The aim of this project is to encourage people to look at and see the city in a different way. To see what is unique about Belfast, but also what it has in common with other cities. To perceive other colours than the usual ones. We want to demonstrate a way to understand the current developments in the city, and to propose a critical interpretation of what is happening.

Most importantly we want to show examples of where citizens have generated their own collective solutions to the problems of urban life. In the context of the acknowledged weaknesses of planning institutions in Northern Ireland, it is possible for people to exercise their ownership of the city, to direct global forces for the common good and mitigate the worst aspects of them. The alternative is to see the city fragment even further, and for segregation to be built-in to Belfast for another generation…. Why not a yellower Belfast for everyone?

Let us look closer at how cities can be more ‘yellow’. In the following pages are collected some case studies that show the links between infrastructure, buildings, space, and society. The projects range from property development to community development, and involve many different interests: individuals, private companies, local authorities, community groups, etc. What they have in common is the breakdown of boundaries between public institutions and private actors, and the construction of new networks of social and economic entrepreneurs. Together these projects constitute an empirical definition of what we mean by ‘civil enterprise’.