Park Hill Estate Archives - Planning Design Ltd

Béton House – Landmark student accommodation hits the heights

29th November 202215th December 2020 by Gary Stringer

Park Hill, located on a hill above the city’s railway station, is one of the Sheffield’s best-known landmarks. The property was built in 1961 and was one of the first Brutalist buildings in the UK. It was awarded grade II*-listed status in 1998.

Decades after Park Hill was left to fall into disrepair, Urban Splash stepped in with its private regenerations scheme.

Urban Splash and development partner Alumno are now well on the way with Phase 3. Béton House, which offers townhouses, two and four-bed flats and studio accommodation for 356 students follows on from the Urban Splash scheme – which will link with the already established 700-strong community that has been living and working at Park Hill since 2013, following the completion of the first phase of development by Urban Splash.

Homes for Students, a nationwide student accommodation company, has been based at Béton House since September welcoming and settling in new students and managing the building.

The block was renamed Béton House after the French word for raw concrete – Béton brut – popularised by modernist architecture.

Béton House has been designed by South Yorkshire Region-based architects Whittam Cox. Béton House’s colour scheme is a nod to Modernist architect Le Corbusier’s Polychromie palettes, mix-and-match sets of colours designed to be harmonious for design. Burnt orange, bottle green, scarlet, and mustard tones were taken from a mosaic that once adorned the Parkway Tavern, the local pub that served the Park Hill Estate in its heyday.

A derelict ground floor building has been turned into a large communal area with a gym, cinema and a private dining room.

With an office at The Workstation Planning & Design Practice Ltd have a close connection with Sheffield with numerous clients and projects in the region. Please get in touch for advice on any planning issues or potential projects.

Harry Capstick, Graduate Planner, Planning & Design Practice Ltd

Main image: Whittam Cox Architecture/ Dezeen

Park Hill: A Guide for the Future from Sheffield’s Proud Past

7th February 2020 by Gary Stringer

Sheffield Park Hill, where the Planning and Design Practice's Sheffield office is based

There are some buildings that come to encapsulate a city’s spirit. They become synonymous with the culture, identity and history of the space they inhabit. If one thinks of Liverpool, an image of the Liver building is almost invariably conjured in the mind. Newcastle’s maritime history is proudly on display in the very bricks and motor of the Baltic Flour Mill.

It is hard to think of a more striking urban image than the Park Hill Flats that tower above Sheffield’s train station. An instantly recognisable monument of 1960’s Brutalism, the flats represent an idealism in design that sought to provide working people with a good standard of living that had never been seen on that scale in the city before. The dream of streets in the sky with self-contained communities, with all their required services close at hand, guided the project that replaced the post-war slums. Of course we now know that history is not always kind to the idealists, and the breakdown of social cohesion that occurred during the turbulent 1980’s set the tone for the flats new imagine as a symbol of poverty and social isolation.

As one walks from the city to the train station today, you are met by a visual juxtaposition between the harsh and dilapidated old portion of the building, the vibrancy of the newly renovated element of the project, and the significant amount of scaffolding that indicates further works are well under way. The re-birth of this grade II listed building is especially relevant to the wider development context of Sheffield. The city is massively constrained due to its proximity with the Peak District National Park, Rotherham and the fact that large areas of the Authority’s jurisdiction designated as green belt. This means new development has got less and less space to inhabit. The regeneration of the Park Hill Flats offers a prime example of how the re-use of other characterful buildings in the city can be used to deliver bold architectural statements that meet the needs of today whilst paying homage to Sheffield’s rich heritage.

Rory Bradford, Planner, Planning & Design Practice Ltd

Lights, camera, action- Sheffield on film

31st January 2020 by Gary Stringer

Recent weeks saw Sheffield more closely resembling Hollywood as parts of the city were taken over by film crews, as shooting got underway on a new series to air on Netflix. Teen skating drama “Zero Chill” employed city streets, with catering trucks appearing on Norfolk Road and filming taking place in the adjacent Cholera Monument Grounds and Clay Wood. As is only to be expected for an ice skating drama Pad Two at iceSheffield was transformed into the fictional Hammerstrom Ice Hockey Academy for the show, which Netflix says features a fully skating cast and is being shot in a ‘fluid camera style’ to make the audience feel like they are actually sharing the ice with the characters.

With filming expected to continue until late March, and the production involving a 100 locally based supporting artists, extras as well and cast and crew who are being housed in local hotels and apartments, the production represents a significant investment into the city.

But this is far from the first time that Sheffield and its distinctive architecture and landmark buildings have been used in blockbusting productions. In fact Sheffield prides itself on being a film friendly city, with Sheffield City Council actively promoting the area as a film-friendly destination, a heritage and culture-rich location, working with partners such as Screen Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network to attract film makers.

Built on seven hills, and one of the greenest places in the UK Sheffield provides film makers with a showcase for the Peak District National Park together with a vibrant and evolving urban centre that includes award winning public spaces, brutalist architecture, heritage landmarks and innovative modern buildings.

The latest incarnation of the iconic traveller in space and time, Doctor Who swapped London and Cardiff for the Steel City, with the Grade II* listed Park Hill Estate just one of the city’s landmarks being used as a filming location. The building was also a significant location in the award winning productions “This is England 88” and “This is England 90”, spin offs from gritty British drama “This is England” (2006).

Sheffield has doubled for Belfast in thriller “’71” (2014) starring Jack O’Connell, who didn’t have to travel far from his home town of Derby, and Croydon in “How to Talk to Girls at Parties“ (2017) which starred Hollywood royalty Nicole Kidman.

The film version of Alan Bennett’s play “The History Boys” (2006) was set and filmed in Sheffield, as was satirical comedy “Four Lions” (2010) and “When Saturday Comes” (1996) features one of the city’s most famous sons Sean Bean, who portrays a drunken Sheffield brewery worker who gets picked up for a local non-league football team before being scouted by Sheffield United.

And last but not least, Sheffield itself is as much of a character as Gaz, Dave or Lomper in the hugely successful and much loved “The Full Monty” (1997), so much so that the premiere was quite rightly hosted in the city.

So the next time you’re visiting your local multiplex or indulging in the latest binge watch, keep your eyes peeled, the Steel City may well play a supporting role.

Béton House – Landmark student accommodation hits the heights

Park Hill: A Guide for the Future from Sheffield’s Proud Past

Lights, camera, action- Sheffield on film

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