October has come and gone just as quickly as autumn turns to winter and we head into the colder months. This month’s focus was our countdown to the winner of our Sheffield photography competition. We also saw progress in some of our other sites as well.

The beginning of the month saw us feature each of our finalists of our Sheffield student photography competition as we counted down to the announcement of the winner. The 10 finalists were Aqsa Zulfiqar, Beth Hatfield, David Ketley, Edward Paxton, Ellie Bell, Evie Scarborough, Harriet Massey, Jarrad Thomas, Natasha Rae Audsley and Rob Amey.

Evie Scarborough and her photo series focusing on health won our competition. Our runners up were Harriet Massey with her series ‘Home of the Sport’, Edward Paxton and his series ‘Ollie’s’ and Ellie Bell with her series ‘Full English’. The finalists will be on display in the communal area of Beton House in the coming months. You can view everyone’s photos here: https://www.photonorthfestival.co.uk/sheffield-student-competition-your-community-1

Mid October saw, us back at our new Norwich scheme, Benedicts Gate with a new commission. Sculptor Joseph Hillier will create a 50cm tall statue that will sit on top of a two-metre high steel plinth. The sculpture has been inspired by the poem created by Norwich writer Jenny Pagdin “ The Sister of the Gated City”, which views the city’s 12 medieval gates through the eyes of women. We are very excited to reveal this later in the year.

We were also happy to share some great photos of our new scheme in Brighton, Falmer Cottages. This new development will be located close to BIMM Institute campus and adjacent to Falmer train station, making it easily accessible to students from the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton. The scheme is expected to be completed in the summer of 2021.

We end October with all things Beton House. We are looking forward to the installation of the outdoor artwork curated by Matthew Jarratt with the assistance of S1 Artspace and Founded. The artwork highlights the thoughts and feelings of the past residents of Park Hill as well as reflections from renowned designers. The artwork has just been installed.

Another piece of artwork that has recently been installed is by artist Martin Gray. He has created a bespoke piece of artwork for the Gym at Beton House using archive images of legendary Sheffield bands including Pulp and Heaven 17. The format reflects the short film Martin shot earlier this year before lockdown, which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z03WzvIHduQ&feature=youtu.be

We end the month with amazing news from the Student Accommodation  Awards with the announcement that we have been short-listed as Developer of the Year. This reflects our work in bringing Beton House at Park Hill to life and to being a part of the new chapter at Park Hill. We wish all the other shortlisted developers the best of luck.

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