Welcome to the Summer 2024 edition of the MAG Newsletter
We have taken the opportunity in this edition of our newsletter to outline a number of areas of our work that may be of interest to you.
RSUA Awards
This year, the Awards took place in The MAC, a fitting venue, for which Hackett Hall McKnight received the RIBA National Award in 2012. Alastair Hall provided an insightful tour of the building before the formalities began, through which, 12 years after opening, the enduring quality of good design was evident.
The Department for Communities was delighted to sponsor one of the awards again this year. Andrew Haley, Chair of MAG presented the Conservation Award to Hall Black Douglas for their work in restoring the Bank Buildings in Belfast after the disastrous fire. They were also winners for their work at St Comgall’s.
Other awards were presented to McGonigle McGrath for Redbrae Farm, which won the House of the Year - the third year running that they have had that accolade. Patrick Bradley Architect won two awards for Barney’s Ruins, the development of a contemporary home inserted into the remaining walls of a former rural dwelling.
The Liam McCormick and Living Places awards went to the Ulster University Belfast Campus, with Keith Fielden, of Fielden Clegg Bradley receiving the award on behalf of the project, which included McAdam Design, Scott Tallon Walker and White Ink Architects.
This was a wonderful evening, celebrating the value of great design, developed by dedicated teams, with outstanding clients at their heart.
Tribute to Barrie Todd
We were extremely saddened to hear of the death of Barrie Todd on Friday 14 June 2024. Barrie contributed enormously to the quality of the built environment in Northern Ireland. Through his work in leading Todd Architects, Barrie was influential in developing ‘big architecture’ looking at places, not just individual buildings, as well as designing exemplary buildings. He was also a pioneer, with his office on Hill Street in the heart of Cathedral Quarter, leading by example in terms of regenerating an area, when few others had the confidence and courage to be there.
As MAG’s first Chair, Barrie championed the importance of good design and of processes that would lead to the delivery of the best-possible buildings and places.
Since retirement, his passion to provide positive influence was undiminished, commenting on projects and processes, as well as spearheading the Ask an Architect initiative.
Barrie will be greatly missed by family, friends and former colleagues, leaving behind a legacy of a better built environment across Northern Ireland.
MAG Updating the DfC Minister Gordon Lyons
It has been great to have the Executive functioning again and to have Ministers providing political leadership since February. The Architecture + Built Environment Policy (which is currently in the throws of being reviewed) assigned the DCAL Minister as Design Champion, to whom MAG would provide advice.
Since the departmental changes in 2016, the mantle has been held by the Department for Communities Minister, and it was in that context that it was good to meet with Minister Gordon Lyons, providing an opportunity for the MAG Chair to outline areas of MAG’s work and its priorities in respect of effecting improved designs for people and planet. This had a particular focus on climate change responsibilities. A key element of the discussion was the importance of collaboration, including between departments and of empowering good decision-making, drawing on independent advice. Minister Lyons subsequently wrote to all ministers, highlighting the importance of good design, particularly in the context of net-zero responsibilities and the availability of MAG to provide support, through its independent, expert advice.
Shaping Sustainable Town Centre's
Co-operation Ireland’s All-Island Local Authority Forum met on 31 May in Dublin. It saw a gathering of representatives, including Chief Executives, from many of the councils across the island, as well as people from the respective governments. The Department for Communities was represented by John Smith (Deputy Permanent Secretary) and Gerard Murray (Director of Regional Development).
The event was a good opportunity to hear examples of town centre renewal and to share experiences. Professor Leigh Sparks from Stirling University is a leader in the sector, who for many years has been highly regarded for his work in Scotland, which has been the benchmark for countries across the world.
The Town Centre First Programme in Ireland is seeing plans developed which are galvanising communities and underpinning funding applications and delivery of substantive improvements. Speakers from New Ross in County Wexford and Tubbercurry in County Sligo provided valuable insights.
The panel discussion chaired by Gerard Murray, brought a range of perspectives. This included the new Chair of the Scottish Towns Partnership, Kimberley Guthrie; Mairéad Hunt, Ireland’s, National Town Centre First Co-ordinator; Marie Ward the Chief Executive of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council; and Martin Lydon the Chief Executive of Sligo County Council; along with Andrew Haley, who brought to the discussion MAG’s Living High Street experience.
The event was excellent, with senior decision-makers and influencers sharing their experience and recognising the importance of community-led, collaborative processes to develop plans and deliver sustainable regeneration.
First Street Cooperative launch of proposal for a Community and Cooperative Hub at 4 North Howard Street, Belfast
First Street Cooperative is a collective of charitable and cooperative organisations, which aims to refurbish the ‘Heritage at Risk’ former Greave’s linen mill, North Howard Street, Belfast, for community and cooperative use.
The launch event was held in their premises at North Howard Street on 10th June 2024 and was attended by a range of groups and individuals, conservation enthusiasts, neighbouring businesses including the Conway Mill Preservation Trust, and MAG, among many others.
Since 2023, the group has engaged widely with the community sector and various stakeholders on that project and has developed a vision for the reuse of the building and the surrounding area, which has been well-articulated by their architects, MMAS, with a series of evocative drawings, including scale models.
Stiofán Ó Nualláin, of Trademark Belfast welcomed everyone to the event, and outlined the opportunity of the project to create a shared space and an economic development asset that will employ local people and act as a centre to drive community wealth building and co-operative development.
This was followed by a powerful short film that included interviews with women who once worked in the mill, sharing their personal narratives richly infused with stories of the sounds and smells of the working lives of the mill women. All of whom were supportive of the opportunity to retain one of the city’s last remaining mill buildings and to transform its derelict husk.
MMAS Architects, led by MAG Expert Advisor Garreth McMahon, identified a strategy of neighbourliness through openings of edges and boundaries forming pocket gardens and courtyards, that connects to the houses in Conway Place, and the myriad of users in the mill buildings of the Conway Mill Preservation Trust. That urban tactic combined with a minimalist interventionalist approach to the buildings, grounds the First Street Co-operative project in its place, and declares an ambition for architecture that is sensitive, and which lets the civic scale of the interior spaces and the raw material aesthetic be mute background to the exciting array of potential user groups, and businesses.
A huge amount of work, and thought has already been invested in this project, including a Business Plan, and, the client, architect, and other professional advisors have formed a close-working collaborative team that continues to explore how the building might operate, day and evening, and afford easy access despite the nighttime closure of the gates at North Howard Street.
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