After submitting our entries to the
Sheffield Hallam Forgotten Spaces – Young Creatives competition way back in
February we were all very eager to attend the prize giving event, see all the
other entries and find out the eventual winners. The
schools version follows on from the professional Forgotten Spaces competition
that came to Sheffield in 2011, encouraging architects, designers and artists
to come up with innovative ideas that find new uses for the region's overlooked
areas. The competition is supported by RiBA Yorkshire (The Royal Institute of
British Architects) and the Sheffield Society of Architects. This year there were 7 entries in total, from GCSE to
undergraduate level and the exhibition was laid out beautifully in the Harmer
Building, floor 4 (still open to be viewed until Sunday 30th June) using shop
boarding to present each design. Wine
and nibbles were laid on and the students were able to mingle together and
speak with current architecture students at the University of Sheffield.
There was a welcome address from
Professor John Leach, Dean of the faculty which Architecture sits in, then a
short introduction and overview of the entries from the head judge and Head of
Architecture at Sheffield Hallam, Norman Weinard. He praised the high standard of all the
entries, stressing the judging was done blind so none of the judges knew who
had submitted what. He then handed over
to Chris Patterson, the Architect who won the Forgotten Spaces Sheffield 2011
competition for professional Architects, to award the prizes.
We were
still excited over our placement in second when the first place announcement
was made – Thomas Rotherham College Team 2!! I have never seen Mona Peirov or
Joe Bradley speechless before, however they were dumbstruck when the
announcement was made. They were praised
for their University level research and highly developed concept. Their design for a new 'Common Room' for youngsters
from Thomas Rotherham College and Rotherham College of Art and Technology to
integrate and socialise, was praised by competition judges for its 'outstanding
innovation that met the competition criteria at every level'. Their innovative presentation was also
commended as ‘the cherry on the top’.
Mona and Joe (A2 Fine Art) represented their team and collected prizes
on behalf of the other members; Vicky Spencer (A2 Fine Art), Eddie Mee (A2
Graphics), Marta Kwasniewska and Jenny Betts (AS Fine Art).
After the
prize giving the students were photographed with their entries and invited to
look round the Sheffield Hallam Architecture degree show. This was inspirational. The students
attending, who are all either going to study Architecture this year or
considering it for next year, really enjoyed seeing the work produced and the
different ways in which it had been presented.
Heather and Bradley were already getting ideas for next year’s
competition!
We are incredibly proud of our students for achieving such a
wonderful double in such a prestigious competition. They have won a total of £1750 in prize money for the Department and
were each presented with specialist architecture rulers and pens. I would like to say a huge thank you to our
Art Technicians Lucy Matthews who presented the original brief and inspired the
students to think outside of the box and , together with Tracy Gelder, who supported the students whilst they were
developing their ideas and creating their entries. Although the ideas and work came directly
from the students themselves, the support from Lucy and Tracy was vital in
bringing the entries together. I would
also like to register thanks to Sheffield Hallam University for involving us in
such a fantastic competition which we are already very much looking forward to entering
next year.
