Infraspace is an atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture that explores in-between spaces, whether borders between countries, urban and rural and historic and modern, which all drove research for a historic adaptive reuse project for Year 5 Professional Studies 2 (PS2). Initial research into economy, history, demography and more informed a masterplan for the city centre of Belfast, at the key intersection of Royal Avenue and Castle Street. Individually, development of a proposal for the Bank Buildings looked at reuse at different scales: reuse of materials used to shore up the building after a fire in 2018 to reuse of the existing facade to establish a new architectonic language while referencing the existing fabric.
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01 Context – Research into Belfast as a region, city and neighbourhood helped narrow down specific issues of economy, culture and politics in relationship to overarching issues of the future of workplaces and high streets in the context of post-Brexit UK.
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02 Masterplan – Design research led to site analysis and focus into issues facing Belfast City Centre, particularly vacant spaces, footfall and large-scale retail buildings taking up entire urban blocks.
Site Analysis of Belfast city centre analysing historic areas, vacant spaces, transport and key connections. Issues of connectivity across city blocks meant reimagining new uses for car parks and underutilised streets which could be pedestrianised, multimodal and multifunctional throughout the day to bring vibrance to Belfast’s core.
Belfirst Masterplan – A phased approach supporting creative individuals and idea testing through the support of ‘Belfirst Bank’, a community bank concept. Vacant spaces will assume pop-up testing sites over a 6-week time period. After the ‘testing’ or ‘burrowing’ stage, creative businesses can move into the Umbrella Building for 6 months to a year, becoming part of a larger creative community.
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03 Building Reuse – The Umbrella Building reuses the facade of the existing Bank Buildings, which suffered from a fire which destroyed most of the interior and roof of the Edwardian building. After having undergone many different uses over the years, its location at the corner of Royal Avenue and Castle Street make it a key landmark for Belfast as a post-industrial city.
GA Plans – Opening up the ground for movement through the alley and main streets, while shipping containers are stacked and staggered to allow for natural light and ventilation.
Elevations of proposed spaces – Shipping containers housing pop-up creatives and coworking spaces supporting formal and informal meeting rooms for different modes of working.
N-S Section – Coworking spaces for focused, collaborative and conference rooms. Corridors connect to communal spaces at either end of the building, supporting the activities of a creative community.
E-W Section – Courtyard plays a central role in providing a ‘backyard’ for the business spaces and a connection to nature through biophilic design in a bustling city. Each of the shipping container pop-ups face a public ‘frontyard’ where transactions between customers, visitors and locals take place.
Creative Community – Each pop-up business has its ‘frontyard’ and ‘backyard’, which is reflected in the materials chosen, balancing public and private spaces.
Construction sequence – The construction stages will incorporate both on-site elements as well as prefabricated entities, such as the reused shipping containers.
Building Fly-through:
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Key Images
View from Royal Avenue towards Bank Street alley – Shipping containers for coworking spaces inhabit the concrete frame, drawing people through the previously closed off street.
Perspective to understand how the courtyard plays a central role in connecting both the ground floor to the upper floors and horizontally through the use of materials such as wood, glass and concrete.
Courtyard view from an eastern balcony – showing how the space would use biophilic elements to encourage a healthy and green reflective space.
Ariel Chesley 