Adapt
This studio explored adaptation of, and to, our surroundings. We were sited just north of central Sheffield in Neepsend, floodplain of the Don, formerly densely-populated centre of industry.
In remaining industrial buildings, small-scale manufacturing, repair and creative industries grew, pockets of gentrification appeared, and large-scale developer-led housing prepared to land.
Sheffield City Council deliberated whether its immense housing needs could be accommodated within the city - or must Green Belt be sacrificed - alongside its ambitious declaration to be zero carbon by 2030.
This context demanded creative exploration, and a culture shift in construction practice. We explored ways to regrow a diverse, denser, mixed community, integrated with the life enduring or emerged so far in Neepsend, compatible with the city’s environmental aims.
Viewing extant construction as a resource - of materials, physical experience, bygone craft skills, social history, local memory, embodied carbon – we explored adaptive and regenerative design strategies, learnt from ways other times and cultures have adapted their environment, and challenged current standard development typologies to test ideas of what to build, and how.
We also explored the reintegration and revealing of natural processes in the city, as fundamental to regenerative design and to our understanding of the natural world we inhabit.
Studio tutor
Anna Bardos
Studio collaborators
Ben McGarry, KINCA
Chris McKinney, KINNF
Andy Cook, Yellow Arch Studios
John Clephan, CITU
Kemba Mitchell, SYHA
Jon Walker, SYHA
Tim Hubbard, 93ft
Walter Unterrainer, Chalmers University of Technology
Guest tutors
Ali Shaw, Max Fordham
Will Arnold, Arup & IstructE
Lucy Thomas, Tim Ronalds Architects
Elina Grigoriou, Grigoriou Interiors