DS 4
On the Borders - Belfast: Mediated City/ Divided City
This year DS4 researched the conflicted territories of Belfast and developed narratives for future inhabitation that might heal the divided city. Unable to visit the city DS4 first worked in groups to create film-scapes, or films within a film, that interrogated recent movies about Belfast. This led to the extraction and testing of spatial propositions in the design of a ‘room for the city’. Working with local activists, artists, architects and historians DS4 engaged in dialogues with Belfast’s troubled past, typified by its politicised infrastructures, and its fraught present to develop spatial strategies to intervene in the city.
The work addresses past injustices such as the notorious Magdalen laundries, sites of extreme division, the Madrid Street Peace Wall and the former Divis flats, together with more poetic propositions such as the raising of the buried River Farset, a landscape of community gardens, and revived parks and new areas for play.
Anis Mohamad
Dis-empowering Barriers : Bryson Street Social Hub
Bryson Street Social Hub is an informal cultural and social space aimed at improving community cohesion in the contested area of Ballymaccarett, Belfast. The hub allows democratic use and social negotiation of the shared space, of which is community-built and managed by the neighbourhood.
Perspective View of The Secret Garden
Perspective View of The Madrid Street
Section of The Bryson Street Social Hub
Canisius Bong Wei Pheng
Discovery Journey : The Discovery Park
The project aims to provide a platform for the community and visitors to rediscover the rich history and memories created in Belfast that are fading away within the urban context. The program would also uncover the historical aspects of River Farset which are already insignificant within the urban context.
Section of The Discovery Park
Long Section of the Discovery Park
Isometric Drawing of The Discovery Park
Elliott Dennis
Harland & Wolff Ship Breaking Yard
Belfast was once the home of the world famous shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, before falling into a period of decline in the 1970s. This project aims to reintroduce maritime industry back to the site, and to the culture of Belfast, using the growing sector and global demand for shipbreaking. The project seeks to repurpose existing dry docks, quay sides, and machinery, in which to provide an environmentally conscious and efficient process to dispose of, repurpose and recycle retired ships.
Hazzard Module of The Ship Breaking Yard
Masterplan Drawing of The Ship Breaking Yard
Key Section of The Ship Breaking Yard
Kimwa Namrangwa Rai
REVITALISATION OF NORTH STREET ARCADE THROUGH PNEUMATIC STRUCTURE
Proposal of temporary pneumatic intervention which revitalises the space and its use.The pneumatic responds to the current damaged site through alternative to traditional modes of generating architectural form and space.
Revitalisation through pneumatics Section- Before and after
Experiments with silicon Pneumatics
Revitalisation through pneumatics- Adaptable Pneumatics
Nur Arisyah Yazid
Rejuvenation of Alexandra Park
A public garden in Belfast known as the only park in Western Europe divided by a 3 meter wall separating the neighborhoods of Catholic & Protestant backgrounds. The project focuses on integrating the communities through the Rejuvenation of Alexandra Park.
Key Buildings of The Rejuvenation of Alexandra Park
Long Section of The Rejuvenation of Alexandra Park
Program Activation of The Rejuvenation of Alexandra Park
Rabia Kurtulus
Growing the Community
This project aims to bring together the people of Belfast, both sectarian and socially divided, through interventions on different sites in the city, to remove the barriers and make them a interconnected, social society, while at the same time offering opportunities for the people to contribute economically.
Analysis of People And Vegetable
Analysis of The Community Garden
Section of The Community Garden
Satwant Benipal
The project takes place in mediated Belfast where the Troubles have left a scar on the land. The site of the once contested, now demolished Divis Flats holds history within the remaining foundations, and by exposing these foundations to create formwork, can connections through the block be created whereby tarmac is not the principle means of surrounding, but that of the softer, malleable ground.
The project developed and evolved to encompass the abandoned school on the site which became integral to my brief. Restoring and repurposing the school, which once hosted festivals and markets itself, can bring back a pillar for community gatherings and return to the thesis it had, becoming an education centre for art, sustainable construction, and archaeological sciences. The excavated space beside the school becomes one which can be used for community speaker events, used to create a form of blue network on the site through the ground water, and overall, is a space which creates a softer ambience and brings opportunity for social nature to be brought to the derelict tarmac landscape
Research Analysis
Axonometric Drawing of The Site
Development Drawing
Tais Carvalho Raposo
The Re-Play Project – Recreating social & playful spaces
Belfast is a city that has not been in control of its own since through the creation of ‘‘natural barriers’’ which have been imposed within the city. From the existing Peace Walls to the creation of large roads and motorways which consequently creates insufficient pedestrian access and circulation.
This project challenges the notions of play through the creation of designated play areas and play structures (reintroducing the idea of street play and successful playground concepts which were highly popular in the past centuries) located in Belfast’s most intimidating street junction. Providing play areas may also promote interaction from a range of age groups, from children to elderly people. It will therefore supply alternative access and walking routes/spaces that are less intimidating for the local community as well as visitors.
Development of The Project Design Synthesis
Conceptual Plan of Recreating Social & Playful Spaces
Perspective View of The Play Bubble Visualisation
Wallace Wu Hon Fung
Penetration of Alley in Belfast
The project aims at breaking with the physical barrier and invisible distance between people and the community. “Re-activate” the communal space + “Re-purpose” the existing terrace house to the community facilities + “Re-connect” people and community and city.
Construction Drawing of Repurposing Existing House
Perspective Section of The Penetration of Alley in Belfast
The Intervention of Repair Cafe and Skill Learning Centre to the Alley
Lead Tutor List:
Nicholas Boyarsky
Louise Cann
Duc Le
Technical Tutors;
Jason Coleman
Barti Garibaldo
Students;
Aaron Osinuga
Anis Mohamad Khairi
Arisyah Yazid
Canisius Bong Wei Pheng
Elliot Dennis
Francesca Williams
Hon Fung Wu
Kimwa Namrangwa Rai
Marcin Wozniak
Niketa Ranjan
Rabia Kurtulus
Satwant Benipal
Tais Roberta Carvalho Raposo
Critics and Hosts:
Graham Modlen
Peter Lang
Mark Hackett
Murray Fraser
Andrew Stiff
Reenie Elliott
Isabel Gomez