Studio Idir

Studio idir Portfolio

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Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Making Functional and Joyful Spaces for Family Living

Belfast Houses Studio idir is a design-led architecture practice that finds creative space in the in-between.

Idir, the Irish word for in-between, reflects a philosophy of collaboration, and celebrates the meeting of difference, such as old with new, inside with out, contrasting materialities.

Our designs are led by thinking about journeys through and events within our buildings - arriving home from work, welcoming guests, cosy winter evenings, doing the landry and BBQs in the garden. There is no one house style. We want to make spaces to fit your everyday rituals and believe in the clever use of space to make functional and joyful homes, working on projects with budgets from £40k to £2m.

Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Making Functional and Joyful Spaces for Family Living

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Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

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Alliance Avenue & Glenbryn Park, Ardoyne, Belfast

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What would you like to happen to the peace wall?

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Studio idir, with Starling Start, were appointed by the Department of Justice in early 2020 to prepare, through discussion with community representatives and locals, concepts for the possible reduction, removal or visual improvement of a 750m peace wall. To avoid the binary of two community meetings in public buildings either side of the wall, we displayed our drawings and models in and on a yellow vintage camper van called Daisy. We created a fun shared space, on a domestic scale, that circumnavigated the wall, making stops. We had Daisy badges, refreshments and activities for the kids, inviting intrigued residents to come and share their views. It was a non-threatening, ephemeral, shared experience that came to people on their own streets, outside their doors, leading to wide engagement and open conversation.

Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Alliance Avenue & Glenbryn Park, Ardoyne, Belfast

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Studio idir Portfolio

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Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Belfast Residential Alleyways as Social Spaces

9ft in Common building connections In 2020-21 we engaged in an investigation called 9ft in Common, again with Starling Start, funded by Necessity, in which we have used walking as a to explore and map Belfast’s alleys/entries, researching their access and ownership and considering their potential as leftover, liminal spaces of connection in the city. We walked and talked with local politicians, council members, residents, artists, activists and others, questioning how the alleys can be a resource to neighbourhoods. We mapped the alleys, and gathered 100 alley stories, shared on our interative Belfast Alley Map. We illustrated concepts to show how people could claim their own alleys, and asked whether there might be more effective solutions to fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour than the alley-gating schemes that close the alleys off as routes. Visit https://9ftincommon.com to learn more.

Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Belfast Residential Alleyways as Social Spaces

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Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

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Plots for Living & Working in Sailortown, Belfast

Research & Design with StreetSpace Studio 2020 Belfast’s Sailortown was a vibrant and diverse community located beside the docks. However, it was effectively wiped out in the 1970s to make way for the new motorway. The community was scattered across the city - a traumatic experience for many.

For Aisling Madden’s thesis (Queen’s University Belfast, 2019-20), she practised ethnographic research in the area. Interviewing a former resident, who grew up in the area in the 1960s and ‘70s, Aisling recorded his vivid and humorous stories and produced an axonometric drawing of Sailortown before the demolition, to illustrate the stories and analyse the historical urban fabric.

Aisling used this analysis to design a mixed-use, plot based scheme for an area of wasteland in Sailortown. The masterplan was derived from the historical street layout, forming three urban blocks divided into narrow, flexible plots for people to purchase and build on. A design code was created for the site - a framework for the organised chaos of urban life to happen within and adapt over time.

Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Plots for Living & Working in Sailortown, Belfast

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Studio idir Portfolio

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Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Radical Large Scale Co-Housing Proposal for a Suburban Site

Treehouse-Living in an Edible Forest, Norway The development of an Edible Forest fully integrated with accommodation across the site. It employs the density of urban housing to leave more space available for growth, production, exploration and play - maximising the productive capacity of the landscape. The development follows the cohousing scheme model, forming an intentional community, stewarded by its residents. Each household consists of a self-contained home, but also benefits from shared community space and facilities.

The undercrofts beneath each Treehouse act as informal, impromptu gathering and sheltering spaces, sheltered from the rain and snow and beaming sun, with sculpted earth mounds creating spaces to sit and hide and climb beneath a canopy of star-like lights.

The Treehouses are constructed from responsibly sourced Norwegian timber framing and cladding, a nod to the vernacular materiality of Norwegian traditional architecture.

Compact units are to be affordable to a wide range of possible income brackets.

Studio idir Portfolio

Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Radical Large Scale Co-Housing Proposal for a Suburban Site

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Studio idir Portfolio

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Project City of the Future | Take Back the City

Designing Better Neighourhoods in Belfast for All Ages

Reimagining Elderhood, Ballyhackamore

What would make Ballyhackamore an even better place to live?

An urban research project into improving the urban fabric for older residents. We have received funding from Irish Arts Council via Self Organised Architecture to carry out a short research and engagement project, in which we have chosen to explore our local Ballyhackamore.

We are inviting local people to come and talk to us at a series of events and come up with design ideas. We are interested in improving the connectivity of Ballyhackamore to make the area even more vibrant and walkable. We will be investigating how the local housing stock can be adapted so that older residents can remain in the area but also meet the housing needs of younger generations.

Designing Better Neighourhoods in Belfast for All Ages