to explore how people perceive different types of value in the built environment and enrich the research through these findings.Live Works ran two rounds of workshops with schoolchildren from Dearne ALC School.
- a guided tour of key spaces and buildings in Sheffield city centre, to explore the decisions affecting the design of buildings and the impact buildings have on us
- Live Works visited the school to work further with the children on their own built environment The outcomes of these and workshops with Blackburn College students informed the findings of the research project.
aae 2014 conference proceedings.pdfAAE Conference 2014
Living & Learning, 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.pdfAAE Conference 2014
A Live Currency: introducing The SSoA Live Projects Handbook, 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
Blackburn Remade Print Final.pdfLive Projects
Blackburn ReMade, 2013
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
Live Project Handbook small.pdfLive Projects
Live Projects Handbook, 2013
Live Projects Handbook, 2013
The handbook demonstrates the many aspects of Live Projects, combining project case-studies, practical guides to management and assessment, reflection on learning experience and consideration of the wider impact on communities, architectural education and practice. Along the way you will encounter the many voices that collaborate in Live Projects; students, alumni, clients and teaching staff. This handbook seeks to promote a ‘live’ way of learning, practicing and thinking about architecture. Working in response to the complexity of real-life situations enables students to experience the potential of research by design and to reflect simultaneously upon the processes, roles and effects of architecture.Book, EDI, Pedagogy, Participation, Carolyn Butterworth
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse