Dezeen School Shows: a plan for a zero-waste factory in a former textile mill, which has suffered repeated arson attacks, is among the projects from the University of Sheffield.

Also featured is a supportive living-learning environment for student parents and a public-facing civic space in the London Fire Brigade building.

University of Sheffield

School: School of Architecture and Landscape
Course: Part 1, Part 2 and non-accredited architecture courses
Tutors:  Adam Park, Adam Tarasewicz, Bryn Davies, Emre Akbil, Howard Evans, John Sampson, Kate Nicklin, Leo Care, Leonora Aigbokhae, Naomi Eckworth, Nicola Read, Satwinder Samra and Youcao Ren

School statement:

"Through our teaching, research and partnerships, we engage with social, political, economic and technical challenges.

"Our staff and students work with a range of partners, including local community groups, charities, health organisations and regional authorities, to develop practical solutions to real-world challenges."

Still Knowing How to (Ship) Build by Ellie Hardie

"Still Knowing How to (Ship) Build explores how the skills, knowledge and identity embedded within generations of shipbuilding labour can be retained in the face of industrial decline in Birkenhead.

"Located within Cammell Laird's Construction Hall – the town's largest building – the proposal explores how an industrial megastructure can be redirected to support community governance, construction skills education and the reuse of demolition waste from the wider shipyard.

"The architecture is shaped by the processes of ship construction itself, using reclaimed materials from the wider shipyard and celebrating the labour, assembly and material culture that define the site."

Student: Ellie Hardie
Course: MArch Architecture
Tutor: Leonora Aigbokhae

Hemingfield Agro-energy Commons by Ruby-Eloise Jones

"The Agro-energy Commons, located near Barnsley, Yorkshire, aims to repair the metabolic rift between rural sites of production and urbanist ventures through a community agro-energy hub, which acts as a bottom-up initiative to bring control back to rural areas.

"What was once a destructive carbon-producing colliery site is now a renewable energy centre, displaying innovative technology and exhibiting how accessible this may be to employ in villages across the country, whilst providing clean energy and locally produced food for the local community."

Student: Ruby-Eloise Jones
Course: BA Architecture (Y3)
Tutor: Leo Care

Inner Forth: Cleaning Up After by Freddie Bull

"Located around the Inner Forth in Scotland, this project proposes a fly ash block factory that transforms toxic industrial waste into a low-carbon construction material.

"Set within former coal-power infrastructure, it confronts the environmental legacy of fly ash lagoons and contaminated landscapes created through decades of extraction and pollution.

"The factory remediates polluted ash while manufacturing construction blocks directly from the waste stream, creating a circular system of environmental repair and material production.

"By linking architecture to extraction, waste and ecology, the project positions construction as a regenerative act, turning industrial afterlives into opportunities for climate recovery and future development."

Student: Freddie Bull
Course: MArch
Tutor: John Sampson

A House for Artists by Ania Druc

"My project encapsulates a multifunctional and transformable home built for two Sheffield artists.

"Inspired by the continuously moving River Sheaf, this proposal connects the wider community with a seasonal garden, inviting groups to boost local biodiversity and reduce 'food miles'.

"Whilst the front of the house engages with the public, the building further offers privacy for the clients through walls utilising a push/pull mechanism, meaning that rooms can be manually enlarged/compacted based on clients' needs.

"This idea of Kinetic Architecture allows my project to become an adaptive system, enhancing both comfort and responding to the site environment."

Student: Ania Druc
Course: BA Architecture (Y1)
Tutors: Bryn Davies, Youcao Ren and Naomi Eckworth

Civic Continuity by Louis Swift and Harrison Wade

"Based in Crossharbour, Isle of Dogs, Civic Continuity interrogates existing proposals on the site of a former ASDA, just north of Mudchute Farm.

"The project is situated in the near future after the current proposal stalls, with a new housing association forming in protest of a globalist view of the Isle.

"A school, courtyard housing and mews housing combine to create a more human, civic-focused centre for Crossharbour, with landscaped spines bringing the districts together.

"Community-led governance reinforces existing site lineages, ensuring the long-term stewardship of the site and creating a collective ownership of place."

Student: Louis Swift and Harrison Wade
Course: MArch
Tutor: Satwinder Samra

UBUNTU Energy Hub by Anggie Kristiadji Putri, Felicya Sheralynn and Yun-Tung Hou

"The Ubuntu Energy Hub project rethinks the role of architectural design-research in the face of energy crises.

"Working with the post-industrial steel works building of Sheffield and Districts African and Caribbean Community Association (SADACCA), the project provides spatial responses to a diverse range of interrelated energy, social justice and knowledge gap issues identified in conversation with the community and project stakeholders.

"The project demonstrates how architecture, when reimagined as a responsive and responsible practice, has the power to imagine, speculate and articulate just and caring futures.

"The project proposes novel architectural typologies that contribute to the architecture of community energy as an emergent practice.

"The architectural programmes of the retrofit hub, the care and resource hub, and the G-Mill as the festive energy hub all contribute to and respond to the existing community care infrastructures of SADACCA.

"The result is the embodiment of ubuntu energy as a joyful, powerful and collectivised energy transition."

Students: Anggie Kristiadji Putri, Felicya Sheralynn and Yun-Tung Hou
Course: MA Architectural Design
Tutor: Emre Akbil

In the Making: London Fire Brigade Education and Engagement Hub by Cin Namon Thongsuwan

"The project reimagines part of the London Fire Brigade's historic building at 8 Albert Embankment as a public-facing civic space.

"Drawing on the site's pottery heritage, it uses stages of making such as shaping, firing, glazing and reflection to shape the visitor journey.

"Conceptually, processes are reframed as a force of transformation and resilience. By opening the institution to the public and anchoring the sequence around the existing Memorial Hall, the project returns firefighting heritage to civic life through an architecture of learning, memory and care."

Student: Cin Namon Thongsuwan
Course: MArch: Collaborative Practice
Tutor: Satwinder Samra

Room for Growth student housing by Ashnah Bufion

"To address the challenges of modern parenthood in an increasingly isolated society, Room for Growth proposes a supportive living-learning environment for student parents – a shared community that redistributes caregiving responsibilities while integrating essential amenities.

"Shared balconies and play spaces allow for flexible and mutual support between families, whilst an on-site nursery, swap shop, communal kitchen and study spaces activate a secure communal courtyard.

"Located within the dense urban grain of Sheffield's commercial centre, the project envisages high-density urban housing, with care and co-operation at its heart."

Student: Ashnah Bufion
Course: BA Architecture (Y2)
Tutors: Adam Park

Ecology and Craft: Twin Acts of Repair by Chloe Maestre Bridger

"Ecology and Craft as Twin Acts of Repair proposes a new model of land stewardship in the White Peak, where ecological restoration and cultural production are intertwined through contemporary craft practices.

"Centred on a wool-processing and insulation-manufacturing facility, alongside workshops and teaching spaces, the project reworks a once-industrial landscape and unmanaged grazing land into a regenerative silvopastoral system.

"Through the revival of custodial skills such as shepherding, dry-stone walling, and natural construction, architecture becomes a site of shared making and knowledge exchange.

"Embedded within the cultural and material histories of the landscape, the project frames repair as a reciprocal relationship between people, place and process, where land, building and making remain in continual evolution."

Student: Chloe Maestre Bridger
Course: MArch
Tutor: Kate Nicklin

The Derwent Stoneyard by Sam Dryell

"The Derwent Stoneyard is rooted in the genealogy of gritstone. The project explores the relationship between geology, craft, ecology and time, proposing a new stone vernacular grounded in stewardship and low-carbon construction.

"Conceived as a centre for stone repair, apprenticeship and exchange, the project reimagines the quarry as a living landscape where extraction and ecological succession coexist.

"Buildings emerge from the quarry floor as though hewn from the geology beneath, constructed from rammed earth, site-derived gritstone and locally managed timber.

"Over time, the quarry gradually reclaims the buildings through erosion, vegetation and succession, blurring the boundary between architecture and landscape."

Student: Sam Dryell
Course: MArch: Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Tutor: Howard Evans

The Imaginarium Works by Gaziza Beibutova

"This project proposes the retrofit and reimagining of Genappe Mill within the Dalton Mills complex in Keighley.

"Once a thriving textile hub during the Industrial Revolution, Dalton Mills was central to Keighley's identity but has suffered repeated arson attacks since 2011.

"The zero-waste factory combines making with performance, inspired by the site's former use as a filming location.

"Here, young people can recycle on-site waste from vandalism into building components for local construction, as well as create production and film sets to be showcased in the outdoor theatre and film locations on the site.

"The building also incorporates rehearsal spaces for acting, dance, and music, supporting both creative production and community engagement."

Student: Gaziza Beibutova
Course: BA Architecture (Y3)
Tutors: Adam Tarasewicz and Nicola Read

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the University of Sheffield. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.