Showcase 2026 Student Spotlight: Yelyzaveta Shayner
Student Spotlight featuring BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design student Yelyzaveta Shayner and her project 'Forced Resonance'.
By Jon Duckworth | Published on 28 April 2026
Categories: Student Showcase; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment;
The Project
For her final-year project, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design student Yelyzaveta Shayner imagines the world in 2086 in which humanity has traded itself to a Robotic Order in exchange for a "safety bubble" - a flawless, risk-free existence that makes people feel nothing, believing that human chaos breaks the order. Outside the city walls, a rebel group called the Unsettlers refuses this simulation of a perfect world. They believe a numb life is no life at all, and rebuild 19 Hz infrasound old pipe organ housed inside the Lace Market Car Park in Nottingham. The organ produces a frequency just below human hearing, capable of triggering primal fear.
The visitor enters expecting a Robotic Order maintenance centre. The entrance is designed in the same brutalist style to which they have become accustomed, but after a disorienting corridor, they cannot leave until the ritual is finished. The journey includes sound water-tank therapy in the basement, ascent through the Resonant Silo to face the organ's infrasound, a paint-powder ritual in the Connection Space where awakened citizens share emotions, rooftop absolution where rainwater washes the colour from their bodies, and finally a Changing Room. The design pairs the cold brutalism of the host car park with organic materials such as bacterial cellulose, creating a visible tension between Robotic Order and Human Chaos. The intervention, inspired by the shape of an infrasound wave, is a parasite hidden in the brutalist car park, but to its citizens, it is a treatment built for those who have forgotten how to feel.
'Forced Resonance' aims to capture the tension between Robotic Order and Human Chaos. Image by Yelyzaveta Shayner.
The inspiration behind the project
Though it images a futuristic world, for Yelyzaveta the project began as something personal. As a Ukrainian living abroad since the outbreak of war in 2022, she became fascinated by the way people shield themselves from pain, sometimes by shutting out negative emotions.
"It's easy to become numb to distant pain," she explains. "Numbness isn't cruelty, sometimes it's survival. But shutting down too much can mean losing touch with our feelings, engagement, and even our humanity. My project asks: how do you wake someone who's learned not to feel?"
She describes the concept further:
"Forced Resonance imagines a rebel group, the Unsettlers, who believe empathy requires vulnerability, and that only fear and pain can revive the numb. I chose the pipe organ because it was historically used in churches to make people feel small, accountable, present (a sacred instrument of mass awakening), here repurposed as a 19 Hz infrasound machine that treats people with sound, an intangible matter. The building also draws on the leap-of-faith scene in Divergent, where initiates throw themselves from a rooftop into the unknown, trusting something will catch them. My handrail-less spiral staircase, suspended over a safety net, functions in a similar way. The project leaves us wondering whether it is right to return people to their former humane state when they did not choose it."
The project draws inspiration from Yelyzaveta's experiences as a Ukrainian living abroad, following the war in Ukraine. Image by Yelyzaveta Shayner.
The project experience
"This project made me rethink my creative workflow," explains Yelyzaveta. "I learned that ideas don't arrive on demand. Some days I had lots of ideas and motivation, producing work I genuinely enjoyed; other days I had to slow down, step back, and look at my work with fresh eyes, trusting that the meaningful decisions would come eventually, once I had dedicated myself to the project. What I enjoyed most was digging into such a difficult and controversial subject and trying to communicate it through architecture alone, without words. The building had to carry meanings that words could not."
Yelyzaveta Shayner - BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design.
Being part of NTU
Yelyzaveta says that studying at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been one of the most important experiences of her life.
"My understanding of architecture and interior design has completely shifted, and shaped every project I have made here. Over three years I have become skilled in a range of design software, hand drawing, physical model-making, and presentation. NTU taught me how to clearly communicate my design decisions, defend them in critique, and adapt my projects under pressure."
She has found being part of an international community at NTU with a shared passion for architecture and design especially inspiring: "We came to NTU from different countries but met in the same studio, learning each other's processes through late nights, shared problem-solving, and honest feedback. The friendships I made there are what I will remember most - and what I will carry with me long after graduation."
Closing remarks
She has the following advice for students considering following in her footsteps:
"Pick a topic that genuinely matters to you. Not the safest one, the one that keeps you up at night. The project is long, and only a concept that means something to you will hold its energy through each iteration. Trust that your idea will be redirected, sometimes more than once, and let that happen. I believe the strongest version of your work is the one that was wrong and unresolved before it became right. Don't be afraid to experiment with what you've never tried. Start with small steps, and let them grow into bigger ideas."
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