Written on the Wall at Hallam Green, UK

As night settles over Hallam Green, the light boxes glow softly – not just with illumination, but with language.
Each box carries fragments of a poem, shaped from found words gathered from graffiti across Sheffield: voices of the city, reclaimed and re‑imagined.
By day, they stand as quiet sculptures; by night, they become illuminated verses – markers of place, memory, and movement.
Their warm, shielded glow holds space gently, letting the campus breathe in darkness while inviting people to pause, read, reflect.
Together, they transform Hallam Green into a nocturnal poem – a landscape that speaks, and listens.

Hallam Green is the new landscaped heart of Sheffield Hallam University’s city campus – a carefully shaped civic space designed by BDP to support movement, gathering and moments of pause. As daylight fades, the lighting scheme reveals a second identity: warm, expressive and closely connected to the culture and character of Sheffield.

At its centre is a family of bespoke light boxes – sculptural, minimal forms that guide and animate the landscape. Avoiding the visual noise of traditional lighting columns, these crafted volumes bring clarity, rhythm and a contemporary aesthetic to the space.

Each light box displays fragments of Written on the Wall, a poem created from found words gathered from graffiti across Sheffield. Raw phrases, street humour, quiet declarations and unexpected moments of beauty – all originally scattered through the city – are reassembled into a new narrative that belongs uniquely to Hallam Green. The poem’s graphic design was created by Jasmin Von Schreiber, selected as the winning proposal in a design competition run by the Hallam Alliance in collaboration with university students. Her work brings authenticity and youthful energy, transforming the boxes into illuminated storytellers rooted in real Sheffield voices.

By day, the boxes sit confidently within BDP’s soft and hard landscape as tactile, human‑scale sculptural elements. By night, they glow with warm, even illumination, revealing the poem line by line as people move between paths, planting and seating areas. Their presence feels calm and intentional – creating atmosphere, aiding navigation, and encouraging people to dwell without overwhelming the space.

Hallam Green’s lighting is a story of collaboration, craft and identity – a landscape that speaks after dark, through a poem written first on the city’s walls and now in light.