Ard Ciaran Mackel Architects - Living Above The Shop

An Installation by Ard Ciaran Mackel Architects as part of Belfast's Culture Night 2010 -

Belfast was buzzing. Well, some parts were buzzing on Friday 24th September for Belfast's Culture Night. Thousands of people enjoyed a late afternoon, evening and night sampling a smorgasbord of culture that delighted, inspired and enriched audiences from pram to zimmerframe.

If only more people lived in the city then perhaps such nights of celebration and of active street life would extend to be a more regular feature of city living?

ARD Architects decided to explore the theme of living in the city and to enliven Castle Street (their office base) with a fleeting glimpse of an inhabited streetscape as part of their contribution to Culture Night. Members of staff made films of their own evening domestic activities and by looping the sequences suggested a range of typical window scenes and sounds. The practice borrowed the upper floors of two buildings in the street and back projected the films onto tracing paper and through that to the place of the street. Soundtracks mixed from live daytime Castle Street ambience, a piano recital recorded at home or pots and pans at mealtime, were broadcast into the street to extend the reach of the idea. How would this affect the condition of night-time Castle Street?

The practice intends to extend the project and to collaborate with others to, if possible, fill the vacant evening streetscape with at least the brief illusion of 'living over the shop'.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Culture night
• Belfast
• Architects
• Architecture
• Urbanism
• Installation
• Castle Street
• Living Above The Shop
• Ard Ciaran Mackel Architects
• living in the city