The Infinite City

In this final episode of Season 1, we explore a lesser known chapter in the tumultuous history of housing in Belfast. Marianne Elliott, a retired professor of history, walks us through the place she grew up.

The estate in North Belfast where Marianne’s family lived was built as part of a radical experiment in social housing. Its successes and its failures hold important lessons for a city still struggling with how to build a shared future.

Marianne Elliott's "Hearthlands - A Memoir of the White City housing estate in Belfast" was published by Blackstaff Press in 2017. 

We have a special announcement - we will be recording a LIVE episode on 21st October 2018 at SARC in Belfast! We hope you can join us. Listen to the end of the episode for details.

In this episode, we meet the conservation architect Andrew McClelland. He tells us about the hidden history of Castlecourt - one of the biggest city centre developments of the twentieth century in Belfast.

How does a big development like this happen in the city? And what else - demolished or unbuilt - might have stood in its place?

For this special episode, Conor sat down with our PLACE colleague Jane Morrow to talk about an exciting upcoming project, the Urban Design Academy.

In 2015, Gallaudet University in Washington DC set about finding an architect to design a new part of its 150 year old campus. Fifty-one architecture firms from across the world threw their hat in the ring, but it was Hall McKnight, a small practice based in a humble brick building on an East Belfast industrial estate that clinched the prestigious project.

In this episode, architect Richard Dougherty, who has been deaf from birth, talks about bringing his personal experiences into the design of "Deaf Space" for the Gallaudet project.

The Infinite City is a production of PLACE, Northern Ireland's Built Environment Centre. It is produced by Rebekah McCabe and Conor McCafferty, with assistance from Maria Postanogova and Stuart Gray. It is supported by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Arts and Business Northern Ireland.

We're back with Episode 4 on Thursday 14th June. In the meantime, Conor and Rebekah have some recommendations for good 'city listens'. See you next week!