Leo Care

My teaching approach is based on the importance of students engaging people outside the academy in their design projects. I believe that this agenda provides students with the opportunity to respond creatively to real issues and make design propositions that have a tangible impact.

This philosophy is underpinned by a range of teaching roles:

In my current role as 3rd year programme leader, I have introduced a year-long theme of 'High Street Futures', which enables students to position their design work in a wider cultural, political, environmental and physical context. We are exploring alternative visions for local and global high streets, and questioning how individual architectural interventions can help to re-programme our high streets, moving away from a model of consumerism to create more pluralistic and diverse towns and city centres.

During my role as 2nd year programme leader I brought Live learning into the main studio design project. Students work in collaboration with South Yorkshire Housing Association, to design a small-scale social housing scheme. The project has given the students a clear architectural and social imperative, and has provided a huge range of ideas, opportunities and avenues of exploration for SYHA, to widen the scope of their existing housing provision. in 2021, I organised the 'towards zero carbon housing' symposium for students and guest speakers to explore how we may address the environmental and social imperatives associated with the design and construction of housing.

I coordinated the Masters Participation in Architecture and Urban Design module between 2012-2018. This has been an ideal opportunity to integrate my specialist knowledge and experience of engaging a range of communities in architecture projects.

One particular area of interest explored within the wider theme of participation is advocating the importance of engaging young people in architectural projects and the benefits that this offers to participants and the wider community.

Through Live Works [and previously the BDR research and consultancy unit], we aim to employ students on projects so that they can gain first-hand experience of undertaking alternative architecture projects in the real world, working with real clients.

This provides valuable learning opportunities that often link directly to student’s evolving architectural agendas. The work of Live Works creates a number of Live Project opportunities and a vehicle for projects to continue and develop into on-going professional commissions.

I established the MArch Learning Culture studio in 2015; exploring how people, communities and places learn. The studio process encourages reflective working, exploration of pedagogies and the value of life-long learning.

The studio has been working across Sheffield, Barnsley and the Dearne Valley with local authority’s Better Barnsley team and Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership. The area has a rich industrial history and an impetus to reinvent itself, whilst maintaining its distinctive local character.

My interest in learning and pedagogy has also extended to the development of teaching resources such as the Feedback Handbook, What is it like to study at SSoA and the Thesis Project Attributes.

Previous MArch and MAUD studio teaching with Rob Thompson has focused on the subject of Activators in Place. The studio explored how communities can engage in shaping places, and how places shape people.

The work produced in the studio examined the interface between top-down and bottom-up production of the city and how co-production can create environments that are socially and environmentally vibrant.

Until 2010, I taught primarily at 1st year degree level. During this period I jointly created the innovative ‘Matter-Reality’ project that aims to enable students to experience a full architectural process from research, through design development to construction and use. The project culminates in exhibiting student-built installations in the city centre, reinforcing how important it is for architects to understand how their work is perceived and enjoyed by others.