Sheffield School of Architecture Summer Show 2015
The Next Generation Presents
Every summer, architecture schools across the country open their doors to display student work. Sheffield’s contribution to this tradition, showcased during Design Week 2015, was a reminder of why the city’s architecture programme has earned its reputation. The models, drawings and digital renderings on display reflected both technical skill and genuine engagement with the built environment.
Walking through the exhibition, I was struck by how many projects addressed specifically Sheffield-related briefs. Students had designed interventions for Castlegate, reimagined disused industrial buildings in Kelham Island, and proposed new public spaces for the Moor. This local focus gave the work an immediacy that more abstract studio briefs sometimes lack.
Models and Ideas
The physical models were particularly impressive. Architecture students at Sheffield Hallam have access to excellent workshop facilities, and it showed. Laser-cut timber models sat alongside hand-carved plaster studies and intricate 3D-printed components. The range of making techniques on display connected the architecture programme to the broader making culture that defines the city’s creative identity.
Several projects explored themes of heritage and adaptation — how to repurpose industrial buildings without erasing their character. One student’s proposal for a community arts centre within an existing steel works was especially convincing, retaining the structure’s industrial scale while inserting new programmes at human scale.
Education and the City
The summer exhibition served as a bridge between the university and the wider community. Parents, professionals and other students moved through the space together, and the conversations were genuinely cross-generational. Sheffield Hallam’s design courses have always maintained this outward-facing quality, and the exhibition was its most visible expression.
The show connected naturally to the Beauty and the Brutal exhibition, which examined the city’s existing architectural heritage, and to the broader conversation about design education in Sheffield. Together, these events demonstrated that the city’s architectural future is being actively shaped in its studios and seminar rooms.
