Challenge

Stephen Broadbent Artworks was commissioned to work on this prestigious town square regeneration project, with the local in-house landscape architecture team at Sheffield City Council. The team was brought in to help influence the public realm design and to create sculptural planters and seating units. 

Solution

Working collaboratively with the landscape team we took forward the initial concept sketches for Tudor Square; using the industrial environment of Sheffield and the natural landscape around the City as our inspiration, the plans for the public realm were developed and finalised.

We continued this natural environment theme and based the designs for the sculptural planters on pebbles and boulders, found on a research trip to the Peak District.

The remit was to ensure the planters could be manufactured from the local gritsone. We worked closely with the quarry to gauge the possibilities and constraints of the material and the manufacture processes. The planters had to also incorporate opportunities for formal and informal seating.

We produced 1:10 scale maquettes of the planters, which were 3D laser scanned and 1:1 digital models were produced. A 6-axis robot milled the full size planter sections to a tolerance of 2-3mm.

We also designed and manufactured informal sculptural seats in the form of bronze pebbles. Stephen Broadbent produced full sized patterns, which were cast in Sheffield and fabricated at the workshop in Cheshire.

Outcome

The final result was a truly integrated art and landscape scheme, which has encouraged retail uptake in the square, which is once again used by the public.