COMPETITION TOPIC
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So here we are! Welcome to the 4th edition of DOCEXDOCE Europe. As you know, all participants are currently reading this text simultaneously, and all of you are limited to a 54 hour response time! Below is a detailed explanation of the topic, its background and the brief you must consider. The clock has started! We look forward to your agile, clever and forwardthinking response to a new challenge and new context. We are asking you to consider Interface Architecture in the city of Belfast. Best of luck and enjoy a new learning process!
#1. WELCOME TO BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. Situated on the River Lagan, the name Belfast originates from the Irish “Béal Feirste”, meaning a “ford at the mouth of the river.” Belfast thrived during the industrial revolution of the 19th Century, becoming a prominent port and producer of linen, ropes, tobacco, and, most famously, ships. The Harland and Wolff shipyard was the biggest globally, employing up to 35,000 workers and building boats for The White Star Line, including the RMS Titanic and Olympic. The city is now home to 495,000 people and is considered an up and coming tourist destination. It is renowned for its art, music, culture, whiskey, stunning scenery (featured most famously in Game of Thrones) and its complex, troubled history.
Belfast in 1791
The Titanic leaving port, 1912
Belfast City Center Today: Stormont Parliment with the iconic Harland & Wolff cranes in the background.
Ireland has been a predominantly Catholic country since missionary monks first introduced the religion in the 5th Century. However, under British rule, the Northern region of Ireland known as Ulster underwent a mass colonial plantation of Protestant Scots in the 17th Century. Ulster has remained a Protestant majority since. Throughout the 19th Century, many impoverished Irish Catholics moved North in search of employment, and Belfast became a mixing pot of two cultures. Differences in religious belief did not pose much of an issue; however, both religions were labelled in a segregative manner resulting in deep divisions in class, education, pay, work and living conditions. The most significant conflicts erupted after 1922 when the Irish war of independence resulted in Ireland’s liberation from British rule. Most of the country became an independent republic, but the Protestant Unionist government at Stormont decided that Ulster would remain part of the Union with Great Britain, marking a distinct moment in Anglo-Irish history. Despite objections from Catholic Nationalists in the north, the decision was final. A physical border replaced the perceived line on maps, and early feelings of division were confirmed. The class segregation in Ulster remained and certain clusters
of Nationalists grouped together. Protests were prevalent and in some residential areas communities divided into warring sectarian neighbourhoods.
1920 The Partician Poster
A customs stop on the border - circa 1950
Unionist Postcard, 1893 Hazards of seperation from Britan
‘The Troubles’ The British Army was deployed to control the escalating situation in 1969. Both sides initially welcomed the Army, and “Peace Walls” were built as temporary measures to separate the warring neighbourhoods. These ‘walls’ were originally nothing more than boundary markers, barricades constructed from common materials and patrolled by the armed forces trying to keep the peace. However, in 1972, the Army shot and killed 13 civilians during a nationalist demonstration march. Consequently, they lost all support from the nationalist side. Paramilitary groups such as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and then the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) formed and began terrorising opposing communities. The group’s organised attacks, placed bombs, caused riots, shot, and tortured opposing force members. These events marked the beginning of a dark and frightening war referred to as “The Troubles,” which lasted 30 years and killed more than 3,500 people.
Belfast Areas Map, Unknown (c. 1970s?)
Civilian with his child confronts soldier, 1969.
The scene of an I.R.A. bombing in Belfast in 1972 © Abbas/Magnum Photos
Short strand, children joining a ‘Noise bregade against British soldiers, 1981.
An IRA member squats on patrol.
IRA patrolling a ‘Peace Wall’.
Taylor Report Map, 1971
#2. INTERFACES IN BELFAST TODAY: THE PEACE WALLS
In this edition of DOCEXDOCE, we are asking you to contemplate the interface structures known as ‘Peace Walls’ in Belfast as areas to work. Interface infrastructure in Belfast consisted of walls, fences and gates erected in 1972. Originally intended as temporary fixtures, they have instead remained, multiplied, extended and heightened. Large metal gates still cut off certain streets so as vehicles cannot pass after curfew. Though ‘The Troubles’ officially ended with a peace treaty in 1998, violent outbreaks have continued along opposing community lines. The sectarian division is normalised, and riots persist during historic state holidays and times of political tension such as Brexit. Unfortunately, sectarian influences and habits run deep in some psyches, and though the people who reject peace are a minute fraction of the population, their actions have a lasting impact on the lives of all residents.
There are approximately 90 individual physical barriers across the waring residential regions of Belfast. Including newer and more subtle interventions such as roads, buffer zones and dense vegetation.
Conflict zones
Displayed is a current map of Belfast showing zones in the city where physical boundaries exist, and tensions still run high. We want to highlight that these zones are in a handful of working-class housing districts. The city centre and many other residential areas are clear of partitions and if you were to visit the city for business purposes, you might see nothing out of the ordinary. A bustling centre, once known for danger and bombing during ‘The Troubles’, now welcomes all commerce and development. However, in the areas that sectarian tension prevails, it is brutal, and most residents have limited, if any, interaction with neighbouring territories. They travel from their zone to the city center and back without crossing paths as there is a fear of conflict.
“I would never walk through [Short Strand – a nationalist area]. But one time, I did cycle through with my friend just to see, like curious, like I’ve never been in this place, I want to go in there and see. And it was one of the most scariest experiences of my life.” - Male, 21 years, 2018, Inner East
UNIONIST
“You don’t go by your religion when you’re in work, it just doesn’t happen. You meet them [work colleagues] at Christmas time, you go out for a drink... but you leave them and you leave the town, that’s it, it’s left there. ‘Cos they’re not going to come back to your house for a drink.” - Male, 25 years, 2018 Short Strand
NATIONALIST
Integration and cross-community youth programmes could be the key in diminishing future sectarian violence. Many young people blamed adults and the lack of political leadership for the current situation. Those who attend integrated schools have learnt that peers living on the other side of the wall are no different to themselves. This change in attitude is what local councils and the majority of parents want to promote. By funding community integration youth projects in sports, arts, theatre and the outdoors, positive relationships can be formed between teenagers and young adults. The focus is put on their common values and interests rather than historical differences. Shared urban spaces are the next step in integration and ultimately the dismantling of peacwalls. Park and commuter projects such as The Forth Meadow Greenway are planned to build on numerous organisations’ work towards community reconciliation.
The Forth Meadow Greenway community project - funded by EU PEACE IV will connect existing open spaces in north and west Belfast
Breaking News, April 2021: The socio-political climate within Belfast has recently been destabilised, contextualised by Brexit, with themes of conflict and reconciliation more relevant than ever. Within the past weeks, sporadic rioting in several areas throughout Northern Ireland has heightened political tensions, causing unrest within the surrounding communities. Many working class areas still remain under the influence of paramilitary gangs, of which have had a supposed involvement in stoking the violence. Rioters have clashed along interfaces, throwing petrol bombs and masonry at riot vans and injuring more than 70 police officers over the past weeks. Leaders from both political parties have condemn the violence in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. The correct tone is crucial to addressing such a sensitive situations as this, in which a casual comment bears a weighted history. Neutral spaces along the politically charged interface and throughout the surrounding communities are necessary to facilitate progressive discourse.
Rectent riot recurgence
A point where two systems, subjects, organizations meet and interact.
Short Strand, 1
1994.
Hazelwood Integrated Primary pupils at the ‘peace fence’, 2018. © Chris Scott.
Various residents from affected communities view the Peace Walls as essential for their protection, while others see them as prohibitions to progression. In certain circumstances, security cameras are used to observe and therefore discourage violence; could modern surveillance technologies completely replace physical boundaries?
Life on both sides © Abbas/Magnum Photos
Police Officers opening the Workman Avenue Peace Gates
“June 2002 marked a point in East Belfast, where building peace wallS higher could not control the ongoing conflict and rioting. Regardless of the [wall] height, petrol bombs being thrown over was Still evident. This saw the introduction of CCTV at interfaces in the Short Strand area of East Belfast…. Following the introduction of CCTV surveillance a ‘new way of policing’ has been reported, resulting in significant depletion [of violence and crime]. Furthermore... parts of peace walls have been dismantled, a process perhaps made possible through the security provided by CCTV surveillance.” (2015) Margaret McCann - How CCTV surveillance provides a new dimension of interface control in post-conflict Belfast
CCTV situation in Short Strand, East Belfast
China’s mass surveillance / Social Credit Scheme.
Nationalist memorial
Mural design and expressive painting is a unique cultural phenomenon in Belfast. Many communities express their colourful past, political views, realities, and hope for the future on the walls surrounding them. Each mural tells a story and evokes a reaction. They can be shocking, threatening, optimistic and heart-warming. Unionist memorial
Surprisingly these same walls have also become one of the city’s main tourist attractions due to the colourful artwork and history annotated on them.
Black Cab Taxi Tours.
The 12th of July is a Protestant celebration and historic bank holiday in Ulster. It is a commemoration of the 1688 revolution where Protestant King William of Orange claimed victory over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne. Marching bands parade the streets of Belfast. Supporters crowd the footpaths waving and clapping. In certain protestant neighbourhoods, towering bonfires are built so high that they are seen from hill vantage points overlooking the city. Unfortunately, the celebrations are almost always accompanied by violence in the city. The fires and marches are seen to antagonise neighbouring Catholic nationalists, and though the majority do not get involved, the Northern Irish police prepare every year to break up aggravated clashes.
Members of the Orange Order march through Belfast city as Twelfth of July parades
#3. THE COMPETITION SITE: SHORT STRAND & THE INNER EAST
Location of Short Strand in the Inner East.
To take full advantage of this 54-hour window, we have chosen a site and provided specific information for you to use as a starting point for your final proposal. Situated on the Eastern bank of the River Lagan and close to the docks The Inner East / Short Strand was dominated by the Harland & Wolff shipyard. Many working-class families lived in tightly packed terraced housing that still shapes the identity of the Inner East today. Short strand is predominantly a Nationalist Catholic cluster with a population of approximately 3000. The community is surrounded on three sides by the predominantly Unionist Protestant neighbourhoods of Woodstock and Upper Newtownards. This area has been an agonising interface since the beginning of ‘The Troubles’. It is repeatedly pinpointed as a significant conflict zone whenever violent outbreaks occur. Boundaries scar the cityscape, and the division is extremely visual.
The Site: KEY Short Strand - Catholic / Nationalist community. Inner East - Protestant / Unionist community. Peace Lines - Walls, fences and buffer zones. dividing both communities.
Free Spaces: We have identified two areas for potential new development. On the bank of the river Lagan, we have highlighted ‘Sirocco Site’ a 3800m2 space of neutral territory available for cross-community development. The second identified area is ‘Thistle Court Site’ a 560m2 space situated on the Unionist side of the wall. This space would have originally been the imagined interface on Madrid Street before it was physically divided by a wall.
Madrid Street
Once an open, running avenue between Shortstrand and The Inner East, Madrid Street was controlled by large metal gates during and after ‘The Troubles’. In 2002 the street was severed entirely by a six-meter high mesh fence and two parallel brick walls topped with barbered wire. The wall prevents direct conflict on the street and is now tall enough to stop most flying sharp/heavy objects intended to injure those on the other side. Many residents, however, remember a time when the current 500m long wall did not exist.
“I remember coming out of school and you would have went into Thistle Court, and Madrid Street would be there and that would be open, so [...] half a street would be Protestant and the other half of the street would be Catholic, and there would be a space in the middle with a couple of houses in the middle that were derelict, and that was the interface, that was [...] the mindset of an interface, it wasn’t a direct barrier or a physical barrier, it was in your mind, right, that was the point of no return.” - Male, 33, 2018 Inner East
Madrid Street without a peacewall, 1982. © Philip McAlpine.
2005 Madrid Street Gates
2021 Madrid Street double wall and fence
#4. THE COMPETITION.
From the information provided, you have gained insight into Belfast’s interfaces. Unlike cities with single large divisions, as was seen in Berlin, interfaces in Belfast are fragmented and site-specific. The walls have created boundaries that promote division, and attempt to prevent agressions (but also any kind of interaction) between members of two communities. To help prompt a design concept, you could consider the following guiding questions:
Are there architectural alternatives to walls? Can architecture play a role in the reduction of violence, fear and anxiety? How is community integration be encouraged? You are also invited to form your own guiding questions!
YOUR PROPOSAL WE ARE ASKING YOU to propose an architectural intervention of your choice anywhere within the strip provided. You may choose to work on either of the vacant sites (Sirocco / Thistle Court) or with any existing infrastructure. You are also permitted to remove any infrastructure that does not serve your intervention. WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU to completely ‘solve’ this complex case, but rather to respond to the given situation in your own way. Perhaps you will dare to dream on a utopian level or choose to tackle one aspect of the overarching topic. Whatever approach you decide, we encourage pushing boundaries and test theories that perhaps would not be possible in a conventional academic setting. Do not hesitate in proposing new, exciting ideas, but if in doubt, refer back to our guiding questions. EVALUATION PROCESS: The jury will take into account the theoretical background of the proposal made, an innovative response to the issues raised, as well as its suitability for the context. The graphic quality of the project will aslo be highly valued. We also need to clarify that there is not a quota of prizes allocated to any site on the strip.
Some previous DOCEXDOCE awared examples
WHAT TO SUBMIT? FILE 1: Competition proposal One unique A2 presentation board (landscape format) composed by 2xA3 presentation boards (portrait format). Therefore, just one file will be uploaded to the website. We recommend that you present your project as an image on the right-side A3. The left-side A3 can be an assortment of diagrams, axonometrics drawings or any other kind of graphic / written information. Basically all the information needed to understandthe project. All must be in English or Spanish. Please limit the text to a maximum of 100 words. We recommend to use no more than 60 words. The team ID code, sent via email to your team representative, must be placed on the top left corner. There should also be a tittle for the project, which we recommend to place next to the ID code. The file must be in JPG format, max. 20 MB. The graphic resolution must be appropriate for printing and internet publishing. Name of team participants or any other personal identifying information must be not written anywhere in the poster. Vertical A2 posrters, names of participants or no ID codes will not be accepted. Note: Your projects most representative image will be used for the Audience Special Award voting process. FILE 2: Descriptive text One unique A4 (portrait format) with a descriptive text of a maximun of 100 words will be submitted. This text must appear as well in the A2 proposal and will be the main text for the jury. Of course, the A2 proposal might contain more isolated texts explaining diagrams, images, etc. IMPORTANT: Each file must ONLY be named with the team code you have been assigned.
HOW TO SUBMIT? Participating teams must upload their files to www.docexdoce.com/ login using their team ID and password. All documents must be uploaded before the competition ends. Remember than participants will have to provide and upload to the website any kind of documents that proves their condition of students. If there is any question, please write us to info@docexdoce.com. Also, take attention to our instagram @docexdoceeurope. Anything new will be communicated throug that channel. Dont give up during the process and remember to have fun. BEST OF LUCK!
Other references: “Collective space inhabiting the border in Belfast”, 2015. Milda Paceviciute (pdf attached to given topic material)
Peace wall archive.
http://www.peacewall-archive.net/maps/xemwz7p7n9o2vz4g46qa2ppt1ct5zi
Driving the social divide: planning in Belfast reinforces the city’s segregation. https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/driving-the-social-divide-planning-in-belfast-reinforces-the-cityssegregation
Documenting Belfast as it is. 2019.
https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2019/08/28/news/belfast-photographer-andrew-johnston-on-documenting-belfastas-it-is--1695091
The school ‘Peace fence’ 2018. https://vimeo.com/272931883
Protesters in Belfast hijack bus and set it on fire’ 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcpBJLY0s2w&ab_channel=GuardianNews
Final note: We are not the owners of any pictures. This is not an academic text or profit document purpose. If you want to know who wrote which specific part, please write to us. We will be pleased to answer about everything.
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