THE NEXT CHAPTER

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The Sellers Wheel is a culturally significant building located in Sheffield. This is due to the historic traces of steelmaking left behind within the structure. My approach was to celebrate the building’s cultural significance whilst exploring the potential of adapting it to facilitate a new use, showing how a historic building can become something it was never intended to be.

 

Sheffield is known to be a creative city of making. However the built environment does not accommodate everyone within the industry, especially those starting out. To maintain a physical work balance, I have designed a facility which incorporates adaptable studio spaces and multi-disciplinary workshops for the next generation of designers and makers to rent when they need. These spaces accommodate the future needs of start-up businesses, freelancers and graduates, which they can grow and experiment within, bringing in the social history of the area through generating a vibrant community of creatives.

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My design enhances and encourages new interactions with retained structural elements, and any demolition is reused as a new function elsewhere in the building. The new contrasting structure I have implemented replicates the existing building fabric in a modern way and improves navigation, natural light and ventilation. A key aspect in my design involves modernising locally sourced, traditional materiality in a way which allows the story of the building to continue through making new marks. 

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