Street Society 2015: In the East Belfast Urban Village

Street Society is an annual event where small groups of architecture students from Queen’s University Belfast spend one week working with a client from the not-for-profit or voluntary sector. In 2015 Street Society focused its efforts on a limited geographical area, for the first time, and partnered with a government-led urban regeneration initiative, which is developing four ‘Urban Villages’ in the Belfast area. Street Society 2015 targeted its energies on the East Belfast Urban Village, which centres on the lower section of the Newtownards Road. From the 9th to the 13th of March, Street Society developed 11 projects which aimed to improve the public realm in this part of the city. Throughout this time the staff and students worked from a pop-up office in the area, which operated from a previously empty retail space called the Skyline Building. The clients were invited to visit the pop-up office to see the work in progress and contribute to its development as they saw fit.