Inhabiting the Irish Border through the Northern Ireland Protocol

The Irish border has been shifting between conditions of porosity and resistance, causing the border areas to be mutating accordingly. Belleek is crossed by the border at the main highway, which connects the village with the main cities. Throughout the history of the Irish border, the site has acquired its own minor histories that were reflected on the built environment.

Through an exploration of these histories, this project is studying the series of mutations that took place in the area and using the material and conceptual elements of the past variations of the site, is proposing the development the current one. The nature of the border today is defined by the Northern Ireland Protocol. According to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Irish border provides unique conditions for the imports, exports, and movement of agricultural/food products.

Applying with literalism the trade protocol into building form, three warehouses are proposed to inhabit the Irish border at Belleek to accommodate for the storage, display, and sale of products. The form of the buildings has been “molded” by the border resulting in their irregularity. The border is running through the warehouses and the ambiguity of the protocol allows for a realm of possibilities to emerge for the user when crossing it within them. The proposal is implementing humor in architecture, aiming to shift the nature of infrastructure on the Irish border. Taking from the ephemerality of the protocol, the warehouses are mountable and demountable and modular in their construction, making the structures adaptive to change and their elements potentially reused.

Using the material elements of the mutating highway structures of the site, the warehouses are exploring the aesthetic potential of industrial materiality. Steel truss frames become ornaments of the space; transparent polycarbonate panels turn into transparent glowing volumes: a celebration of simple materials that are treated with care.