TROUBLED LEGACY REHABILITATING THE PRISON
Essay 2: Pilot Project A pilot thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.Phil in Architecture & Urban Design 2017-8
This project originated primarily from the observation that architectural heritage in Northern Ireland is often contentious and argued over bitterly. Beginning by researching the divisive nature of sacred spaces in the province and the fact that large numbers of churches now face the possibility of falling into dereliction due to lack of attendance, the project has subsequently broadened into looking at the physical legacies of the Troubles, including secular buildings such as prisons and army barracks. It asks the question; what is the purpose of heritage as a resource if the goals to which that resource is to be expended cannot be agreed and are themselves the source of division within communities? This question of a contentious architectural legacy is made all the more critical by the understanding that spatial divisions in NI are often not as clear cut as the Belfast Peace Walls would suggest. The place of architecture within the various historic narratives which are woven about the recent past has been little studied, but it is clear that by their sheer visibility if nothing else, the buildings which participated in the Troubles feature in the construction of exclusive territories which are cognative rather than physical. Perhaps then architectural interventions within these buildings using novel and participatory programmes can begin to reform their image and help mend divisions in a society still traumatised by the damage wrought in thirty years of civil strife.