Borderlands

Teaching Staff
Niall McBrierty, Studio Tutor
Martin Barrett, Studio Tutor

RESIST, DELAY, CAPITULATE.
(wetland dryland)

The site, at the apex of the fjord, is lodged or imposed onto a landscape as an antagonistic editor, both reinforcing existing conditions and transforming others. This is manifested in a rectilinear protagonist traversing canal and river and Newry and the fjord. This location, at the end of a fallopian like sequence has two primary conditions: wetlands capitulating to the tidal metronome and an island resisting the changing aqueous plane . Both conditions are part of singular body. 

A found space was used as a starting point; within the Barrio Gothic in Barcelona, Placa Del Pi is characterized by a series of spaces wrapping a basilica. It is not read a set piece, rather series of almost fluid urban spaces. These spaces are intimate, complex and ambiguous. This ‘medieval’ plan imposition is a high-density membrane in contrast to the wetlands ‘grid’.

In creating and sustaining the imposed structure, this new environment will resist, delay and capitulate to future conditions. The tidal rhythm will be exploited to provide an energy source suppling both public and domestic architecture. The perceived tension between nature and culture can therefore also, be characterized by resistance, delay and capitulation.