briefs for hallam student volunteers

Housewarming

Below is a list of people and groups that we have discussed inviting to our housewarming event on 23rd September 2009. Please add anyone (groups and/or individuals) that are missing to the list...

- Sharrow Action Group extended mailing list
-Sheffield Civic Trust
-Sheffield City Council planners
- Abbeydale Communities Together
- Nether Edge neighbourhood Group
-Broomhall Forum
-Grow Sheffield
-Encounters
-SUFI Centre planning group
- Portland Works businesses
-CAN
-Sharrow Forum
-Lansdowne TARA
-Sheffield University landscape students
- Sam Vardy, Doina Petrescu, Renata Tyszczuk, Florian Kossak, and Carolyn Butterworth + others? from Sheffield Univeristy Architecture Department

-Who else?... either post, comment or email asap...

I will hopefully design an invitation soon in order to mail out early august...(if you would be happy to help with this, please drop me a line!)...

Masterplan for Lloyds Corner

This is a plan of action for Sheffield City Council produced by Distinctive Sharrow Action Group to help them make decision on how to improve Lloyd’s Corner for the benefit of local people, ensuring it is placed in context with other local community buildings.

(please click on images to enlarge)

Lloyds Corner Brief

‘Lloyds Corner’ is a highly visible small urban space, which currently doesn’t have a strong identity or design. However, local people have identified that it has potential to contribute to the quality of the public realm and the community life.

The Action Group has currently commissioned two projects, the first being Community design flags for sites along London Road, the district centre. The second project is a ‘Welcome to Sharrow’ signpost, the project launch for which was celebrated with giant lanterns as part of the annual lantern festival.

Project aims and objectives:
• Regenerate this key public open space in London Road
• Contribute to making visible the identity of Sharrow
• Engage local people with their urban environment.

For a full copy of brief, plese contact Julia Udall on julia@sharrowcf.org.uk .

Lloyds Corner Brief

The Lloyds Corner Brief has now been drafted by the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group and will now be discussed with Sheffield City Council Officers. To obtain an electronic copy of this draft email Julia Udall at julia@sharrowcf.org.uk.

Thoughts on Lloyds Corner Brief.

These are some thoughts, apologies for the lack of structure.

The brief drafts are great. They seem coomprehensive in getting accross our main agenda for the project, particularly the trio of regeneration, identity and engagement.

I also agree with CC that the toolkit is a really useful document and could be referenced. Perhaps we could consider the corner's position in relation to other key sites for future regeneration ? (Is it a point on the john st triangle?) and the lloyds corner project could be open to future links with other sites- a walk, a series of related designs/objects/installations.

Perhaps there is scope for an educational element within the project?

In terms of the way the space could be inhabited and used, the past problems with street drinkers/drug users etc need to be addressed. Many residents feel strongly that seating should not be reintroduced as many campaigned to have it removed. Is there potential for an active space that rethinks the use/function/design of the pavement? With additional objects or a structure (we discussed a tree?) to give the area a landmark and area in which to explore/develop identiy?

CM

Brief development: From LP

DISTINCTIVE SHARROW
Lloyds Corner

Context
Distinctive Sharrow context
Funding available
Action group
Why Lloyds Corner
Lloyds Corner has been identified as the potential site for ‘small scale intervention’ within the framework set in the Distinctive Sharrow document. Sharrow community forum? The community? Sharrow action group? Selected this site because:
- highly visible from London Road and could act as a demonstration site for further interventions in Sharrow
- small urban space , therefore manageable as the first community project to promote sharrow’s identity
- the existing space is of poor quality design and is a left over space with no proper function

We might need Julia’s help for this first part to gather all the facts and history of this project

Background information:

Community
The Sharrow Action Group has organised two informal public consultation events to consult the community and generate ideas for Lloyds Corner. The details of these events and comments/ideas collected are included in appendix A. The key findings can be summarised as follow:
- the function of Lloyds corner needs to be flexible to accommodate the wide range of the public preferences and address the great diversity of the community of Sharrow. (ref. list compiled after first event 4th October 2008). Suggestion included temporary exhibition spaces, temporary stalls.
- the space is mainly a through route rather than a destination. People looked while passing by during the two events but often remained on the edge of the space (see movement maps drawn on 24th January 2009). The proposals should make sure not to impede main existing circulation pattern.
- The edge along London road is particularly important as it is visible by the numerous pedestrians and car users on London Road.
- children/young people were instrumental is engaging adults in the activities proposed during the second event on the 24th January 2009. the proposals for the site should therefore take into account children needs and interests.
-

Technical constraints
To be agreed with local authority, site boundaries , services…etc
Any other sugestions
Project aims and objectives:
- regenerate this key public open space in London Road
- contribute to the development of the identity of Sharrow
- engage local people with their urban environment

Rationale:
General principles (see project objectives signpost brief)
- community led project in relation/collaboration with local designers and/or artists
- develop skills in Sharrow

Specific
- create a high quality functional urban place enhancing the experience of London road and Sharrow
- improve people’s movement and use of the space
- create a focal point in the streetscape and local environment
- design should be highly ambitious, playful and unique in relation to Sharrow identity

Proposed stages for this project

design proposals
- acquire a full understanding of the place (Lloyds Corner) based on previous research/events/consultations and designers’ own assessment
- engage with the ‘Distinctive Sharrow’ process with a good understanding of the specificity/character of the area and the needs of local people.
- Propose a process to ensure a continuous engagement of the local community with the design process
- Put forward strategies for Lloyds Corner and propose design/s accordingly, different options at a draft stage to enable the community to be proactive in finalising the proposal.
- Propose management plan for the site for example to accommodate temporary events, existing (lantern festival, Chinese new year) and potential suggested by the community (art exhibitions, educational events)

2. Public consultation
- exhibition of draft proposals (different options to choose from)
- feedback from the community
- vote on preferred strategies/design
3. Finalise design/proposals according to the public consultation outcome


Other information to include in the final brief at a later stage

Selection criteria

Commission panel

Process and timescale

Application process

Brief for Lloyds corner: initial ideas CC

I've never done this sort of things before so this is definitely more like ideas, to be thrashed about in the meeting next week.

• I think its very important to mention the Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit, I found it really inspiring when wanting to get involved, it sums up a lot about the area and gives a lot of really nice ideas that are the sort of things that have been positivly discussed and experimented by the action group

The Space...

Reasons why the space was chosen as one of the staring points for possible regeneration of Sharrow through the distinctive Sharrow action group:

• Prominent part of Sharrow, will be seen/passed by people from all over Sheffield who come to eat and shop on London Road and to come to football matches at Bramall Lane. A chance to show off Sharrow to people who do not realise how nice/exciting/distinctive and diverse an area it is. Possibly increase visitors to the area.
• Area that has had past controversy, previously frequented by 'street drinkers' mainly due to nearby position of late opening chemist. A lot of local people have concerns about doing anything with the space (benches etc) in case it encorages them back, an alternative opinion could be that with a lot of improvemnt to this unsightly 'non-space' a variety of people will be encoarged to the space at differnet times and it will take on a new feel/purpose.
• Route between London Road and Bramall Lane football stadium, Route to residential area, car park, poorly known green space etc
• A quite large area of paving that is under used, centrally located and therefore has huge potential!

What?

• Eye catching
• Unique (at least in Sheffield!)
• Increase usage of the space
• Change the usage of the space, differnt people, different ages, different backgrounds, different use at differnt times?
• Smarten up, improve 'look' of the space
• potential? to increase the actual space and change road layouts etc to have an even wider impact

Ideas...

• Paving
• Lightling
• Games
• Art
• Sounds

Lloyds Corner Brief: Initial ideas from LP

Background:

1. Distinctive Sharrow
2. Action Group
3. Why Lloyds Corner?

Aims and Objectives

-Regenerate this key public space On London Road District centre
-Contribute to the development of the identity of Sharrow
-Engage local people with their local environment

Rationale

General
-Community led project to develop relationshsips/ collaborate with SCC and local designers artists etc
-Develop skills and knowledge in Sharrow
Specific
-Create high quality urban space enhancing the experience of London Road and Sharrow
-Design should be highly ambitious, playful and unique in relation to Sharrow Community Forum improve peoples movement and use of this space and key surrounding places (such as Thorp Park, The John Street Triangle etc)
-Create a new focal point in the district centre

Sequence

Design
Acquire a full understanding of the site based on previous research/ events/ consultation and designers own assessment
Engage with the Distinctive Sharrow process with a good understanding of the specific character of the area and the needs of local people
Devise a process to ensure a continuous contribution of the community to design
Put forward strategies for Lloyds ciorner and propose xdesigns accordingly

Public Consultation
Feedback from the community
Vote on different ideas

Finalise Design

TASKS: JMU/ MP Feedback from the Lloyds Corner Event

JMU
1. What was successful about the making event and What could be improved?

It was good to all be doing something in a room together, the process allowed us to have a think about what it was we wished to achieve.

I think the weaknesses were that we needed to plan what we were making before hand and be clear as to what we were bringing along and to have designed the objects beforehand so they looked more professional / were an appropriate scale/ made the impact we desired. It was suggested that we use the blog to have this conversation about what we would make, what materials we needed and who would do what but this was not an effective tool in this circumstance as no one used it; perhaps a meeting finalising a list of things and assigning tasks would have been useful in this case.

I think it is a balance however between people feeling that this group becomes too onerous in terms of commitment and making sure we achieve what we set out to do. Please give me feedback in this respect.

2. What was successful about the Lloyds corner event and what could be improved?

The event was very visible, people had detailed conversations about specific ideas rather than generalised ones, and we monitored movement through the site.

It is worth keeping in mind that:
i. Some of the more successful ideas may have been popular because they were good engagement techniques, not necessarily because they are right for the site.
ii. we have only gathered info from one time of day, day of the week and two months of the year (both cold!)

3. What key things did you learn from the event that could inform the brief?

i. That an intervention which has in built flexibility/ provides a space for people to hold events or play would be popular. People would like to see lots of different things happening here and to be able to make their own mark. (it was key on the route of The Chinese New Year Dragon for example and could also be important for the Lantern Carnival.)

ii. That the routes through the site are important and must be kept clear.

iii. Signposting here would be popular and useful and could be a way of promoting the things that Sharrow has to offer such as Mount Pleasant Park, the Mosque, Stag Works, Bramall Lane, the library, etc etc


4. How could we publicise the blog more widely?

Posters in local shops could be a good way to do so and I have made some initial enquiries about linking this in with other information that is going out to shops along London road and Abbeydale Road- I will keep you updated on this.

If anyone fancies either designing a flyer or writing a line or two for the flyer explaining who we are/ what we do that would be great…


5. What information are we currently missing that we need to inform the development of the brief for the site? ( I am currently compiling technical information from officers etc about the services, listing of the lamppost and streetforce/ highways)

I will arrange a meeting with highways, planning and the landscape architect who deals with section 106 allocation in order to fill out the gaps in our knowledge. However we need an outline brief and our research collated prior to this. This should be the key aim of our next meeting.

MP Feedback

Making session:
This was fun but I thought severely limited in terms of where we did it – having little access to water for instance for washing and cleaning was a real pain - also materials, would have been much easier to use a wooden floor (or have a tarpaulin!) I know I could have brought more stuff like that but had not known what to expect.
Also, we did forget stuff to take to the event (the painted “planters”) -needed a check list of what we had made or brought beforehand to take to the actual event.

A good event in terms of people’s energy, though.

The Event
Coloured stepping stones, hopscotch, dance steps –these are what I noticed people of all ages really getting into – quite spontaneously and with no need for them to be explained or signposted.
Choreography of moving through these different kinds of pavement “interventions” – could be used by anyone including physically /visually impaired.
So the way people enjoyed being led or entertained as they travel through the area was the main thing I noticed, and as a result I think that some kind of pathway design would probably be the most effective and economical use of the space.

Tasks Feedback: LP

Lloyds Corner event 24/01/09
LP feedback 11/02/09

Making session and preparation
· Great fun, a good way to know the members of the group better and most of the things worked to bring life and colour to the Lloyds corner.
· Would have been useful to make a quick assessment on how appropriate what we were making was for the site (Lloyds Corner). This might include microclimate factor, size of objects…etc.
· The need for more preparation was demonstrated with the last scene: ‘the urban Oasis’. A more thorough preparation could have avoided missing the sunflower s and the flower pots (the boys were very disappointed about this) and make the trees exercise more efficient. For example a sandwich board on the ‘people tree’ inviting people to position them where they would have like to see a tree planted.
· Check other events in the area; at the end it did clash with the Chinese New Year event but could have been integrated if we would have known.
The event
· Again great fun even in the cold
· Lots of interesting chat with people and quite an impact (several people mentioned they saw us and wanted to know more about it)
· Great photos to publicise the action group and the project
· More people involved might have helped to catch more people passing by?

Feedback from conversation with people on site and people who saw us while driving and personal observations:
· Combination of ideas rather than only one theme. E.g. play/art and vegetation; vegetation and paving…etc.
· Something visible from driving cars and buses as they are also users of the space
· People with children interacted much more as the children naturally/spontaneously engaged with the activities (dancing/drawings) and dragged their parents along. Could be part of the brief, think about the children first the parents will follow.
· The lady who played hop scotch (sorry if it is the wrong spelling) clearly enjoyed doing something from her youth; maybe something related to the history of the place linked with the lamp post might be appropriate? (Julia mentioned a photograph of Queen Victoria on London Road, it could be displayed on the chemist window)
· It is clearly a space people pass by on their way somewhere rather than a destination. A new intervention should not impede people’s movement.
· There was some respect shown, trying to avoid to walk on the children drawings on the pavement , which is very encouraging, especially if some temporary/more fragile structures/interventions are proposed.

Client Team: Welcome to Sharrow Signposts

The client team for the 'Welcome to Sharrow' Signposts consists of the following memebers of the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group:

1. Dave Whitfield
2. Mel Pearson
3. Jean Cromar
4. Catherine Crompton
5. Julia Udall

There will be regular team meetings with Ryan Morley, the commissioned artist, exhibitions of the emerging ideas and a four day workshop to involve local people in the development of the project. If you wish to be involved, please add your comments below, check the blog for details of events relating to the project and/ or contact julia@sharrowcf.org.uk

Lloyds Corner landscape and urban design ideas

Building Exploratory II: 2008-9

The Building Exploratory will have two key elements; the displays and the workshops. The displays will primarily include three Sheffield University Live Projects, (Lost in Lansdowne, Grow Sheffield Food Map and Arch). There will also be displays relating to the Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit, The Distinctive Sharrow Action Group, and the shortlist of the signposts competition and update on the flags project and the work of Holly Barnes, the Community Forester.

It has been decided that we will run three workshops, the first about Lloyds Corner, which will be designed by the action group according to the outcomes of their current research into the space and its significance. The second will be an architecture trail which will invite people to photograph their local buildings and also map their routes through the area. The third will be a signposts project where people will design and place signposts in places around Sharrow. These workshops will need to be designed in greater detail. The information gathered from them will be fed into briefs for action in Sharrow and be displayed in the shop for the duration of the project.

We now need to confirm a venue and hope to hold the exploratory within the next couple of months. The shop opening hours will depend on the availability of the forum staff and volunteers. A timetable will be posted on the blog where volunteers can sign up to times. The shop window will be used to further promote the events and also to display the work produced during the events.

The outcomes of the shop should be:

1. To inform: present the projects that are currently ongoing- live projects (Lansdowne/ Arch/ Grow Sheffield), toolkit projects (Flags/ Signs/ Lloyd’s Corner), and Community Forrester projects.

2. To allow people to speculate on where these projects should go next, feed in to emerging briefs and respond to what has happened before.

3.To engage local businesses and allow them a space to give their views on their area.

4. To publicise the Action Group and invite people to join in.

Sharrow Signposts brief

Background:
As part of the Distinctive Sharrow Toolkit, a small amount of funding has been made available to develop the creative part of a ‘Welcome to Sharrow’ signposts project. It is hoped that if well considered, this could be taken forward to produce the signage with support from Sheffield City Council.

Project Outcomes:
Stage 1, Design
· To develop a design for a ‘Welcome to Sharrow’ sign or signs that respond to the identity(ies) of Sharrow. The design should be very ambitious in terms of quality and concept. Adventurous, playful and critical ideas will be favoured.
· To consider where the sign(s) may be placed to have maximum impact. This may include considering what the boundaries of Sharrow are or key connections that should be made. Critical to this aspect of the project is consideration to who owns the land on which it is to be placed/ permissions required to erect it and how it fits with legislation governing highways, planning permission, and the like. Some initial research into this has been carried out, however it will be the basis for the feasibility of the project so must be thoroughly researched and relationships formed.
· To consider how and through whom the sign(s) will be manufactured. The artist will be responsible for the design fabrication and installation of the work and will work with to develop the details of the construction. The work must be durable, responding to the public environment in which it is placed.
· To cost the production/ installation of the signage and an outline idea of any maintenance that may be involved. This may include conversations with streetforce.

Stage 2, Manufacture and Installation (not included in this bid)
· The artist is required to manufacture the work and install it on site. There will be no other works on site and the artist is required to provide all equipment materials and welfare facilities. The artist will make provision to ensure that proper Health and Safety (particularly Construction, Design and Management regulations (2007) if they are deemed to apply) and working practices are observed.

Project Objectives:
To develop the identity of Sharrow as seen by those living and working in the area and within Sheffield.
To make relationships between Sharrow Community Forum, Distinctive Sharrow Action Group, local artists and the council, in order that procedures for commissioning further creative projects are explored and the council can have confidence in the process.
To work with local people or as part of a collective of local artists; these projects should be Sharrow led and develop skills within the area.

Selection Criteria
The commission will be advertised locally and nationally and three artists will be shortlisted by the panel which includes members of the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group, Sharrow community forum, Sharrow partnership and Sheffield United Football Club. The shortlisted artists will be invited to attend an interview. Applications are invited from individual artists or artist teams.

The entries will be judged by the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group and on the flowing criteria:
How the proposal responds to the brief, including the principles outlined and the findings of the Distinctive Sharrow project and the exploration of identity in the area
The feasibility of the project in terms of all aspects of its implementation such as planning permission, manufacture, cost of manufacture etc
The value that the bid is seen to represent

Commissioning Panel
The commissioning panel will consist of one member of Sharrow Community Forum, one member of Sharrow Partnership or relevant service provider associated with that particular brief (in this case could be streetforce) and two members of the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group.

Process and Timescales:

All submissions of interest to arrive by: Monday 1st December

Shortlistsing: Tuesday 2nd- Friday 12th December

Interviews of shortlisted entrants: Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th December

Project programme: Six weeks, commencing 2nd January 2009

Indicative Budget for Stage 1:
£3,000 including VAT, materials and expenses

Application process:
To register an expression of interest, please send:

· A letter of application which clearly states why you are interested in this project, your experience of this type of work and how you would approach the commission and any partnerships/ collaboration which you may be interested in creating to carry out the project. Max 1,000 words
· Breakdown of costs for the first stage of the project.
· Up to five images with descriptions of recent relevant work. This could either be in electronic or hard format.
· Details of two referees
· An SAE if you require the material to be returned

This material should be sent by post (hard copy of written documents and CD or hard copy of images) rather that by email to:

Julia Udall
Sharrow Community Forum
The Old Junior School
South View Road
Sharrow
S7 1BD

This material should be received no later than: 1st December 2008