ReMake Castlegate
Commissioned to contribute to a partnership project devised by Yorkshire Artspace Exchange Place Studios and the University of Sheffield School of Architecture; in collaboration with artists Clare McCormack and Simon Le Ruez.
Castlegate is a significant and historic area of Sheffield that has experienced major changes. The area played an important part in the everyday life of local people as the site of Castle Market, an affordable shopping and employment destination with good transport links and atmosphere. In 2013, the markets closed and moved into a new area of the city centre. Sheffield Council demolished the original buildings to make way for a new city quarter. The changes to the area stirred many reactions from locals: memories that need to be recorded and opinions that need to be heard.
ReMake Castlegate invited members of the public to contribute to a 4.8×2.4m 3D model of Castlegate, expressing their hopes, anxieties and visions for the area’s future. The resulting model, made by many hands, reveals the area’s diversity and idiosyncrasies. As a starting point to discuss the past, present and future of Castlegate and its people, the model reveals opportunities for development from a grassroots level up.
The model was sited at Yorkshire Artspace Exchange Place Studios during the Festival of the Mind from the University of Sheffield, and has been features at: an Urban Design Week event at BDP Arcitects; Millennium Galleries as part of the Ruskin in Sheffield Wealthy Weekend; Sheffield Culture Consortium; and on Sheffield Live TV.