With funding from the University of Ulster and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Building Initiative and Friends of Woodvale Park developed tactics, methods, and active approaches to build consensus, confidence and capacity about the future of public space within this fragmented social context.

The HUB was run as a student project for second year Architecture students at the University of Ulster. This generated many diverse ideas, and broadened the discussion and possibilities beyond pre-conceived solutions. From February through to September 2008, Building Initiative carried out a series of workshops with the Friends of Woodvale Park to develop ideas for the cinder pitch site in the Park. These workshops were attended by local community workers, Shankill area residents, representatives from government agencies, and other stakeholders.

Building Initiative developed the “Woodvale HUB Board Game” as a tool to allow stakeholders to participate in the structural stages of planning, creative thinking and representation. Game pieces were produced to represent different conditions and functions ranging from landscape surfaces to buildings, each with corresponding construction and maintenance costs, thus allowing participants to prioritize proposals against different budget scenarios.

Workshops were carried out at local schools to get the crucial input of young people.
An interactive model of the proposal was made and this toured the area gathering further feedback.
Two “Yellow Press” newspapers were published and distributed throughout the Shankill area.
A design strategy was developed through this process and presented to potential funding bodies.

To learn more about the Design Process,click here