Thursday 17 October 2019

Kelham Island

About

Kelham Island is one of Sheffield’s oldest manufacturing sites. The manmade island was formed in the 1100s, when a stream was diverted to power a nearby mill.

Kelham Island’s core identity is with its industrial roots, from the construction of the 12th Century Town Corn Mill which created an island in the River Don, through to the Industrial Revolution when larger enterprises emerged (silk and cotton mills, and steel mills).

To accommodate this growth, back-to-back terraces and courts were built. Poorly built and without proper sanitation, the housing underwent slum clearance, depopulating the area in favour of more industrial and commercial uses. Left derelict, the industrial buildings, and the area attained notoriety for street crime, drug misuse and sex work.

In 1982 a former power station on Kelham island was opened up as a museum, to celebrate the area’s industrial heritage. Kelham was later declared one of the first industrial conservation areas, bringing in improvements to the development of private and social housing and a variety of alternative uses for remaining industrial buildings. 


A mind map documenting the key features and qualities of Kelham Island. The map uses theses terms and presents them in as broad a statement as possible so that the connotations from these statements could spark as many outcomes as possible. 



Keeping to the theme of stock which resembles the materials and processes on Kelham Island, this test involve laser cutting different grits of sandpaper with a slogan spray-painted in Kelham ‘want to live in Kelham but think you can’t afford it’. This test could have worked as a belly band for a future book, as the ‘undesirable’ texture of the sandpaper did follow the same aesthetic considerations as other industrial themed tests. 






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