Community — 30 years of projects across South Yorkshire

A green & blue space system for Sheffield: a brilliant demonstrator for our new City Goals

Sheffield is rightly proud of its green and blue infrastructure.

But is the city really getting the most out of this infrastructure? And how would treating it as a system help?

Climate Emergency, Community, PlacemakingMiranda Plowden15 March 2024 Comment

21 years of Live Projects: how Sheffield’s architecture students have helped shape the city region

Another batch of Live Projects - 17 in all - has just come to an end, beautifully curated and facilitated by Sam Brown from Sheffield’s School of Architecture.

Live Projects have been a key feature of training architects in Sheffield. They have also had real impact in the city and beyond. Why do they work so well?

Placemaking, CommunityMiranda Plowden12 June 2021homelessness, participation, architectural education, workspace, Prue Chiles, Carolyn Butterworth, Sheffield School of Architecture, SOAR, South Yorkshire Housing AssociationComment

Libraries by design: the power of a well-designed library

We know that libraries are transformational. What interests me is the difference that good design can make to elevate the transformational impact of libraries. Here are three examples:

#1 A library building - the Learning Zone in Parson Cross, Sheffield

#2 A curated library - at South Yorkshire Housing Association’s Rockingham Street workspace

#3 A Human Library - an event co-produced with South Yorkshire Housing Association’s customers and employees

Regeneration, Social Housing, CommunityMiranda Plowden6 May 2021The Learning Zone Parson Cross, Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Hall a-i-a studio, 93 ft, Bookbench, The Human Library, South YOr, Schmitt Hammer Lassen, SOARComment

Asset based community development: what's changed in 20 years?

Neighbourhood Strategies in north Sheffield - how it started

In the first decade of the 21st century, a small experiment took place in north Sheffield: a group of us wanted to see if we could create a strategic and visionary masterplan for 6 neighbourhoods (50,000 population) starting not with facts and technical analysis, but with local people's stories and ideas.

Two things inspired this approach.

Community, Placemaking, RegenerationMiranda Plowden5 March 2021SOAR, Well Rotherham, ABCD, Co-production, Community-led neighbourhood plans, Eventus, Prue Chiles, Andrew Grant, Sheffield, Foxhill, Longley, Parson Cross, Shirecliffe, Southey Comment

Moments of Joy: the value of participatory arts

At South Yorkshire Housing Association we want our customers’ experience with us to be a joy.

Since 2013 we have been exploring through a series of test projects how participatory arts can add value to our purpose: with us you can settle at home, live well and realise your potential. We call this programme Moments of Joy.

This year the programme has had fresh impetus as a direct result of the pandemic: as we locked down our extra care housing (homes for people aged 55 and over) we knew we had to do more to connect with people isolated in their homes.

Community, Placemaking, RegenerationMiranda Plowden9 October 2020Age Better in Sheffield, South Yorkshire Housing Association, Participatory arts, SOAR, Parson Cross, Wincobank, Firth Park, Brendan Ingle, Shiregreen, darts, Yorkshire Artspace Comments

Slingsby Place: how can you make a 'place' with just 28 homes?

How can you make a "place" with just 28 homes? This is a recurring theme for South Yorkshire Housing Association whose 6,000 homes are dispersed across Sheffield City Region in groups of 10-100.

Social Housing, Community, PlacemakingMiranda Plowden6 December 2019The Manor, public art, women of steel, Proctor+Matthews, Dorothy Slingsby, pictorial meadwos, Green Estate, Emilie Taylor, Yorkshire Artspace, Angie Hardwick, South Yorkshire Housing Association, Chatsworth Comments