ELLE THOMPSON
PART 2
My Part 2 studies were completed between 2020 and 2022 at the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) at the University of Sheffield. These studies were undertaken on the Collaborative Practice Course during which the 5th year (year 1) is carried out one day a week whilst the student remains in practice four days a week. In 6th year (year 2), the course returns to a full-time university based structure. As such, the two year course offered contrasting learning experiences and opportunities to reflect on the structure and delivery of architectural education more broadly.
In the 5th year of study, the Collaborative Practice studio required students to take a project they had worked on in practice and offer an alternative or extended brief, as part of the Reflective Design Project. My project took a residential development in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Derwent Valley Mills and offered a future phase.
Returning to the Sheffield Arts Tower, 6th year saw the development of the joint thesis project with peer Ali Francis, within the Housing the Public studio, led by Jo Sharples. In Studio HtP, we were concerned with how to create more lucrative and environmentally conscious ways of living for society within existing building in Manchesters inner city region, challenging the detrimental and exclusive period of intense redevelopment of the northern powerhouse.
Alongside studio-based design projects, the SSoA Live Project programme offered opportunity in both years to work as part of a team of 15 students to deliver a project for a real client over a 6 week period.
Below are a selection of the key projects mentioned.
Joint Thesis Project with Ali Francis / Sheffield School of Architecture / (Studio) Housing the Public / (Tutor) Jo Sharples / Completed July 2022 / AJ Sustainability Award 2022 Winner
Reflective Design Project / Sheffield School of Architecture / (Studio) Collaborative Practice / (Tutor) Satwinder Samra / Completed July 2021
SSoA Live Project / Sheffield School of Architecture / (Client) Blackburn Diocese Board of Education / Completed November 2021
SSoA Live Project / Sheffield School of Architecture / (Client) Age UK Sheffield / Completed June 2021
RE-HOUSING MANCHESTER
Year 6 Joint Thesis Project with Ali Francis
Sheffield School of Architecture
Housing the Public (Studio)
Jo Sharples (Tutor)
Completed June 2022
Manchester is a city in crisis. After a sustained period of inner city development, the housing offer speaks of an exclusive and carbon intensive culture, with unaffordable housing sitting in towers of concrete and glass. Despite the city’s 2038 target for carbon neutrality, the skyline continues to grow above a society unaware of the consequences it presents.
Re-housing Manchester proposes an alternate future for the former home of innovation at the University of Manchester; the UMIST Campus. The project begins in 2022 as the local authority awakens to the severity of the carbon crisis, halting plans for demolition of the redundant 1960s university campus located within the city’s ring road. An open call for proposals for a more lucrative and environmentally conscious form of inner city living is made; The Carbon Conscious Collective (CCC) is formed.
The CCC - a partnership of local action groups supported by Manchester City Council - take ownership of the site as a test-bed for exploring innovative retrofit housing projects, with a primary focus on educating society on low-impact living. The project proposes a creative re-use of the existing teaching buildings to form homes as part of housing co-operatives, sat above public and community functions activating the public realm.
The Renold Co-operative is the first phase of the venture. Situated at the threshold of the campus and the city, the former heart of the campus now provides accessible routes through and around the site, whilst adopting the role as a billboard for the low-impact ethos.
At ground and first floor levels, a primary school of practical based learning reinterprets the podium to form flexible classroom spaces with opportunity for student-led curation. Public and resident routes weave through the podium, creating moments of visual crossover and prompting moments of intrigue. Above, the existing tower is selectively brought back to its concrete structure forming zones for residents to further this engrained spatial agency, developing their homes with a designed self-build cassette system around serviced points. The system is offered further freedom, with the opportunity to create new-build homes at roof level. A subtle reference to the residents of the Arndale Centers’ Cromford Court (1980s), the pioneers of inner city living in Manchester.
In the year 2050 the site is fully inhabited, with each co-operative benefiting from the learning of those completed prior. The project has bridged the knowledge gap between the concept of home and the possibilities of home in a more climate conscious and user-enabling building culture, catalyzing a societal shift towards low-impact living. Manchester leads the way.
Re-Housing Manchester received the AJ sustainability Award 2022
© Elle Thompson + Ali Francis 2022
MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY
Year 5 Reflective Design Project
Sheffield School of Architecture
Collaborative Practice (Studio)
Satwinder Samra (Tutor)
Completed June 2021
The past 15 months have revealed the true value of community and the critical need for social bonds in the face of adversity. Manufacturing Community explores these themes, envisioning the next phase of a practice-based residential development located at the John Smedley Mill’s redundant East Site. As one of several mill settlements within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, the scheme takes cues from the provisions made in the early settlements and draws comparisons to the modern co-housing model. The resulting scheme extends the established terrace form, providing single-storey dwellings with outdoor rooms for the rising number of individuals and couples within the parish, alongside a shared common house and social landscape. In addition to this housing, the project explores the repurposing of the East Mill as a community facility, bringing the wider parish, Smedley Factory and visitors together.
DECARBONISING THE DIOCESE
SSoA Live Project
Sheffield School of Architecture
Blackburn Diocese Board of Education (Client)
Completed November 2021
The project, completed in November 2021, looked to consolidate the insight and learning of the Diocese from their efforts to reduce carbon emissions at several of their schools through £8 million of funding received under the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). Through reflecting upon the decarbonisation process undertaken by the BDBoE, the package of information produced was aimed at bringing together the lessons learnt to inform future works and empower schools to engage in the future phases of the funding; Encouraging a culture shift in schools towards a zero-carbon future.
We put together 3 packages to help make this happen.
(1) The exhibition package - a selection of boards, posters and models to take around schools in the diocese. (2) The school package - a series of resources to support teachers in implementing decarbonisation into their curriculum. This includes interactive card games; summary leaflets of technologies; and information on how to read and understand a decarbonisation plan.
(3) The client package - This includes a range of information, consolidating the decarbonisation process so far. This included a stakeholder feedback document, an annotated energy spreadsheet and an A3 poster on how to pursue decarbonisation with the diocese.
This series of outputs seeks to create a more informed conversation around decarbonisation in schools. It also strives to create a more accessible conversation, by providing digestible content to broaden the conversation, spreading the knowledge learnt so far to inform the global movement towards decarbonisation.
Further information can be found here (Liveprojects.org)
BRINGING HILLSBOROUGH
PARK TO LIFE
SSoA Live Project
Sheffield School of Architecture
Age UK Sheffield (Client)
Completed June 2021
The Sheffield School of Architecture's Live Project scheme brings together students across the MArch courses to deliver projects for 'real' clients in 'real' time, across a 6 week period.
Bringing Hillsborough Park to Life (BHPL) is a project conceived by first time LP client, Age UK Sheffield, who
support residents of the city aged 50 years and over, often suffering from dementia and other long-term conditions.
Our groups project brief looked to build on the charity’s ongoing work in Hillsborough Park, to explore the relationship between the clients emerging campus of facilities and
the wider public park through creative exploration and engagement with wider stakeholders.
Through the course of 6 weeks, our team of 14 students held engagement activities and trial events - such as the highly praised 'projector bombing evening'- to illustrate to the client the possibilities for developing relationships between the organisation and the community in the future.
Further information can be found here (Liveprojects.org)
