Live Project // Sheffield Homes

Live Project Reviews and Exhibition

2009-11-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

Today marked the official end of the Live Projects, and we concluded the 6 weeks with a presentation/review and exhibition for the whole Masters in Architecture course and members of the public.

The Empty Shops Live Project had managed to borrow an empty department store in the heart of the city for a couple of days for the presentations and exhibitions. We managed to get the exhibition boards printed in time and mounted them alongside our models in the morning in the space we were allocated.

The boxes generated some interest - although some people tried to lift off the lids first!

Richard Hawson came to see the exhibition with a colleage from housing over lunchtime and we showed them a draft of the document and talked them through the exhibition. We suggested arranging a time to handover all of the information formally to Sheffield Homes in a couple of weeks, and Richard suggested we could also present the work to a Tenants and Residents Association (TARA).

The final few days

2009-11-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

Becky and Emma carefully cut out all of the components of the miniPODs and began to organise people and furniture inside the boxes to create the designs. We took turns in peaking inside as they were completed one by one.

Hannah focussed on the panels and exhibition with Av, capturing the process of the live project from research to consultation to final proposals and Aditi and I processed all of the information for a document to handover to Sheffield Homes.

Installation vs. models

2009-11-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

As a group we thought about how we could effectively present our ideas at the exhibition. Initially we thought about recreating one of our proposals 1:1 so that members of the public to enter the space and take part in one of the activities. However the logistics of this, in order to make it effective were challenging and we were conscious that we didn’t have that much time or resources to play with. Instead we decided to capture each of our proposals in a small model that members of the public could peep into.

How would this work?

Some visuals in the making

2009-10-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

We decided to summarise the stage that we are at to Sheffield Homes at our final meeting with them before our exhibition and document handover next week. We wanted to give a flavour of the range of activities that we have undertaken over the past 5 weeks, the process of research and consultation and how our ideas are developing into final proposals.

Developing ideas

2009-10-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

We've been busy developing the 7 pod proposals that we had chosen to focus on; drafting initial plans and sections and creating 3d visuals to explain the concepts.

As a group we decided to all work off a common base model to show our pod ideas in occupation.

Inside a garage

2009-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today we got a chance to finally look inside some garages. We'd been given a set of keys from Sheffield Homes and returned to Derby Street and Daresbury Drive to explore the vacant garages.

We started at Derby Street where we had been given one key to a double garage. Interestingly the garages and railings were being painted as we arrived. The door was a bit sticky, but we managed to get it open and all filed in to see what the space was like. It was as deep as we had hoped/guessed, but a bit narrower than we had expected. Interestingly 2 out of the three blocks offered the potential for openings to let light in at the rear of the space, as it turned out only one of the blocks was earth sheltered.

From Derby Street we walked onto Daresbury Drive to look in a selection of garages there. We had several keys for the vacant garages in the block, and had a look in a couple. We found a beehive in one and some rubbish in an other but came to the conclusion that were on the whole pretty much the same space inside.

Inspiration? Detail/Constrution

2009-10-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

With regards to facade design/construction, a cheap yet effective solution would suit the nature of 'garage renovation' best.

In designing a facade for studioPOD a repetitive solutions/elements were inevitable.

A viable economical and efficient method would be a prefabricated facade solution. This would reduce site labour to a bare minimum, ensuring a high quality finish on the facade which would be quick and easy to install.
http://www.barbourproductsearch.info/telling-file009850.html

Design design design

2009-10-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Once we had the activities that could take place in a garage. We split into three groups to explore each of the ideas. After brainstorming their feasibility we came together as a group to make a decision on six key ideas to develop.

We have decided to call each idea a "pod" and the six uses we will focus on are:

"Skills pod" - IT facilities with support on use along with baby care facilities to look after young children whilst parents use the facilities.

"Studio pod" - this looks at the possibility of a large scale, long term solution of converting many garages into studio apartments to provide extra revenue and address issues of housing need in Sheffield

"Swap pod" - here you may come to exchange your unwanted items with someone who might want them, swap toys etc.

"Activity pod" - this is primarily for activities which benefit the local community in terms of providing something to do for youth, the elderly etc.

"Cycle pod" - garages converted for this use would provide secure lockable storage for bikes, buggies and other such items which might not easily fit inside the home

"Plant pod" - this explores the possiblity of an allotment type garage where you grow your vegetables but can also then set up a 'market' maybe once a week

We are currently at the stage of developing these six ideas in more detail making sure we assess them in terms of:

cost
detailing of the structure
how they will be used
step-by-step guide to show how you achieve them

Activities matrix

2009-10-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

Once we had brainstormed the possible activites that could take place in garages, we put these together into a matrix assessing them in terms of:

cost - low/ medium/ high
scale - small (one garage) / medium (row of garages) / large (garges in a particular area)
time - short term/ medium term/ long term

Starting the design process

2009-10-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

We spent some of the morning reflecting on Saturday’s consultation; what we learnt from it, the characters we met and some of the ideas that we got from it for new uses for garages.

We brainstormed a list of the ideas that had come out of the two engagement exercises, and those ideas that we have come up with as a group from our research into the area. Then we devised a system for categorising the cost, scale and time period of the different ideas. This was a little tricky to start with, but forced us to consider the requirements of each idea, and start to make assumptions about practicalities and cost. We plotted these in a kind of gant chart (see working drawing below). At the same time the idea of management of the garages was recurring. Would the garages be managed by Sheffield Homes, the community, local organisations or some kind of co-operative?

'the great garage hunters tea party' (take 2)

2009-10-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

We had our second engagement today and it turned out to be much more successful than the first! Being in a prominent public place made a big difference, and our installation/stalls attracted lots of children, families and older people. Members of the public seemed suprised at the offer of a free cup of tea - especially the children who expected that they would have to pay to decorate a biscuit.

We only asked for ideas and suggestions for alternative uses for garages, in exchange for the refreshments - and we had a positive response. Several people suggested activities for children, playgroups and youth clubs, while others suggested storage, workshops and studio flats.

The kids were keen to test their memory with the memory card game and decorate biscuits.

The sun shone as the two hours flew, and even though there hadnt been much wind we were releaved that we had opted for tables instead of the poles!

Come along to a tea party (take 2)

2009-10-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

We returned to Gleadless Valley to check out the site for tomorrows engagement, flyer the housing blocks where we were on Sunday and the shops along Newfield Green Parade.

We split up and tackled the blocks…

with a smile…

and Hannah braved the betting shop…

Unfortunately the manager of the bakers was not too keen on the idea of us giving away free tea and biscuits tomorrow. He also pointed out that the site we are planning to use is private land. We consulted with our client, offered to buy biscuits from the baker concerned, and the engagement is still on for tomorrow.

Our plan for a 3D mock-up garage to engage members of the public in, has had to be adjusted after an unsuccessful practice run in the courtyard in the Crookesmoor building. We hadn’t take the force of the Sheffield wind into consideration, and after a few attempts and falling poles we decided it was too much of a risk to set up tomorrow. This was disappointing – but we decided it was more important to consult people safely than be constantly on ‘pole watch’ avoiding disaster.

So instead, we’re hoping to create a sense of enclosure with tables and the reams of green fabric we have… watch this space to see the results.

Inspiration? was this really a garage?

2009-10-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.yatzer.com/1626_a_unique_garage_transformation

Inspiration? an outdoor room

2009-10-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/decorating/outdoor-rooms-00400000055349/page8.html

Client Meeting 02

2009-10-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

We had our second client meeting today at the Sheffield Homes offices. We updated Richard on our progress to date, the challenges of our first consultation exercise and what we hoped to achieve in the remaining few weeks.

We suggested that we thought that we would have more luck engaging people in a more public place – such as Newfield Green or the Moor, in town, and asked whether he thought that this would be feasible. He agreed that we would have more luck in Newfield Green and said that it shouldn’t be a problem going ahead with this on Saturday.

We explained to Richard that although we were looking at the Newfield Green area in more detail now, we were hoping to produce a range of site specific and more generic proposals. We aim to look at three conditions; garages under blocks of maisonettes, stand alone garages, and garages recommended for demolition.

Inspiration? Another lofty garage

2009-10-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.sunset.com/home/before-after/before-after-home-makeovers-remodels-00400000049841/page31.html

Inspiration? a garage/studio

2009-10-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this transformation of a detached garage in Seattle into a functional, loftlike apartment online. Apparently the 320-square-foot space features a faceted ceiling, which is designed to guide warm air to the triangular vent window for passive ventilation. Partners Prentis Hale and Thomas Schaer devised innovative space-saving strategies throughout: a support beam functions as a kitchen pot rack, and a bookshelf is tucked in the interior eaves.

Read and see more pictures: http://www.remodelista.com/posts/house-call-garage-studio-by-shed

Mapping and a mock-up

2009-10-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

We decided to focus on site analysis and mapping this week, looking at amenities, demographics, typologies, and occupation of garages.

We also started to think about how we could create a 3d garage space for Saturday’s engagement.

Back to the drawing board

2009-10-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Following on from our first engagement exercise yesterday, we’ve been thinking about what we learnt from the day, and how we can do things differently in our next consultation to make more of an impression, and attract more people.

The children we spoke to on Sunday told us about the lack of space for children to hang out, and how if it was up to them they’d transform the garages into a youth centre/gym/computer room or games space. But what would their parents want, and what about other members of the community.
It seemed that we had a few choices for another engagement at this stage –

1_Return every Sunday to the same site and find a way of bringing more people there
2_Set up in a community centre
3_Set up in Newfield Green close to the shops
4_Try a different context, for example Windy House Lane which is on the demolition list
5_Set up in a central public place, such as the Moor, to get general ideas about garages

After talking things through as a group, we decided to try option 3 on Saturday…and attempt to mock-up a 3d 1:1 scale garage to conduct our activities in.

'the great garage hunters' tea party

2009-10-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

We arrived on site in the School of Architecture van (re-named the FUN VAN for today), and unpacked the elements of the tea party.

We marked on the ground with yellow chalk the size of a garage, and inhabited this space, with a table and chairs, tea, biscuits and twister. Inside the van we papered the sides for people to draw/write ideas for empty garages, and stuck some pictures of various ideas for ways to use/re-use garages inside.

The tea party didn’t draw as much attention as we had anticipated, and very few people even passed by in the time that we were on site. Two young boys stopped to find out more, and spent the rest of the afternoon with us, and even went off to fetch a friend. The three told us their ideas for how the garages could be put to better use; as a place to stash bikes, a youth club, and a skate park/gym. They told us about what there was to do in the area, what was lacking and what they usually did on their weekends. We played twister, and a memory game and they asked if we would be back next week with the van.

Despite the lack of people, we were glad to have attempted our first public engagement and got the opinions of some local children. Now we have to decide how we can attract more interest/footfall if we return to the same site, or if we would be more successful by contacting local community groups.

Invitations

2009-10-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

We put flyers through the houses and flats surrounding the site that we had chosen this afternoon, hoping that advance warning may result in more people at the tea party tomorrow. We were surprised at some of the initial responses we had about the event, and the enthusiasm from a small boy.

What could a garage be?

2009-10-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Re-thinking the plan

2009-10-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

After the challenge of locating garages that had been recommended for demolition yesterday, we had a rethink about our strategy for developing proposals for garages.

We discussed with Cristina how to define and clarify the brief and how site specific our proposals should be. We decided to continue to pursue the three sites that we had already identified – the two close to Arborthourne and Newfield Green with void garages according the audit, and the row of four garages we managed to find from the demolition list. Different strategies could be explored and developed for each site, with generic proposals for similar contexts/constraints. At the same time one site, could be investigated in detail through rigorous site analysis and consultation.

It was decided that the first community engagement would take place on Sunday, as originally thought, on the first site in Arborthorne. It would be an experimental tea party with a series of activities – ranging from drawing to games and tea and biscuits.

A race against demolition...

2009-10-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

We set in the afternoon today in search of some of the garage sites awaiting demolition, heading back in the direction of Gleadless Valley and away from the city centre.

Sadly we were too late. Some of the sites had already been demolished, and all that remained were concrete bases where garages had once stood. We were starting to get a little desperate when we stumbled across a lone garage as the sun was setting over Sheffield.

And, before it was dark we found a few more, and potentially an interesting site to engage with the surrounding community. A row of 4 garages stood on the corner of Windy House Lane and Queen Mary Road, with some grass surrounding them. Apparently one is vacant and they have all been recommended for demolition.

With 3881 garage plots and sites across the city, it’s amazing how hard they are to track down. It seems like a race against time to find them before demolition, and we need to think creatively, constructively and practically to save them/reinvent them or replace them.

Methods for engagement

2009-10-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

We met as a whole team today to discuss the garage sites discovered yesterday, and our initial ideas to engage the local communities in the process.

We discussed three stages of engagement and design development:

1_ games, play, tea and chat

2_ showing inspirational images of the potential uses of the garages

3_ developing detailed design proposals.

Sunday seemed like a good day to test the first stage, allowing the following two stages to be refined, re-planned in the following weeks.

We fed these ideas back to Sheffield Homes, who suggested we look at sites proposed for demolition, in order to assess the feasibility of alternatives, and potentially give a new lease of life to some unwanted garages.

In search of a site

2009-10-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

We set off today to explore more of Sheffield and hopefully find some garage plots and sites that we could consider in more detail. We had a series of road names where Sheffield Homes managed garage structures, and areas where tenants could construct their own. Unfortunately the first few were impossible to spot on long residential roads near Broomhill, and so we ventured further south towards Gleadless Valley.

There, we found a series of double garages under maisonettes, where some were apparently vacant. We walked a bit further and found some garages from our list which were clearly mostly empty. These were detached from any housing, and we were able to explore one of them that was open.

We started thinking about ideas to engage the public and try and find out what they wanted to see instead of half-used garages (tea, cake, games and balloons??)

All you need to know about garages in Sheffield...

2009-10-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Who knew how much data there could be about garages in Sheffield? Sheffield Homes had kindly given us their most recent audit of the garages they manage in the city, and their occupation, condition, and sustainability.

Post meeting discussions

2009-10-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

After the meeting we weighed up the options that we had been presented with and discussed the scope of a project focusing on a particular non-traditional typology versus a project exploring the potential uses of void garages.

We resolved (democratically) that garages were a more manageable focus for the 5 weeks remaining, and that the scope to explore short/medium/long term solutions for empty garages and garage sites was vast. Not only could we look at garages in different locations but we consider options to re-inhabit them, re-invent them, or lose them all together.

Client Meeting 01

2009-10-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Our first meeting with the client (Sheffield Homes) was a good opportunity to find out more about the organisation, clarify and develop the brief together, and think about the logistics of what could be possible in the next 5 weeks.

Janet Sharpe and Richard Hawson attended the meeting on behalf of Sheffield Homes and gave the group a detailed picture of the origins of the ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) and the work that is involved in the day to day and long term management of Sheffield’s social housing stock. Janet spoke in particular about the challenges of waste management, bringing all of the stock up to the Decent Homes Standard and working with a variety of typologies and construction systems.

Two possible ideas emerged as elements of the brief; Examining a particular non-standard housing typology (Orlit Houses for example) and exploring how to make the houses structurally and thermally meet building regulations, or Address the underused garage sites/plots within the city and the potential for these to be transformed into more useful/ creative/ community space.

The Live Project Group decided to consider the two options, over the next day in order to make a decision on which project to take forward.

Watch this space for the decision...

Narrowing things down

2009-10-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

We met as a group to talk about initial ideas, questions to ask the client and possible directions to take the project in. Elements of the research stood out, and we were interested to know more about the Tenant Empowerment Programme, how local skills shortages were being addressed by training programmes, and what studies had already been done to determine the viability of non-standard housing stock.

Inspiration? Park Hill:a history

2009-10-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hannah stumbled across a history of Park Hill on the BBC
http://bbc.co.uk/i/mjm12/

and there was an interesting article in BD about the changing architecture in Sheffield:
"Sheffield remains a unique city set in a spectacular landscape, but the gutted form of Park Hill exemplifies the efforts being spent to make it look like everywhere else..."
Read more: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3140474

Inspiration?

2009-10-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/plattenbauten.html
That firm, Conclus, is literally re-using the intact walls, floorplates, and ceilings of these Plattenbauten, putting old modules into new designs, like puzzle pieces. "The only thing we have to do is take the wallpaper off them," says Conclus founder Hervé Biele.

Check out an article in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/nov/14/architecture.germany

Where to start?

2009-10-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

After some initial background reading we thought it would be useful to visit some of the non-traditional housing stock mentioned in the initial brief from Sheffield Homes to get a feel for the typologies and potential inspiration for the project.

With an AZ and some area names we set off in search – looking out for post-war pre-fabricated homes. It was surprisingly harder than we thought as some of the concrete structures appeared to be hiding under a layer of brick cladding or render. We did spot some, and our guesses were confirmed by Sheffield Homes posters in the stairwells.

Our excursion took us up to Stannington in the west of Sheffield and then south of the train station past a half-gutted Park Hill to Norfolk Park. We identified some of the housing stock more easily in the Norfolk Park area and stumbled across some rows of garages from the list of vacant/to let on the Sheffield Homes website.

Non-traditional Housing stock

2009-09-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

‘Non-traditional construction’ is used to describe housing built after the war using materials other than traditional bricks and mortar. Known commonly as ‘system houses’ and often designed by large contractors they commonly had pre-cast concrete frames and panels and suffered from problems like damp due to solid wall construction and no insulation.

Approved repair can bring them up to a standard that is acceptable to mortgage companies and insurers, and specialist repairs can upgrade them at reasonable cost, i.e. structural repairs, fitting external insulation systems and rendering or brick slips.

The initial brief

2009-09-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Exploring new ways of appraising and using non traditional stock (including non traditional building, sheltered schemes, garages and bedsits) to ensure their financial, social and environmental sustainability.

This project could contribute to the evolving Asset Management Strategy developed by Sheffield Homes, in conjunction with the Council, by exploring, proposing and testing scenarios based on active community involvement in the refurbishment and maintenance of housing stock (and related assets), their waste management as well as community facilities and green areas.

The project would also aim to review the current thinking about cost effectiveness and value for money of interventions on existing fabric in non standard stock.