The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About
Location Sheffield S10 | ARB/RIBA courses BA (Hons) Architecture, BA (Hons) Architecture and Landscape, MEng Structural Engineering and Architecture, MArch Architecture, MArch Collaborative Practice, MArch Architecture and Landscape Architecture | Head of school Renata Tyszczuk | Full-time tutors 42 | Part-time tutors 54 | Students 687 | Staff to student ratio 1:12 | Bursaries available No
Undergraduate
Ruby Mulgan
Course BA (Hons) Architecture and Landscape
Studio/unit brief A Biodiversity Research Centre for the ‘Citizens’ of Doncaster
Project title Fragile Ecologies
Project description Urban planning has left Doncaster in stasis. Suffocated by low-density development, the public realm lacks vibrancy and identity. The challenges the city faces are typical of many worldwide, making it an ideal testbed. A research centre is proposed to restore social and ecological resilience. External walls from existing sites have been retained while new interventions are lightweight to evoke a language of experimentation. The landscape is also repurposed, but in a different way. Cracks and potholes are exaggerated, infilled with found materials and planted over. Walls and benches resemble soil strata, cast with materials reclaimed from the site.
Tutor citation This is a clear and articulate thesis more akin to an MArch project. The design embraces the deep history of the site, from prehistoric flood plain to decaying industrial district, and adds a new story of research and innovation. Russell Light
Postgraduate
Joseph Bass, Lewis Endersby
Course MArch Architecture
Studio/unit brief Studio Home Economics
Project title Home/Grown Darnall
Project description The site, a former clay pit in Darnall, a suburb in the Lower Don Valley, is earmarked by Sheffield Council for housebuilding. The project proposes a non-extractive, affordable neighbourhood of 102 homes, a biomaterials workshop, allotments and community potting hall, looking to further the relationship between food, materials-growing and construction. It imagines that the site has been reclaimed by the Darnall Curve Community Land Trust after the developer-led proposal became economically unviable. Reclaiming monocultured agricultural land near the site, hemp and timber are grown and employed to construct the community amenities, followed by batches of 20 homes a year, reflecting each season’s yield.
Tutor citation Joseph and Lewis have resourcefully built upon contemporary architectural research to produce a compelling vision that is rooted in reality. James Woodcock
