Blackstaff Square
OGU have been working with Linen Quarter Business Improvement District to reimagine Blackstaff Square. The square has long been associated with anti-social behaviour and has been the focus of renewed attention to create a viable public space in the centre of the city.
The proposed designs demonstrate how the square might begin to successfully work throughout the day, with a reduction in vehicular traffic allowing it’s surrounding edges to be better utilised in activating the square.
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Linen Quarter BID
Deoartment for Communities
Department for Infrastructure
Festival of Ideas
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Description text goes here
OGU have been working with Linen Quarter Business Improvement District to reimagine Blackstaff Square. The square has long been associated with anti-social behaviour and has been the focus of renewed attention to create a viable public space in the centre of the city.
The proposed designs demonstrate how the square might begin to successfully work throughout the day, with a reduction in vehicular traffic allowing it’s surrounding edges to be better utilised in activating the square.
A central kiosk with a frame inspired by the ‘blackened oak’ of the Blackstaff name begins to offer cover and activation during the day. The covered spaces also help to support local bars, markets and weekend events. A good square has uses throughout the day - the designs explore how this might be possible over the coming years.
There will be considerable changes to this area as the new transport hub is completed in the next few years. The designs propose hard-wearing natural stone paving to form a new public street to the relocated reserve taxi rank at the gateway to the Linen Quarter. This change provides the opportunity for a new outdoor space to the famous Crown Liquor Saloon on Great Victoria Street alongside other places to eat and drink. Planted beds provide space for public seating and rainwater to be discharged in a sustainable way.
This is a chance for real debate about the quality and approach to public space in Belfast and deliver something which creates real change in the area
Crown Bar + Amelia Street: Sketch of the existing condition of Blackstaff Square with a proposed new gateway sign.
Impact
Overall Small Project Winner 2022 – Judge David Morley
“The project deserves recognition for how it uses timber to positively engage the community as a flexible place to move through, meet, mend bicycles or, initially, to hold an exhibition to remind the community of its heritage.”
Built:East is sited at the entrance to an extremely popular public square and therefore thousands of people have experienced the pavilion since its construction. Built: East was constructed as the gateway to C.S. Lewis Square. This is a high profile and significant location in the city: the newly constructed square is the focal point of celebrated regeneration project Connswater Community Greenway, a £40 million scheme including a new 9km linear park, wildlife corridor and flood alleviation works funded by Big Lottery Fund, Belfast City Council, the Department for Communities and Department for Infrastructure. .
Design Competition: Built: East was the winning design of the RSUA Belfast Flare pavilion competition, and the first temporary pavilion for Belfast commissioned by the RSUA and constructed in the city. It successfully established the construction of a pavilion as a biannual programme to showcase early career architects in northern Ireland (the next pavilion is due for completion summer 2021).
Exhibition: To provide opportunities for deeper engagement, OGU Architects worked with the client team’s heritage officer at the client’s request to conduct an oral histories project, talking to local residents about their memories of working in nearby factories. Exhibitiion XXX 2022. An interactive virtual tour of the pavilion and exhibition has now been permanently added to the Visitor Centre’s website.
Journal Articles
RIBA Journal (including Front Cover). The structure was visited and reviewed by the RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman, and appeared on the front cover of the September Issue, as well as the front cover of the RSUA Journal Perspective. It was also reviewed online by the Architects’ Journal. The accompanying exhibition was the subject of a news feature and short film by news service Belfast Live, and during the pandemic lockdown, hundreds viewed the exhibition video (filmed inside the pavilion) posted by its client EastSide Visitor Centre on social media.
Perspective Magazine
Lectures
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Timber Development Association Lecture 2022
The pavilion was the topic of two invited talks at Belfast Design Week 2019.
Sustainability
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