CROW GET LOST IN DERRY Wednesday 27th March 12.00 noon Meet Guildhall Square

CROW GET LOST IN DERRY

Wednesday 27th March 12.00 noon

Meet Guildhall Square

A walk in and around derry's Walls with artist Katie Holten and pioneering Community Horticulturist Gareth Austin. 

Come join us whilst we check out the flora of Derry's famous Walls and some secret gardens in their vicinity.

Free walk, everyone welcome

TOWPATH TREES Sunday 24th March 11 am Meet outside Cutters Warf Bar

TOWPATH TREES
Sunday 24th March 11 am
Meet outside Cutters Warf Bar

A walk with Kevin a Collite Forester checking out trees on Belfast's Towpath. There might even be some in buds showing the first signs of spring. How many species can you spot? A family friendly walk

Meet outside Cutters Warf Bar Sunday 24th March 11 am
All welcome

Some images taken during Growbox Site Visit with 2nd Yr Architecture Students UU

Growbox Site Visit with 2nd Yr Architecture Students UU

40 architecture students meet at UU foyer ready to brave the elements for the Growbox site visit to a carpark under the flyover at Corporation St. The brief, for GROW Community Garden is to design a sustainable, living structure on site.

The MAC & Dunbar link

We stop at the junction to take in the vista of The  MAC & Dunbar link noting how crossing the Dunbar link marks a threshold from the Cathedral Quarter or so called Cultural Quarter to a more industrial part of the city.

There are 4 lanes of traffic to negotiate so with a cautious chain of about 40 people , we decided to use the pedestrian crossing.

Fabric of anonymous spaces

We took in the almost invisible diversity of Great Patrick St. Beggs, plumbing supplies, Corporation St Dole office, Golden Thread Gallery, Robinson McIlwain Architects, Weights and Measures shop, United Optical prescription lens grinders, Flaxart Studios and Orchid artist studios all cheek by jowl.

Skate Park

The skate park has a gate that only lets one person in at a time. A snake of 40 people were not inconspicuous to the loan BMXer who was using the park when we came in. This concrete landscape is starting to look organic now through use and spray painting.

Acoustics

The acoustics as you pass under the underpass are of note, suddenly its actually quieter where the hum of traffic takes on the tones of a washing machine rather than the road or articulated lorries.

A Bountiful Site

We checked out the location of a DOE lock up where hard landscaping materials were stored. An array of paving slabs, kerb stones and brick stock were there a plenty. Buddleia managed to push its way out from under piles of gravel. There were also pockets of grasses peppered with shriveled doc, nettles and some tentative dandelions. Ragwort also made an appearance from under some  plastic bailing strips. A surprisingly diverse flora for such an un-green site and such a bleak time of year.

Threshold

Our proximity to water and the threshold between the city centre and Belfast’s more industrial docks is evident here. Old Sailortown is evidenced by Sinclair Seamen's church with its double entrance where you cross a second threshold into a courtyard. Direct Wine Shipments are wholesale traders marketing to passing vehicular traffic going over the flyover. Further down there are round metal plaques marking both the Greek and Norse consulates. Rounding the corner we take in the site of the former Liverpool Bar now site of the Stena Sealink car park. We also note Tombe St postal sorting office as we head along Donegall Quay. We are circling in on our site. The rain is starting to advance sideways.

Growbox Site

We arrive on site, shelter from the rain. Students check out the perimeter of the large site which takes in an area under the flyover flanked by two open bits of car park. We note the structure of the pillars which support the motorway and the think shafts of light that mark the convergence of various lanes. The site looks bleak in the foul weather but a pigeon flies by and we spot some ferns growing tenaciously between slabs of concrete cladding on one lane of flyover.

Shaft of light, last port of call

We head down a lane under a section of fly over that dips down to road level to meet the M2 towards Georges St. Its worth the detour to check out oddly truncated supporting pillars and broken street lights but the last wander in the rain is really made worth the detour for the strip of vegetation that grows in rubble as a result of a shaft of light from between two sections of flyover above. Its raining hard now, time to head back.

Growbox: 2pm Tues 29th Jan 2013 Meet at foyer of Art College All welcome

This walk is a site visit to M3 Underpass Corporation St Area in collaboration with architect and lecturer Mike McQueen & 2^nd yr BA Hons Architecture students from the University of Ulster, who are being asked to design a living building at this location.

Come along and explore the rich, diverse but often ignored and forgotten topography under the underpass. See how this very urban site can be seen as an active habitat with a diverse range of urban wildlife.

Join a future generation of young architects can use these ecosystems to tackle sustainable forms of social architecture in a marginalized city centre site.

Vernacularisms with Jason O' Rourke Dec 15th 2012

View 

We were treated to a tour of live, onsite readings by Jason O’ Rourke from his blog Vernacularisms.

We met at the entrance to the Gasworks to visit the first scene of crime, a car park outside a now vacated architects office manned by clampers finding easy pray in unsuspecting punters going to tax their car.

Clamp It
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/09/21/clamp-it/

On up the Ormeau Rd we stood opposite the Hatfield Bar (itself engine of many an urban myth and vernacular moment) where Jason recounted the glory of the Sam McGuire making a cameo in the bar after Derry won the All Ireland.

Butting In
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/11/16/butting-in/

We stopped briefly at the spot formally occupied by the Ham Sandwich Gang before rounding the corner to Rugby Ave to scrutinize the red brick wall of H J Martin Ltd in search of elusively carved initials. A brisk trop over to Agincourt Ave allowed us to take in a bizarre mural of golfer Rory McElroy flanked by bunny rabbits, briars and a Belfast street scene.

It is dry but cold. Agincourt Avenue’s laundry, our next stop sports vents and funnels that belch satisfyingly soapy warm air out into the street.

Laundry
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/08/30/laundry/

Story told we stock up on warm air before heading down Carmel St onto the Embankment and across the Lagan to the Ormeau Park location for two more anecdotes. There are other walkers too, despite many paths being flooded from the previous days rain. They rubberneck to hear stories of recklessness and pathos.

Stunning Stunts
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/10/26/stunning-stunts/ 
Parklife
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/08/31/parklife/

Back on the Ormeau we stand outside the Ormeau Bakery, now (probably empty) apartments, to hear about a fine fish and a feast held by Jason’s Romanian neighbours. Mid flow Jason gets a jocular interruption from another of his neighbours, a former professional footballer who ‘cautions’ us that Jason is a gangster!

Big Fish
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/09/18/big-fish/

So near home, Burma St we take in an architecturally ambitious pigeon loft, which is essentially a portacabin teetering on a pitched roof. We end on a good note with tea and tales of a pigeon fancier and a builder who aren’t afraid to sing with all their might.

Süskind
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/09/11/suskind/

Miller Time
http://vernacularisms.com/2012/09/25/miller-time/