Studio in Residence

Sheffield is a city that loves to tell stories of itself: ‘The Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire’, ‘Music City’, ‘DIY City’, ‘City on the Move’, ‘City of Makers’ and, of course, ‘Steel City’.

Sometimes utopian dreams, sometimes marketing messages, often a bit of both, these stories are mythologies that can bring citizens together with a sense of purpose and identity.

What we dream of is already in the world

Rebecca Solnit

Hope in the Darkness

In 2020-2021, the Studio in Residence worked with local people to co-create a new collective story of Sheffield as it moves away from its carbon-centred past and faces the challenges of the climate emergency.

It explored how interdisciplinary architecture/arts practice can open up new ways of producing space in the city, in collaboration with creative practitioners and local communities.

We collaborated with Sheffield Climate Alliance who, with their 35 community partner organisations, are working on a National Lottery funded project to develop and test proposals for a new Climate Action Centre - to start “creating and telling a new low-carbon story of Sheffield City Region”.

Drawing on the radical history of Sheffield and more contemporary campaigns for equality and systemic change, the studio’s work embodies an ethos of climate justice and explores how our city can respond to the climate emergency through care, creativity and hope.

The projects ranged from temporary to permanent, grass-roots to civic and offer facilities for inclusive arts, life-long education, story-telling, care services, local economies, food production, protest and citizens’ assembly.

Together these 11 speculative projects formed a collective studio vision for a distributed network of Climate Action Centres across Sheffield city centre, all focussed on creating new knowledge and mobilising action towards a zero-carbon future.

Our collaboration with Sheffield Climate Alliance continues through the South Yorkshire Climate Action Centre Live Project and into next year as the story of Sheffield as a ‘Climate City’ unfolds.

Studio tutor

Carolyn Butterworth

Senior University Teacher, Deputy Head of School
School of Architecture and Landscape

Email

c.butterworth@sheffield.ac.uk

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Studio collaborators

Sheffield Climate Alliance
Ruth Nutter
Eleanor Brough, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
Guy Moulson, Seven Architecture
Chris Wilderspin, CWA
Scot Fletcher, Handspring Design
Jess Trickett, Paul Testa Architects
Renata Tyszczuk, School of Architecture and Landscape
Tom Moore, School of Architecture and Landscape
John Moreland, School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Aalfy
Greentop Circus
The Moor Management Team
Studio Sacred Landscapes