Y2 Project 2 | Learning to dwell. Housing for the Little Mesters'

About project

UNIT 1A
Tutors: Alisdair Russell, Stuart Buckenham

As a unit we are looking into post-industrial transformations, where old industrial buildings and areas are adaptively re-used for the modern-age. Our site is in Sheffield, known as ‘Steel City’ where at the time, had a large input in cutlery and tool making. The Little Mesters were a network of craftspeople working at rented workshops. This project focuses on creating a housing community for the Little Mesters, reintroducing ‘Guilds’, where masters once settled, can train apprentices and maintain the craft. As a second year, we were to focus on 9 live/work units. I decided that my client would be blacksmiths, forging bespoke ironmongery. Their products can range from gates, to small items such as door handles, to even power socket covers; adapting the craft into the modern age while retaining the element of great skill and craftsmanship only achievable by expert blacksmiths.