Today the Sheffield School of Architecture invited members of the public to come and see the final presentations of the 14 student Live Project teams.

Hosted in a lecture theatre  at the University of Sheffield’s Medical School, the room was filled with students, clients and the wider public, all present to see what the teams had produced over the past 6 weeks of the Live Project initiative.

– For the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery it proved to be a day to remember!

At 2.30 pm it was time for the Hemingfield Colliery group to present the results of their work. Using a mixture of slides, video, computer animation and scale models, the oral presentation set out the students’ approach to the Hemingfield project.

It all started with the client brief, talking to the Friends, steered by Directors Steve, Glen and Christine, before going out into the streets, schools and pubs of Hemingfield and Elsecar to talk to local people young and old about what they knew of the site, what they felt about its past, and what they could imagine its future might be.

Treating it not just as a heritage asset, a museum in aspic, but rather as a potential catalyst – the students worked on a number of proposals and design suggestions to breathe new life into the whole area through gradual, costed and achievable steps. They have provided options for the Friends, not a rigid all-or-nothing design and build plan. Building from this base enables further conservation and restoration work, and even greater opportunities in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with local groups and connecting with funding bodies, their work highlighted how hosting events to raise awareness can bring old buildings back into use and find new audiences for the site and the surrounding area. Understanding the sites connections are fundamental here – establishing strong links with the Elsecar Heritage Centre, the Elsecar Heritage Railway, and the TransPennine Trail are at the heart of the strategic proposals they presented.

Further details of the team involved, the brief, their research work and the final materials they have produced will follow shortly, but this post is just to capture the presentation and questions and answer session that followed.

The Friends were overwhelmed by the range of options presented to them, including valuable strategic planning documents as well as the design proposals.

Responding on behalf of the Friends, Steve Grudgings expressed his pleasure at being present to view the details of the team’s work; reflecting the audience’s own response, he described how the students’ work had ‘raised the bar’ for the Friends, and given them a range of suggestions, planning documents, funding strategies and completely original design proposals which would allow the Friends to develop the site in the coming years, as their resources and opportunities permit.

 Congratulations to the SSoA team for a great presentation!