Ballard Halls

On arriving at the gallery the other morning I was drawn in to mad rush that was everyone trying to bubble wrap up what appeared to be most of the art work that the gallery stock, so my boss Karen could take it to be displayed in a show house for a new housing development at Ballard Hall.

Ballard Halls were halls of residence built in the sixties for Sheffield Polytechnic (my Dad lived there when he was a student!) and about ten years ago, after been derelict for a while, they were demolished. The secondary school I attended was just across the road from Ballard Hall and having passed the boarded up deserted plot of land everyday for many years, its nice to see development taking place after such along time.

The show house was still undergoing decorating and furnishing and we were there to help choose what artwork to display. The house had four bedrooms, three living spaces and an open plan kitchen and dining room spread over five floors – together worth a million pounds! So we had a lot of ground to cover. We worked our way up the house trying to find pieces that worked well within in each space. Not only did we have to consider size and colour but some pieces had to compete with quite elaborate wallpaper. It was challenging at times and quite time consuming but Karen and I were pleased with the pieces we chose, and it turned out to be a good job that we took as many works as we did – there were only a few that did not end up being displayed.

As an architecture student I was just enjoying being on site as the development of other houses was taking place, but having the chance to explore one of the homes and being very familiar with the surrounding area I automatically started to question and analysis the design choices. Overall a very enjoyable day all round and very different to anything I’ve done before.