Abstract
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Unknown Host Publication |
| Pages | 1-31 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Volume | TBC |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 15 Mar 2017 |
| Event | Cities, Communities and Homes: Is the Urban Future Livable? - University of Derby, Derby UK Duration: 15 Mar 2017 → … |
Conference
| Conference | Cities, Communities and Homes: Is the Urban Future Livable? |
|---|---|
| Period | 15/03/17 → … |
Fingerprint
Keywords
- City
- Belfast
- Troubles
- Peace Walls
- Housing Estates
- Arterial Routes
- Commerce
- Culture
- Architecture
- Construction
- Façadism
- identity
- Signs
- Symbols
- Memory
- Hegemony
- Ideology
- Symbolic landscape
- Genius Loci
- Built Environment
- Meaning
- Photographic Archive
- Sense Of Place
- Society.
Cite this
}
Signs of a city: semiotic markers at odds with constructed narratives in Belfast. / Brolly, Ruth; Montgomery, Ian.
Unknown Host Publication. Vol. TBC 2017. p. 1-31.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
TY - GEN
T1 - Signs of a city: semiotic markers at odds with constructed narratives in Belfast
AU - Brolly, Ruth
AU - Montgomery, Ian
N1 - Abstract accepted - Paper not yet completed. There are four separate publication outlets: There is a conference proceedings publication as part of the event series with its own ISSN. Delegates will also be considered for inclusion in two books series with UCL Press and Libri Publishing, respectively. In addition, the scholarly journal Architecture_MPS ISSN will run a Special Issue on housing. Reference text: Brett, D. (1996:1). The construction of heritage, Cork University Press, Cork. Bevan, R. (2006:8). The destruction of memory : architecture at war, Reaktion, London.
PY - 2017/3/15
Y1 - 2017/3/15
N2 - Belfast, perhaps despite, perhaps because of its ‘troubled’ past, is a city with culture, memory, history and myth at its core. Now architecturally and geographically permeated the city has, since the ‘Troubles’ of the 1960s, seen a prescribed solution of walls concentrated in the city’s most socio-economically deprived areas. The duality of the walls continues to ensure isolation of communities in social housing estates located on the city’s arterial routes, while major roads initiatives further redefine its boundaries. Currently the city centre is seeing unprecedented redevelopment to create a culturally neutral commercial and tourist hub, underpinned by a narrative of carefully selected stories, reinforced by appropriate ‘visual and architectural representation’. With construction at its highest level since 2008 and 30 development schemes underway or recently completed #BelfastCraneCount, currently trending on twitter, reports 27 cranes in the Belfast skyline. The city is has become an architectural composite as postmodern structures fracture the traditional Victorian red brick and sandstone landscape, eradicating ‘memories, history and identity attached to the architecture and place’. Indeed ‘facadism, it seems, may often be the best architectural heritage bodies can hope for in preserving something of Belfast’s historic built environment. Yet on the city’s arterial routes cultural identities remain bound up in built environments still divested with meaning through signs and symbols, where collective memory, hegemonies and group ideologies ensure a narrative of continuity. Even with a ‘genius loci’ constantly under threat, the socially produced symbolic landscape of the city’s arterial routes remains imbued with meaning through tangible and visible expressions of culture. This paper, a result of interdisciplinary inquiry, examines how Belfast’s greater built environment is divested with meaning, as buildings and signage combine to create a sense of place. Supported by a photographic archive, the paper demonstrates how such an inquiry can provide a reliable barometer of socio-economic and societal undercurrents, despite any ‘smoke and mirrors’ reimaging concentrated on the city’s core, redefining how the city is ‘viewed by others’, if not by the inhabitants themselves.
AB - Belfast, perhaps despite, perhaps because of its ‘troubled’ past, is a city with culture, memory, history and myth at its core. Now architecturally and geographically permeated the city has, since the ‘Troubles’ of the 1960s, seen a prescribed solution of walls concentrated in the city’s most socio-economically deprived areas. The duality of the walls continues to ensure isolation of communities in social housing estates located on the city’s arterial routes, while major roads initiatives further redefine its boundaries. Currently the city centre is seeing unprecedented redevelopment to create a culturally neutral commercial and tourist hub, underpinned by a narrative of carefully selected stories, reinforced by appropriate ‘visual and architectural representation’. With construction at its highest level since 2008 and 30 development schemes underway or recently completed #BelfastCraneCount, currently trending on twitter, reports 27 cranes in the Belfast skyline. The city is has become an architectural composite as postmodern structures fracture the traditional Victorian red brick and sandstone landscape, eradicating ‘memories, history and identity attached to the architecture and place’. Indeed ‘facadism, it seems, may often be the best architectural heritage bodies can hope for in preserving something of Belfast’s historic built environment. Yet on the city’s arterial routes cultural identities remain bound up in built environments still divested with meaning through signs and symbols, where collective memory, hegemonies and group ideologies ensure a narrative of continuity. Even with a ‘genius loci’ constantly under threat, the socially produced symbolic landscape of the city’s arterial routes remains imbued with meaning through tangible and visible expressions of culture. This paper, a result of interdisciplinary inquiry, examines how Belfast’s greater built environment is divested with meaning, as buildings and signage combine to create a sense of place. Supported by a photographic archive, the paper demonstrates how such an inquiry can provide a reliable barometer of socio-economic and societal undercurrents, despite any ‘smoke and mirrors’ reimaging concentrated on the city’s core, redefining how the city is ‘viewed by others’, if not by the inhabitants themselves.
KW - City
KW - Belfast
KW - Troubles
KW - Peace Walls
KW - Housing Estates
KW - Arterial Routes
KW - Commerce
KW - Culture
KW - Architecture
KW - Construction
KW - Façadism
KW - identity
KW - Signs
KW - Symbols
KW - Memory
KW - Hegemony
KW - Ideology
KW - Symbolic landscape
KW - Genius Loci
KW - Built Environment
KW - Meaning
KW - Photographic Archive
KW - Sense Of Place
KW - Society.
UR - http://architecturemps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Ruth_Brolly-and-Ian_Montgomery_Signs-of-a-city-semiotic-markers-at-odds-with-constructed-narratives-in-Belfast_Abstract-UoD.pdf
UR - http://architecturemps.com/derbyconference/
M3 - Conference contribution
VL - TBC
SP - 1
EP - 31
BT - Unknown Host Publication
ER -