StreetSpace. A Method for saving the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast

Abstract

Local mixed-use streets are at the core of urban life. The twentieth century saw a radical transformation and destruction of many of these streets. Since the 1990s, practice followed 1960s scholarship in a return to valuing local mixed-use streets, but they are still under threat by large-scale urban development. The StreetSpace project studies this phenomenon since 2013, exploring ways of understanding local mixed-use streets as public spaces through the lenses of different disciplines, driven by architectural analysis. This paper will explain the significance of local mixed-use streets and the synergies developed between the StreetSpace project in Belfast and the SaveCQ campaign, which advocates to defend the Cathedral Quarter’s ‘historical importance, distinct character, and current prominence as the beating heart of Northern Ireland’s arts and cultural scene’.