Watch: What should happen to 'kettle buildings' now Sheffield Hallam's Student Union is moving out?
What would you do with Sheffield’s one-of-a-kind ‘Kettle Buildings’ - fill them, renovate them, or knock them down?
After over 20 years, Sheffield Hallam University’s Student Union is vacating the unique spaceship-like building on Paternoster Row.
The former National Centre for Popular Music opened as a interactive museum in 1999, but closed just 15 months later, before it was taken over by the university in 2004.
A Guardian article this week suggested the building is at risk of being knocked down, and has been highlighted by preservation charity C20 [Twentieth Century Society] on their ‘Risk List 2025’.
However, the Guardian article only claims that the university is “not ruling out knocking it down entirely,” and features no statement from SHU directly.
Last year, SHU confirmed plans for the student union to a more prominent space at Hallam Square on Howard Street.
It added: “In the longer term, we will be looking at several different options for the building as part of the next phase of our Campus Plan.”
When asked if that included possible demolition, they said “we haven’t got anything further to add.”
The building was developed as a £15 million lottery-funded project envisaged as a celebration of contemporary music and culture, with exhibits including instruments and outfits from the careers of legendary acts.
But the venue on Paternoster Row struggled to attract visitors and closed after just 18 months, in July 2000.
It was used as a venue for hire before the distinctive building, formed of four stainless steel-coated ‘drums’, was turned into Sheffield Hallam University’s students union.
It always divided opinion and in 2011 was declared the ‘world's ugliest building’.
We took to the streets to ask what Sheffielders would like the building used for.