Dezeen School Shows: a proposal for studios, workshops and retail spaces to be built in an abandoned building, is among the architecture projects from students at the University of Nottingham.
Also included is an arts community space built in a reclaimed electricity factory and a food research centre featuring a greenhouse and culinary school.
University of Nottingham
Institution: University of Nottingham
School: Department of Architecture and Built Environment
Courses: Bachelor of Architecture with Honours in Architecture, Master’s in Engineering with Honours in Architecture and Environmental Design, L7 Apprenticeship and MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Tutors: Margaret Mulcahy, Alisdair Russell, Graeme Barker and Tim Collett
School statement:
“The University of Nottingham Department of Architecture and Built Environment is top 100 in the world according to QS World University Rankings 2026 and consistently ranked top 10 in all UK national rankings. We are the third most targeted university by top UK employers according to High Fliers, The Graduate Market 2024.
“Our accredited programmes cater for the needs of different students as they progress through their professional education.
“BArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 1) is a three-year degree built around thoughtfulness, creativity, individual choice and technical rigour, with 11 studio units including a live design and build project in South Africa.
“MEng Architecture and Environmental Design (ARB/RIBA Part 1 and CIBSE) is an undergraduate four-year master’s course that covers all the BArch syllabus plus an additional year focussed on environmental design and engineering.
“MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) is both academic and vocational. This course prepares students for practice and is guided by the core themes continuity, construction, sustainability, inhabitation and social inclusivity.
“The quality of work is confirmed by our success in a range of schemes including the RIBA President’s Bronze Medal award programme. We include free field trips, industrial visits and site visits, as well free materials and state-of-the-art model-making facilities.”
The Community Living Room by Alicia Lodge
“This thesis builds on the New Towns Act, a transformative policy enabling self-sufficient communities, with renewed relevance today. Milton Keynes, a successful example, informed the research and served as the design site.
“The proposal envisions revitalisation of Central Milton Keynes Library as a vital community third place connecting the urban core with surrounding residential communities.
“Guided by context, grade-II listing features and core research principles the design integrates existing amenities with new functional opportunities, creating a city within the city.
“Embracing its civic landmark status, it promotes flexible engagement, permeability and adaptability to foster social connection.”
Student: Alicia Lodge
Course: MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Tutors: Alison Davies and Richard Woods
Email: alicia.lodge20[at]googlemail.com
Hiraeth by Catrin Roberts
“Hiraeth is a Welsh word describing a spiritual longing for a place, feeling or memory we cannot return to, or maybe never was. Language, memory and culture shape identity, long threatened in Wales.
“This design intervenes with Nottingham’s historic County House, reclaiming a site of English authority as a narrative sanctuary.
“Architecture becomes a vessel of cultural memory and resistance, challenging historic power dynamics by re-contextualising Welsh landscapes, materials and storytelling traditions within an English setting, offering a quiet but powerful act of reclamation and identity.”
Student: Catrin Roberts
Course: MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Tutors: Tim Collett and Naomi Eckworth
Email: catrinroberts159[at]gmail.com
Re:Beeston by Belinda Tam
“Re:Beeston explores adaptive material reuse, both through the transformation of fly-tipped furniture to scenography for local Nottingham theatres and in the building’s construction materials sourced from demolition sites such as steel columns from Broadmarsh Car Park.
“Old washing machine panels are used as the building’s cladding, highlighting the scale of improper furniture recycling. Repurposed fridges form a community library for sharing tools and resources.
“The Miura fold is an origami pattern which is modular, collapsible and sound absorbing, used in the building’s glulam roof, acoustic barriers and retractable canopies, providing an adaptable festival space for Beeston.”
Student: Belinda Tam
Course: MEng (Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design
Tutors: Nils Jaeger and John Ramsay
Email: bellatam.arch[at]gmail.com
The Memory Vault by Benedict Hill
“The Memory Vault is a speculative architectural project sited on the former Ratcliffe‑on‑Soar power station, reimagining the landscape after the last coal‑fired station in the UK closes.
“Responding to globalisation and super modern architecture, it explores how to reconnect people to culture, history and place.
“The building functions as a vast archive where memories are preserved, experienced and celebrated, allowing visitors to access personal and collective histories.
“Materiality and design evoke the site’s industrial past while embracing a more human‑scaled, placeful future.
“The Memory Vault becomes a sanctuary for identity in a world shaped by rapid technological change and homogenisation.”
Student: Benedict Hill
Course: BArch (Hons) Architecture
Tutors: Charlie Simpson and Margaret Mulcahy
Email: benedicthill3[at]gmail.com
The Thamesmead College of Music by Howard Lee
“If the decline of music A-level entries continues, there will be zero entries by 2033.”
“Reduced funding for music education, alongside the unstable income for musicians, is threatening the prosperity of the music industry.
“In forgotten places like Thamesmead, where residents face gentrification and a lack of secure social spaces, grassroots music venues are being shut down and local music cultures are being undermined.
“My project aims to foster young talents and offer job and performance opportunities. It celebrates the local musical roots and reorients the focus back on the community itself by retrofitting existing structures and activating corridors.”
Student: Howard Lee
Course: BArch (Hons) Architecture
Tutor: Alisdair Russell
Email: leehwhoward[at]gmail.com
Custodians of Water by Hannah Harper
“Within the treatment of water, a dominance-based relationship has evolved. However, this goes unacknowledged with the sabotage of purification to our rivers.
“At Ratcliffe on Soar, these fluid dispossessions activate a duty to revitalise what the waters have been stripped of, care.
“The building gives rise to the provision of a place for empowering individuals to engage with the role as custodians of water.
“The public building encapsulates regeneration zones, workshops and labs forming democratic discussion spaces as well as channelling the River Soar into natural pools that purify polluted river water into biodiverse ecosystems.
“This project aims to combat the effects of a negligent society, advocating for a community of collective protection in place of individual gain.”
Student: Hannah Harper
Course: BArch (Hons) Architecture
Tutors: Charlie Simpson and Margaret Mulcahy
Email: harper.hannah03[at]gmail.com
Redcliffe Roots – Farm for Thought by Chloe Derbyshire
“Situated on Redcliffe Wharf in Bristol, the scheme addresses challenges in food supply chain security while re-establishing a connection between people and the origins of their food.
“The project considers the urban context by utilising dominant axial lines, focusing on the transition from ‘urban’ to ‘green’ space.
“A central courtyard anchors the circulation, separating educational and research zones whilst guiding visitors through an interactive greenhouse journey.
“The scheme includes a community market hall, culinary school and dining restaurant, all using produce from the greenhouse to support a circular economy.
“Redcliffe Roots acts as a socioeconomic catalyst for Bristol and a model for holistic, sustainable urban design.”
Student: Chloe Derbyshire
Course: BArch (Hons) Architecture
Tutor: Jim Hutcheson
Email: chloemayderbyshire[at]gmail.com
Ex:change Assemblage by Charlotte Lok Yiu Chow
“Ex:change Assemblage is a modular architectural system for civil resistance – fast to deploy, adaptive and scattered across canals, rooftops and vacant spaces.
“These parasitic modules camouflage themselves in plain sight, mobilising only when needed to host protests, offer shelter or enable autonomous organising.
“Resisting centralisation, the assemblage forms a living, flexible network operated by the tidal ex:change – a non-hierarchical movement of everyday people shifting between roles as strategists, mobilisers and participants.
“Together, they construct an architecture of resistance and civic imagination in response to deepening ecological and social crisis.”
Student: Charlotte Lok Yiu Chow
Course: BArch (Hons) Architecture
Tutors: Matt Mitchell and Ilaria Lombardini
Email: charlottelychow.uk[at]gmail.com
Transience and Permanence: Returning to Buildings that Last by Ryan Elliott
“Buildings no longer last as they once did. This project seeks to resolve this through the exploration of architectural longevity and circular life cycles, drawing on inspiration from historic structures.
“It applies these principles to the long-abandoned Salvation Army Citadel in Sheffield, aiming to transform it into a vibrant hub of studios, workshops and retail spaces inspired by the city’s Little Mesters Workshops.
“By integrating modern principles like design for disassembly, the project aims to promote continuous use, seeking to secure the building’s longevity and challenging the traditional cycle of demolition and rebuild.”
Student: Ryan Elliott
Course: MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Tutors: Graham Mateer and Laura Hanks
Email: ryan.elliott2000[at]gmail.com
Usine D’art du Canal (Canal Arts Factory) – Derhardening the Urban Fabric by Harry Burrows
“This studio explores the transformative potential of redefining institutions by driving social and urban exchange through programmatic, spatial and constructional innovation.
“The scheme aims to decentralise institutional power by ‘de-hardening’ an impermeable block in Paris’ Periphery, through the literal and experiential process of opening public space from harder, private and urban forms.
“Using collage on site emphasises the juxtaposition of the existing former electricity factory’s vernacular and the bolder proposed injections along the Saint-Martin Canal.
“By providing flexible and programmed spaces, such as workshops, exhibitions and residency accommodation, it creates a series of coherent public thresholds for amateur artists and local communities to inhabit.”
Student: Harry Burrows
Course: MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Tutors: Nick Haynes and Paula Schilliger
Email: harryburrows307[at]gmail.com
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the University of Nottingham. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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