Students are our Future

​The Climate Re-Assemblies Live Project saw architecture students from the University of Sheffield  School of Architecture and Landscape partner with the Climate Reassemblies Research Group to explore how spatial design could help to increase civic engagement with climate policy. The recommendations produced by the South Yorkshire Citizens Assembly on Climate (SYCAC) in December 2023 had led to little action since, and the design team were challenged to continue the research group’s work in continuing democratic discussion around these recommendations. By creating “support structures” and “rehearsal spaces” for meaningful climate dialogue, the project sought to make climate issues more accessible and relational to place, in order to catalyse community-driven action. 

By identifying peri-urban spaces (the rural-urban fringe) as an under-explored context for these climate conversations, the research was ‘placed’ in the Upper Don Valley. Working with the Upper Don Community Energy (UDCE) group, the team began to map the existing ecologies of social and environmental care in the area. Their work culminated in an experimental physical structure which presents the past and present climate realities of the area in a fun and engaging way. It invites people to speculate about the future, by contributing to the sculpture with their own fabric panels. Two “rehearsals” were hosted, one at Penistone Market and the other at Christchurch social cafe in Stocksbridge, to ‘test’ the outputs and continue co-producing future narratives for local climate action. 

The students were invited to present their project to Stocksbridge Town Council and what a great job they did!  The councillors were impressed with the way they had persisted with generating dialogue in the local area and produced their results in such an imaginative way. We are now planning for how their installation – a model linking the history of Stocksbridge Steel making and Penistone as an important rural community with the work of UDCE’s Community Workshop – will be used to continue the climate dialogue. The council were supportive of the project and have agreed to act on the following as soon as possible:
"Dr Jayne Carrick Postdoctoral Research Associate at South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre supported the students during their project and attended the presentation. She said: ”I am writing to let you know how well the students (Hannah, Ayako and Charlie) did last night in presenting their Live Project to Stocksbridge Town Council, where they also handed over the artwork they had produced to the community. They are a credit to the School of Architect and Landscape. The presentation was very well received by the councillors who had a lot of questions and they volunteered to write a letter to SYMCA to say they had seen the presentation, heard about the work of Climate ReAssemblies, and enquire how Stocksbridge could engage in the implementation of the recommendations - this is impact!”

Thanks to students: Ayako Seki, Charlie Mahoney, Charlie Young, Georgia Marsh, Hannah Spiers, Hattie Ward, Jiatao Li, Lizzie Jackson, Milena Chyla, Ryan Lim, Tia Kidd