Site Analysis - Intervention

SITE ANALYSIS Intervention Cluan Place/ Clandeboye Gardens, Short Strand

BRIEF CONTEXT

INFLUENCE

MATERIAL CONTEXT

The Étable à Lignières in Switzerland. Structural dimensions were calculated to the timber available in the nearby forest. In the intervention, the form and dimensions of the building remains.

Influenced by Barrett’s Grove in London, the cladding is formed from double stack and open bond of brickwork.

The primary structure is being constructed from timber. It is an environmentally sustainable material, which is also incredibly strong, even having a higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel.

The building is cladded with corrogated brickwork, including for the roofing.

Bricks were chosen to blend in with the surrounding brick peace wall, which is being integrated within the structure. Corrogated bricks will allow for the timber structure below to be seen when up close, but give a unique design from afar. The ground will also be brick but in a basketweave pattern, matching with the existing bricks in the Clandeboye Gardens residential parking bay.

Bricks have an extremely long lifespan, lasting for hundreds of years, allowing for the intervention to stand the test of time. Being such a strong material, it will also aid in protecting the timber from weather damage over the years.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT

As of November 2023, for the second year in a row, Belfast has received an A rating for its climate action work. It is the only city on the entiry of the Ireland island to recieve the top grade from international climate research provider CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project, set up in 2000.

Councillor Róis-Máire Donnelly, Chair of the Climate and City Resilience Committee at Belfast City Council, said: “Over the last year, we have made improvements in building resilience, reducing emissions and in turn, helping to create a robust climate resilient city.

Governance has been established at both city and Council level in the form of the Climate Commission, Resilience and Sustainability Board and Council’s Climate Programme Board.

Work is ongoing across the city and within Council, with an emphasis on active travel, the continued success of our One Million Trees initiative which focuses on collaborating with young people, schools and communities and our recent Belfast Tree Strategy. The Belfast Sustainable Food Partnership has also been re-established this year with a focus on tackling food poverty, reducing waste and the promotion of sustainable food.”

In this intervention, the Peace Line is being re-purposed as the outer structure of the building. Through adaptive re-use, carbon emissions are being saved by not starting a new build.

Furthermore, espeically with this being a Peace Wall in Northern Ireland, adaptive re-use allows a piece of important history to continue standing by extending it’s lifespan, as opposed to entirely knocking the wall down just to build a different one.

CULTURAL CONTEXT

The Short Strand Peace Wall is made up of over seven metres of brick, and was put into place to divide the two communities of the area: Catholics and Prodestants. This division is no exception in Cluan Place, a Protestant cul-desac, and Clandeboye Garden, a Catholic enclave. The specific wall seperating these two areas is a height of 2.5 metres of brick, with a further 4.5 metres of open mesh fencing. In more recent times some of this open mesh has been covered with steel panel sheeting, in attempt to lessen the attacks being thrown over the wall.

Cluan Place is known as being one of the most loyalist areas in Belfast, making it no surprise it’s consequently the most attacked, especially around July 12th.

Thankfully in modern day, these attacks have significantly lessened, but the wall still remains.

With this intervention, the peace wall becomes a part of it. The filled in factory windows of the wall are now entryways from Cluan Place through to Clandeboye Gardens. Within the Cluan Place carpark the wall also becomes an entryway, with one residing in Clandeboye Gardens too.

This would hopefully allow for the town communities to mix together, but at an extent they find manageable. With Cluan Place residents being so deeply loyalist, they have spoken they don’t want the wall removed. This construction allows for the wall to remain in its majority, but to also serve a positive purpose.