Students from Sheffield Girls’ Junior and Senior School have combined art with architecture and plenty of imagination to provide a glimpse of what buildings could look like in the future as part of a competition organised by South Yorkshire based glazing systems manufacturer Senior Architectural Systems.

The designs, which have been created by pupils from Years 5 to 10, were unveiled at a special exhibition and luncheon held at Sheffield’s Cutlers’ Hall on Wednesday 28th September. The ‘Buildings for the Future’ inspired artwork will now go on to find a permanent home at Senior’s head office in Denaby where it will be displayed for staff and visitors to enjoy.

As well as showcasing the inspirational designs of the school children, the event also provided the ideal opportunity for the students to find out more about the architectural and manufacturing industries and the career opportunities available. Speakers at the event included Master Cutler Mr Craig McKay, Sheffield based architects Tim Justice from NYJ Holdings and Paul Holden from Peak Architects as well as Justin Ratcliffe of the Council of Aluminium in Building and Ian Oliver from the Aluminium Federation. The students were also given a special tour of the impressive Grade II Cutler’s Hall to find out more about Sheffield’s metal manufacturing heritage.

Commenting, Senior Architectural System’s managing director Mark Wadsworth said: “It has been a real privilege to work with the staff and students of Sheffield Girls’ Junior and Senior School throughout the competition and we are so proud of the work they have done. The standard of the artwork produced from across all the year groups has been extremely high and the building designs are nothing short of inspirational.

We are thrilled that the artwork will go on to be displayed at our head office and hope that this experience will open up the possibility of a future career in the traditional male dominated construction and manufacturing sectors – the talent and vision shown by the students is exactly what we need!”

Head teacher, Valerie Dunsford from Sheffield Girls’ added: “I’d like to thank Mr Wadsworth and his team at Senior Architectural Systems for providing this opportunity for our girls to put their creative skills into practise and to design buildings for the future. We have many girls who are interested in architecture and engineering and I know that the girls have found it fascinating to hear from the speakers from those industries at the prestigious Cutlers’ Hall”.