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Form Follows Friction

Part 2 Project 2015
Stephen Duncan
Northumbria University Newcastle | UK
Form Follows Friction: Recuperating the Belfast Peace Walls

The site of the thesis is Cuparway in West Belfast, the oldest of the peace walls in Northern Ireland. There are an estimated 99 interface structures in Belfast separating Irish nationalist and unionist neighbourhoods. In May 2013 a £2 million fund was announced to dismantle these walls by 2017. This project proposes three stages for the removal of the peace wall and rebuilding of relationships between Shankill and The Falls after almost 50 years apart.

Memory Harvester 2016

The machine will remove the wall slowly over a long period of time allowing the communities to adjust as the wall is unravelled over a number of years.

The Social Incubator 2017

As material is removed from the wall, it is taken to workshops where it is used to train and reskill local people by building a symbolic look-out tower “owned” by the two communities. The structure will act as a gateway to the workshop and to a traditional community social club.

The Theatre in the Rebirth Park 2022

As the Memory Harvester removes the wall, the road will be closed and turned into a linear park. A community space for story-telling.

Stephen Duncan

Tutor(s)

2015
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