Families make ‘fantastical’ cardboard Sheffield structures

“Architecture is not just for architects,” said John Gelder from My Favourite Places, organisers of this year’s Sheffield Modern ‘architecture weekender.’

Four hundred or so non-architects of all ages who arrived at Yorkshire Artspace’s Persistence Works on Saturday agreed, as they built a ‘fantastical’ city of Sheffield with lego, shoeboxes, recycled cardboard and ‘random bits of plastic’, said president of Sheffield Society of Architects Leonora Simmonite.

The idea was to get children and families interested in architecture and thinking about the spaces they live in, she explained.

“The adults get quite into it,” she said. “Some challenging structures were made.”

Alongside the new and fantastical cardboard Sheffield, artist Kisha Bradley of Bright Box and her assistants were crafting concrete bowls, while Julie Maxwell of Craft Lab helped everyone learn about the Bauhaus movement as they painted and printed a series of tote bags.

Around the corner, architect Catja de Haas was directing children and adults in the Sheffield version of her ‘Giant Doll’s House’ project, building shoe box rooms aiming to ask the question: ‘What would form the ideal social housing community?’

The Sheffield Modern weekend was supported by Sheffield’s Universities as well as local and national architecture organisations, (including the Royal Institute of British Architects), and while the youngsters got on with the hard painting and building work, architectural adults took plenty of time to ponder such issues.

“Social housing? Bring it on,” said Simon Chadwick of Sheffield University. “Everyone should have a roof over their head. The public sector has the longevity to provide really good neighbourhoods and environments to live in. Social housing should be a cohesive social mix, not just an estate where the poor people live. It could be a multicoloured community of all types of people doing all sorts of things in all sorts of different types of accommodation.”

Any of Saturday’s youngsters inspired to join the profession in future will have some new challenges, said Leonora. Regular flooding, for example.

“They will face a lot more environmental challenges. The temperatures will be different, it will rain more and our seasons probably won’t be the same.”

Leonora approved of some of Sheffield’s recent architectural initiatives such as the improvements for pedestrians and cyclists in the city centre’s new Heart of the City developments, but she’s concerned about the level of student housing leading to a ‘transient community’ in the city centre.

“I think we need more families in the city centre, but to do that we need to be providing them with more accommodation suited to family life.”

“Segregation doesn’t work,” said Simon Chadwick. “Dense student housing with tiny apartments means the city centre is dead in summer from May to September, which doesn’t help Sheffield.”

Although the youngsters were enthusiastically tackling the city’s hillsides, another challenge for Sheffield’s architects and town planners is the nature of Sheffield as ‘a massive city with a small city centre, mostly made up of suburbs’, said Leonora.

Work on previous architecture weekenders shows that Sheffielders value the few impressive old civic buildings they have, and although some members of older generations have little love for Sheffield’s brutalist structures, younger people see angular concrete in a different way.

“‘Modern’ architecture is actually from the 1950s and 60s,” said John Gelder. “Concrete is a big part of that, but I don’t think younger people have our generation’s view of it as oppressive. Now people see concrete anew, and maybe celebrate Modern architecture a bit more.”

The event was about getting people to think about their city and its future, and proper public consultations should be an important part of architecture in the future, said Saturday’s professionals. The builders of cardboard airports and viaducts were an inspiration to all.