Journal

Hello and welcome! Here is a brief summary of what we've been up to and upcoming projects.

We've set up Sheffield Community Land Trust group, which has now incorporated as a Community Benefit Society, and we will continue to support the group as they explore feasibility studies around the retorfit and re-use of empty buildings in the centre of Sheffield. We've received funding to support the set up of a number of open workshops and focus groups to build membership.

Other current projects involve design work and support for a self-build barn as well as works linked to a foodhub in Gleadless for Regather; a learning programme around design with Museums Sheffield; a re-working of the demountable stage set for the Handlebards theatre group; and our small project linked to Perrott's Folly in Birmingham is starting on site in May.

In the past couple of months we've also made it to the final three practices shortlisted for interview for works to redevelop the Henry Moor Institute in Leeds, and develop a proposal for the Festival of Making in Blackburn & Darwen.

Studio Polpo are part of the team for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. The pavilion is curated by Unscene Architecture and titled The Garden of Privatised Delights.

We have created an immerive installation, ocupying one room of the pavilion, called High Street of Exchanges. The installation explores how social spaces and exchanges are accommodated within and alongside retail units and commercial transactions. Working with sound artist artist Alex De Little, we gathered examples of diverse high street exchanges: conversations in a hairdressers that embody practices of care; sounds from activities at Foodhall, revealing the economies and ecologies of food production and consumption; and created an audio piece with Ben Cornish and Katherine Quinn exploring libraries as public sites of learning. Soundscapes are embedded within re-useable furniture objects, props and architectural elements.

Listening to diverse exchanges has been a starting point for a series of actions, spatial strategies and propositions for community-led high streets, which engage in how the high street, as a social space, is understood, developed, used and owned.

High Street of Exchanges has involved all members of our practice in the design, research and realisation of the installation. It has also led to subsequent research projects which develop the interdiciplinary approaches, ideas and themes investigated.

The Heeley Mushroom project was initiated by Studio Polpo with funding received from the Arts Council to explore issues of waste, circular economy, and natural materials through a series of workshops and a structure.

We worked at Anns Grove Primary school in Sheffield where pupils made a series of tiles using mycelium spawn and waste cardboard that they had brought in. These panels grew in strength and developed mushrooms over the course of six weeks. In parallel we grew a series of large mycelium roof panels in Arts Catalyst's Soft Ground space which has allowed us to test other processes, and also do this a space open to members of the public.

We designed and built a green-oak timber framed structure, using small section, locally sourced timber, and connected with timber dowels. Pupils took part in workshops run by an artist Sally Barker around mushrooms and plants, natural dyes and sculpture, and also the hanging of the mycelium tiles. The structure is now at the school and in time, we hope that it will allow for different material experiments and uses thrpoughout the seasons.

The project has not only allowed us to experiment with new processes, but also to engage the pupils, staff and parents with crucial issues around the ecosystem and built environment. The panels demonstrate the use of ‘waste’ as a substrate for the mycelium, and are then themselves compostable, and the structure itself is demountable and avoids the use of glues and screws. This, along with the local origin of the materials starts the conversation about embodied carbon as well as reducing it in practice. The engagement of the school pupils has made them aware of all the stages of bringing the project together, and the dowelled construction makes the assembly method of the pavilion legible.

The project was shortlisted for the Initiative category of the ASBP (The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products) Awards 2023.

Playful Prototypes was a collaboration with our friends Architype for Artsdepot in Barnet, London. Working with three schools in the borough, Saracens High School, Trent CE Primary School and Mapledown SEN school , we developed and ran workshops over a number of weeks to look at the design process, local sourcing of materials, and re-use of waste streams in design and construction. We were also keen to explore positive responses to the Climate Emergency through design, as well as raising awareness of architecture and design as career paths for pupils from a wide range of backgrounds.

At Trent, pupils explored the idea of harvest mapping and locally available materials before testing the properties of found materials and creating sculptural objects. Saracens pupils went from using sketch models to quickly explore ideas around form and enclosure, to testing construction and joints at full scale using cardboard tubes sourced from a local carpet shop. At Mapledown pupils tested making new paper using waste. We worked between the three schools to create a final sculptural installation that was driven by the ideas of the pupils, available materials, and allowed the elements created by each to come together and showcase the igenuity and creativity of the children involved. The installation and final exhibition were designed for dissassembly, using bio-based and waste materials throughout, from the tube and dowel construction of the structures, to cardboard honeycomb exibition panels with images pinned on. This not only demonstrated the main principles of the project, but means that all materials have either been re-used, stored, or retutrned to recycling streams.

A short video of the project can be seen here and if you'd like to make paper following our process, a link to the method is here.

Studio Polpo worked with fine art students from University of Leeds (FAHACS) on a studio space revisioning project. The project was structured around three student-led workshops: drawing, designing and building. During these workshops, students created 1:1 drawings of existing studio activities/challenges, designed specific interventions in response to this, and built some of these.

This resulted in the creation of three built objects: a moveable partition wall, to flexibly divide one of the larger studio spaces and create additional pin-up space and hidden storage; a storage unit for large canvases built onto an existing underutilised (but heavy) plan chest; and a cute locker insert to make better use of existing storage provision.

The larger units have been designed to be easily modified and deconstructed/rebuilt as studio provision needs change, using ‘Playwood’ clamp fixings. We are keen to see how these interventions are used and developed by existing and future student cohorts.

Support from the Leeds Uni FAHACS technical team was crucial to the delivery of the project – especially Jubal Green, who we worked closely with throughout.

Open / Public / Experimental / Residential / Activity. OPERA is a series of overnight performances, initiated by Studio Polpo exploring performance, architecture and living.

During OPERA events Studio Polpo installs temporary eating, living and sleeping facilities into vacant or underused buildings, and opens an experimental domestic space to invited guests and members of the public. Evening guests are invited to cook and share a meal, host evening activities and stay the night. We believe that this live activity leads to valuable and lasting dialogues about housing, shared living and empty buildings.

OPERA #1 (Sept 2014) took place in Castle House, an empty department store, as part of the Festival of the Mind Bazaar and lasted ten days.

OPERA #2 (March – July 2015) was based at Theatre Delicatessen North, a meanwhile space for creative arts and immersive theatre, and took place once a month.

OPERA is an experiment with no set outcome and we welcome ideas for the space and programme.

Filmmaker Ian Nesbitt of Out/Side/Film made a film about OPERA

Experimental Residential: How could short-term shared living be introduced into UK city centres? is a newspaper published by Studio Polpo. It contains practical and professional advice, case studies and research for groups looking to set up short term shared living in non-residential buildings.

The findings have been made freely available both online and in print. This project was featured in the RIBA publication Demystifying Architectural Research, selected as a practice-based research exemplar.

The interest in low-cost and adaptable secondary glazing continues in the practice with new prototypes being developed and installed.

Studio Polpo and Architype worked with the Shirle Hill co-housing group to turn a site near the centre of Sheffield into a shared housing community. The Shirle Hill site was formerly a large house and grounds and more recently used by the NHS. The scheme includes self-contained houses and flats as well as a large number of shared spaces and facilities, both internal and external, to facilitate collective cooking, growing and living.

The project involves the retrofit and refurbishment of the old building, which is being undertaken by the co-housing group themselves, and the creation of five low-energy and environmentally sustainable new dwellings (targeting the AECB Silver Standard) designed by us in collaboration with the group. A site landscape strategy, designed to be developed over time, has also been developed.

Studio Polpo have been involved in a range of collective and community-led projects in Sheffield as well as academic and practice-based research around housing and collective action. We started the process of setting up a Sheffield Community Land Trust (CLT) because we believe in the potential of this model to deliver housing other facilities in a fair, accessible, sustainable and equitable way.

A Community Land Trust is a non-profit organisation, set up to democratically steward land on behalf of a community. CLT's protect land from financial speculation and remove incentives to land bank.

https://sheffieldcommunitylandtrust.wordpress.com

Following an open-call, Studio Polpo were invited to makeover The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home.

The Institute is run by Gary Anderson, Lena Simic and their three sons, and operates from the spare bedroom of their family house in Anfield, Liverpool. The Institute hosts workshops, reading groups and performances to investigate art and culture, family and activism, capitalism and domestic life.

Our makeover proposal included the addition of playful, modular, multi-functional blocks into The Institute. We used a stop motion animation to engage the whole family in the project and demonstrate how our ideas would provide storage for books and documentation as well as reconfigurable seating and staging for events.

Studio Polpo’s makeover for The Institute also hosts the Live Art Development Agency’s Study Room in Exile - a satellite of their London resource room containing free, open access, Live Art videos, DVDs and publications.

The design was manufactured by Chopshop CNC and assembled by us in-situ.

Hidden Mothers was a public art project by Czech artist Tereza Buskova inspired by the cultural customs of Great Britain, Central and Eastern Europe. Its focus was the empowerment of women, in particular mothers, who experience isolation and routinely face stigma in the UK.

The project had three parts: workshops, a procession, and the installation of a large-scale representation of a Slovak inspired cottage façade produced by Studio Polpo – a tangible representation of home and togetherness. The project aimed to encourage community engagement through collaborative design, to stimulate transcultural conversations, and to link people who would not otherwise have access to art resources.The project was part of the Every Woman Biennial and London Festival of Architecture 2021.

After numerous challenges throughout the life of the project, and a very last minute change of site, the structure was built by Studio Polpo with three volunteers from the University of Sheffield's School of Architecture. The facade consisted of black-stained, light-weight plywood and bungee cord, CNC cut with connection codes referencing carpenters' marks, with a bespoke structural frame to suit the location at the Copeland Gallery. Images produced by participants at linocut workshops run by Tereza Buskova were used to create the symbols stencilled onto the facade.

The structural timber frame has been unbolted for re-use in other projects, and the light-weight facade flat-packed and stored for a future installation. A film of the event is here.

Studio Polpo more recently contributed to Tereza Buskova's Little Queens project in West Bromwhich. The project reimagined an ancient Czech ritual connecting rural neighbourhoods to nature and celebrated the role of women, young and old, within their communities Our ceremonial staffs drew upon the symbolism of Black Country heraldry as well as Czech folk patterns and worked to support the purpose made canopy.

Hidden Mothers event images by Carl Northcore

The play resource is an engagment tool for families to be used in the gardens of The Hepworth, Wakefield, facilitated by the gallery's Learning Team. Developed over a series of sessions at the nearby Castle Nursery in Aggbrigg, we worked closely with Steph Jefferies of Play Explore Art to develop ideas for how the resource might work. The resource consists of multi-functional units that act as seats, plinths and steps, alongside mobile tables with recessed bowls for water play, and large pneumatic tyres to avoid damaging the grass, or marking paths around the gallery. A series of smaller scale peices (cast blocks using brick dust and limecrete, and jesmonite, as well as mycelium blocks) allow users to play with texture and stacking. The resource is robust and open to use in a number of ways, facillitating everything from developing childrens' fine motor skills or their imaginations through den-building, to allowing people of all ages to play with texture, form and framing views. A film about the resource and the project is here.

The Bloc Objects are a series of furniture pieces designed for Sheffield's Bloc Projects. The three units (desk/bar, storage, display) can fit together in different configurations depending on how the gallery space is being used, enabling Bloc Projects to run their space as office, gallery and event space.

The objects were made by Preston's We Are Limitless (WALL) and use a high degree of craftsmanship and detail to challenge perceptions about what is smooth/expensive/man-made, and rough/cheap/natural. Our design plays with the ability to invisibly join the solid surface material, but also reveals a supporting timber structure which is conventionally hidden by fabricators. Altering the configuration of the three objects allows different functional and aesthetic requirements to be met.

The project addresses the need for functionality, flexibility and simplicity within gallery spaces but incorporates also an aspect of investigation and surprise.

Studio Polpo were commissioned to undertake a feasibility study for Bloc Projects, an artist-led project space in Sheffield, in 2014. The study investigated how the current gallery space could expand within the industrial building it occupied in a flexible manner to offer exhibition, artist and administrative space. The study explored fabric, fit-out and funding strategies.

In 2015 the first phase of this expansion and renovation was completed, including the creation of a new shop/reception space (housing the Bloc Objects), on-street gallery access and a new larger exhibition space.

Work exhibited in the The Tetley, a contemporary art gallery in Leeds, as part of Think Play Do, an exhibition of play-sculpture proposals.

Studio Polpo introduced two moveable objects into The Tetley gallery: a sofa and a TV. These objects, typically associated with private interior activity (sitting on a sofa watching TV) were adapted to encourage a shared production of images, ideas and space – in an immediate and live way.

The objects were designed to interrogate and interrupt ideas of domestic and urban, or individual and collective, suggesting that sites of shared play can result from the troubling of these boundaries and through the introduction of the absurd or foolish.

The Sofa and TV were not intended as scale models for a real life play sculpture, but instead presented as a device for finding new forms, places and invitations for play within existing urban conditions. The objects have been designed to travel beyond The Tetley, allowing groups to inhabit spaces differently and focus on behaviours and surroundings that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The TV, built as a portable camera obscura, has recently been borrowed by a local Sheffield school as part of their work around lenses and light.

Print Bike delivers instant poster printing facilities to projects in London.

The project involved the design of a mobile printing studio housed on a custom-built bike trailer. The trailer unit houses printing screens, stamps and materials. Print Bike also includes a versatile nylon canopy made by a kite maker to shade, screen and protect printers from the elements.

It was devised by artists Sally Labern and Bobby Lloyd who use it to run workshops in Waltham Forest, London. Print Bike also featured in the Big Draw 2010, where it was located next to the City Hall in London.

The Drawing Shed project was conceived by artists Sally Barker and Sally Labern, as part of the Be Creative Be Well programme in Waltham Forest, funded by Arts Council England in 2008.

Studio Polpo designed a low-cost, mobile space for drawing, to support a programme of workshops instigated by the artists. The Drawing Shed fits through a typical domestic door and can be wheeled between venues, yet unfolds to create a large, covered and wheelchair accessible space. The Drawing Shed can also operate as a bar, shop or information point.

The collective activity of moving the shed unit between venues has proved a focus of interest and an engagement tool in itself.

A film showing The Drawing Shed in use and a short interview with artists Sally Barker and Sally Labern can be viewed here.

In 2018 Studio Polpo were awarded Arts Council funding to develop a new version of the drawing shed structure with original artists Sally Labern and Sally Barker. The ds2 project consists of a kit of lightweight timber parts that can be configured to create a variety of structures (both static and mobile) for use by artists, and bags and canopies made in skills sharing workshops with women from a range of backgrounds in Tinsley, Sheffield. The kit was used in Sheffield-based workshops that involved local people as well as two graduate artists, and was taken from the Tinsley Tingas site on a walk to Abbeydale Picture house to monitor and creatively map issues around air quality, before moving off to London where it is now being used at Attlee Terrace & The Sunken Garden, E17.

A visual documentation of some of the ds2's exploits is on our issuu site here.

Studio Polpo took on a former school (closed due to poor air quality as a result of its proximity to the M1 in Sheffield) in 2017 to test how this might be brought into use as a self-sustaining cultural workspace for the local community. With a licence to use the space from Sheffield City Council, we enabled the space to pay its own way through a mixture of space hires and grant funding.

Our initiatives in the building brought in the University of Sheffield’s Plant Science hydroponics demonstrator, and tena included musicians, charities and makers, with Groundworks South Yorkshire joining as an anchor tenant. Funding secured by us bought a catering kitchen back into use, fitted out a fabric hub, employed a local cleaner, ran film clubs and enabled arts initiatives to run in the space.

We have worked with University of Sheffield Live Projects to investigate algal technologies as a means of pollution reduction, as well as students from Sheffield Hallam University and children from the local school.

Having proved the concept and run the space for almost two years, we were able to assist Groundworks in securing Power to Change funding for Tinsley Forum to allow them to take on the asset with additional funding support for project & facilities management.

Further details can be found on the project blog here.

Portland Works is an integrated metal works on the outskirts of Sheffield city centre. It was the birthplace of stainless steel cutlery, making it one of the outstanding examples of Sheffield’s industrial heritage. Today it is home to a mix of artists, musicians, small scale craftspeople as well as metalworkers, continuing a tradition of innovative manufacture. In 2009 an application to turn it into studio flats placed Portland Works' tenants under theat.

We worked with the Little Sheffield Development Trust and other organisations to consolidate, share and transfer knowledge about the strategies, tools and tactics available to safeguard Portland Works (and other similar organisations). This collaboration helped the local community to imagine a future that was environmentally, socially and economically sustainable for Portland Works.

The project (funded by a Knowledge Transfer Rapid Response grant) facilitated the exploration and appraisal of organisation types, business models, legal structures, ownership and management options that are available to small business communities based in industrial heritage (or historical) sites. It also resulted in a resource pack (downloadable here) that not only documents the futures planning and options appraisal processes undertaken with the Portland Works tenants, but also provides a concise and accessible guide for other groups undergoing similar processes.

Following this process, social enterprise Portland Works Little Sheffield was formed that was able to raise community share capital and buy the building. Portland Works is now owned and managed by the community.

A report for Portland Works, a community-owned heritage building which provides space for small scale making and manufacture. Our report has assisted tenants, volunteers and shareholders with the management and renovation of the Works, focusing on collective and co-operative approaches. It makes information that already exists about the Portland Works visual and easy to use, comments on what has been learnt and identifies areas where there are gaps or unknowns.

The report aims to make information about the building's fabric, tenants, and heritage visible to steering groups and decision-making bodies. It also contributes new work and research to suggest how Portland Works might develop to maintain its character as a lively, creative and innovative space for small scale making.

The report includes a range of costed retrofit strategies and recommendations of how and where these could be implemented, and references these to the conservation management study being developed by Wessex Archaeology.

Tenant issues (including use patterns and rental costs) have also been mapped onto future aspirations for the continuing use of the works as a place of making and innovation.

As well as being a snapshot of the Works at the end of 2013 a number of live documents will allow the client group to update and add information over the coming months.

The report was funded by a Cold Spots grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund and can be read here.

Studio Polpo have worked on a number of projects for healthcare related charities and organisations in Sheffield. Our work has often focused on improving clinical and institutional spaces through the introduction of natural materials and daylight.

We have worked with the Cancer Support Centre to revitalise and refurbish the entrance spaces and well other parts of the building such as treatment rooms.

The Centre, which offers counselling, therapies and information to cancer patients and their relatives, is a charity that looks to offer its services in a domestic and warm environment, distinct from the more clinical atmosphere of the hospital. We worked closely with the client and to implement a strategy that enhanced this feeling by introducing natural materials, including UK-grown timber for new joinery; a greater degree of daylight and transparency in foyer areas; low-energy light fittings and a new colour scheme. Existing doors, fixtures and fittings were re-used and adapted wherever possible and works were carried out whilst the centre was in use.

We have also worked with staff at the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity to re-plan their offices, previously housed within a dark, cluttered space within the hospital.

Our fit-out scheme opened up the space, allowing staff views to the outside & increased opportunities for natural ventilation, as well as creating a meeting room, small reception area and built-in storage, with natural materials and non-toxic finishes. We also designed and fitted a series of bespoke desks and external signage for the space, made at Chopshop CNC.

Most recently, Studio Polpo carried out a feasibility study for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals for a potential extension to the Palliative Care Unit, at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital site. We worked closely with staff to investigate how visitor facilities (including overnight stay space) might be improved, as well as how a garden room and other ancillary spaces for use by both staff and patients might work.

Our approach to these projects has been featured in 'Future Healthcare Design' book by Sumita Singha, and published by the RIBA.

Studio Polpo have collaborated with Architype, an award-winning London based architectural practice specialising in sustainable buildings and self-build housing on a number of larger projects.

Ongoing and previous collaborations include Shirle Hill Cohousing and Christ Church Central, both located in Sheffield, as well as Swillington Primary School, a passivhaus building outside Leeds.

Refurbishment and redesign of ‘The Enterprise Zone’, an office and drop-in centre for The University of Sheffield Enterprise (USE). The works to the Enterprise Zone use non-toxic and renewable materials where possible and the design brings increased levels of natural light to internal spaces, as well as ensuring that new facilities are accessible to all. Additionally a bespoke suspended cedar-slatted ceiling was developed in conjunction with the contractor.

As part of this project Studio Polpo designed and delivered of the Ideas Box, a mobile office to allow The University of Sheffield Enterprise to occupy empty business units within the University's Student Union. The mobile unit can be used in a variety of configurations and folds down to fit through a domestic door, using specialist hinges. Once opened the Ideas Box provides a reception counter/screen with hatch and leaflet rack, a bench with integral storage, and central core with adjustable shelving.

The project also involved creating a visual identity and branding, from concept to production, for an associated business planning competition. This was applied to banners and graphics in a variety of media.

http://www.enterprise.shef.ac.uk

Epiphany VR are an art collective who fuse virtual reality technology with immersive theatre. Their performances take place between physical and digital spaces and Studio Polpo were commissioned as set designers for EVR's New Template performance, an Arts Council funded virtual reality performance about sentience and artificial intelligence.

We designed and assembled a 3m cube using white melamine ply panels supported by a scaffold key-clamp structure. This physical set was mapped into the 3D virtual reality world, experienced through a VR headset, where it was modified, added to and exploded throughout the performance. Through cutting-edge motion tracking, the physical boundaries imposed by our set were consistent with those within the virtual sets, leading to the creation of an innovative hybrid performance.

The cube can be dismantled and assembled using a single allen key, making it easy for EVR to tour the performance across the UK. The cube will also be used as a recording and rehearsal space for Epiphany VR.

Studio Polpo worked with artist Ben Judd to explore structures and approaches for an event planned through Bloc Projects in the River Don in Neepsend. Having initially explored designs for rafts and floating structures, we were then asked to create a demountable geodsic dome that would be erected and dismantled over the course of 36 hours. Working within a tight budget and on a challenging site, we created a set of CNC-cut nodes, linked by cardboard tubes and lightweight cladding that was transported to the island and assembled by us along with a team of volunteers and the event participants. The event, run by Ben, whose work involves engaging the "grey area between ritual and performance, and searching for an unreachable and idealised state of community" involved people from various backgrounds coming together on the island, eating locally sourced food and staying in the structure overnight. Although the timescale and topography of the island meant the the pure geometry of the dome could not be fully completed, a solution using willow from the island resulted in an interesting, and site specific hybrid structure. Images from the event are here.

We created a structure to mark the end of artists Anne-Marie Culhane and Ruth Levene's Field of Wheat project, designed to provide a wind and waterproof space for film projections, shared meals and talks over two days. The near zero-budget structure was primarily constructed using straw bales from the field and found, or waste, materials. It was designed to accomodate (and seat) around 50 people, in a wind-swept field in Lincolnshire, and built by a four person team over three days. To hear Radio 4's " On Your Farm" programme about the project click here.

Stagehands was a lottery-funded project developed by Studio Polpo to engage young people in digital design and manufacturing. We undertook a number of workshops to collaboratively design, prototype and fabricate a mobile stage set, taking design cues from a shared meal hosted by Studio Polpo, and attended by representatives from local theatre makers/commissioners including Theatre Deli North, Point Blank and The Bear Project.

Throughout the project we worked with young people from Sharrow and Page Hall, using simple design tools such as Sketchup and cardboard models. As the ideas took shape, we worked with Chopshop CNC to prototype and test the modular design - initially at Sheffield Tramlines festival, and subsequently at Sheffield Peddler Market.

Two final versions have now been produced: one is based at the Page Hall youth centre, where a number of workshops took place and the second is being used at Foodhall, a waste food cafe and event space. The designs can be used as a simple stage or arranged into bespoke theatre sets, seating or displays. The modular design can hold scaffold tubes, be fixed together using ratchet straps and be altered with bespoke plug-in elements such as feet and castor wheels. We also developed a plugin table tennis top for the Page Hall youth club.

For more images of the design process, visit the stagehands blog.