Offensive Defense:

Reimagining Peace Lines in Belfast

I think the wall has its good points and its bad points.
- Violet Walker
Shankill Road resident

The euphemistic peace lines of Belfast are not a hard boundary. Separating communities rather
than countries, these barriers (99 in total) deter movement rather than prevent it. Falsely attached to the
symbolism of Berlin, tourists and dignitaries alike call on their hosts to dismantle the partitions for the
sake of peace. This sentiment is grossly nave. With 86 per cent of residents wishing to maintain
neighbourhood peace lines, removal by any foreign means would be highly unethical. As an outside
agent, this project will respect these wishes.
Rather than dismantle, this project will question the form and purpose of a single wall the 800
metre barrier along Cupar Way. Through the utilization of defensive strategies derived from medieval
castles, two interventions will each materialize a common negative effect imposed by the barrier: spatial
division, and temporal division. A third intervention will reimagine the wall completely.

Photo: Cupar Way Peace Line in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2016)

Intervention 1: The Shortcut

Defense Strategy:
Bent Entrance + Spiral Staircase

Description:
Pedestrian overpasses are constructed to
save travel time by overcoming linear barriers. What
would such an overpass look like through a peace
line? Such a passage could not be a shortcut per se,
as it would compromise the security characteristic of
the wall. Therefore a peace line overpass would need
a traverse time close to that of walking around the
wall (48 minutes), but marginally quicker to give it a
theoretical purpose. Through a conglomeration of
spiral stairs, this intervention would materialize a 47.5
minute pedestrian passage the longest 30 second
shortcut on earth.

Intervention 2:
2: The Hardline
Defense Strategy:
Wall

Description:
Peace lines in Belfast are more permeable
than other conflict walls (i.e. Cold War Berlin, the
American-Mexican border). While this has made the
barriers more bearable, it has also removed the
impetus to remove them. What would a hard
peace line look like? This intervention will place a
building on the peace line entirely bisected (inside
and out) by the barrier. The absurdity of the split will
be emphasized. The program of the building (a
community centre) will not only heighten the irony of
the intervention, but meet the desired needs of both
neighbourhoods.

Intervention 3:
3: The Break
Defense Strategy:
Moat

Description:
Can the physical nature of a peace line be
reduced without sacrificing security? Walls separate
space by inserting matter, but it is also possible to
separate space by inserting additional space. This
last intervention will replace a portion of the Cupar
Way wall with a moat. By sinking a small open-air
shopping concourse with controlled access between
the two neighbourhoods, no physical barrier need
exist. After 47 years apart, a visual connection
between communities will be restored.