StreetSpace
Spaces of Democracy
Newtownards Road
MArch Unit - 2025/26
Queen’s University Belfast

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Supervisor

Agustina Martire

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Editors

Aisling Madden
Agustina Martire

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Students

MArch2

Alena Romanovskaya
Anna Thompson
Bita Shoaei
Fatemeh Maghferatishamsabad
Matthew McKittrick
Rachel Fogarty
Zoé Mangan

MArch1

Abby Mulligan
Ellie-Mae Breen
Jernej Klenovšek
Léna Le Carboulec-Château
Lorcan Doherty
Mahsa Mousavi
Melanie Tan
Neža Sevčnikar

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Tutors

Agustina Martire
Aoife McGee

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Advisory Team

Aisling Madden
Aisling Rusk
Azadeh Sobout
Cormac Friel
James Hennessey
Jasna Mariotti
Lawrence Lord
Nico Larco
Ruth Hunter
Sophie Jones

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Clients/Partners

Civic Engagement at Queen’s
Department for Communities
Department for Infrastructure
Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls - The EVAWG research in public spaces was supported by the UK Medical Research Council’s Public Health Intervention Development scheme (PHIND) (UKRI158), the UK Prevention Research Partnership (MR/V049704/1), and Agility Funding from Queen’s University Belfast

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Acknowledgements

The StreetSpace studio is led by Dr Agustina Martire, Reader in Architecture and Co-Director of the M.Arch programme, and Aoife McGee, architect and lecturer, whose work focuses on socially conscious, contextually grounded, and climate-resilient design.

The studio has been strengthened through collaboration with key partners, including the Department for Infrastructure, Department for Communities, Belfast City Council, the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls initiative, and Civic Engagement at Queen’s University Belfast, whose support has been central to this year’s work.

The programme has also benefited from the contributions of an external advisory team, including Dr Aisling Rusk, Dr James Hennessey, Professor Nico Larco, Dr Azadeh Sobout, Aisling Madden, Ruth Hunter, Sophie Jones and Cormac Friel, whose expertise has informed the studio’s research and approach.

We also acknowledge the Porto study trip with the full year group as an important moment of shared learning and exchange.

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Introduction

Democracy is increasingly under pressure, and nowhere is this more visible than in public space. The rules that govern how space is used, and who has the right to use it, are shifting, often in ways that go unnoticed. As citizens, remaining alert to these transformations is essential. Design has the capacity to include as much as it can exclude, and architects are therefore uniquely positioned to intervene, shaping spaces that are more accessible, inclusive, and open to diverse communities and practices.

This year, the StreetSpace studio collaborates with the Department for Infrastructure, Department for Communities, the VAWG Project at Queen’s University Belfast (focused on the prevention of violence against women and girls in public space) and Civic Engagement at Queen’s to explore the relationship between democracy and public space in East Belfast.

Belfast has endured more than eighty years of car-dominated planning, resulting in forms of spatial segregation with deep social and emotional consequences. Challenging this legacy is both urgent and necessary. Across the world, shifts towards active travel and reduced car dependency are reclaiming streets for people, gradually transforming the public realm. Yet in Belfast, inertia and resistance continue to slow this process. The studio’s focus extends beyond mobility alone to consider the broader transformation of everyday spaces, spaces that can foster encounter, dialogue, and the shared experiences that sustain democratic life.

Over the past eight years, the StreetSpace studio has examined housing and mobility in some of Belfast’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This year, attention turns to public space, both indoor and outdoor, as a site of democracy. Working along the Newtownards Road in East Belfast, students investigated spatial form, patterns of use, and social practices. Through processes of ethnography, mapping, and graphic anthropology, the studio develops methods of drawing lived experience. Walking workshops and interviews with local community groups form a central part of this work, generating insight into how public spaces are perceived, negotiated, and contested in everyday life.

This research leads to an exploration of the thresholds between public and private, culminating in small-scale threshold design interventions that test ideas in situ. The second phase of the studio builds on these findings, as each student develops a site-specific brief responding to the needs and aspirations of local communities. These proposals are situated within a wider spatial strategy for East Belfast and take the form of individual infill projects that collectively contribute to a more inclusive and democratic public realm.

The studio is led by Agustina Martire and Aoife McGee, whose work centres on the collective nature of architecture and its capacity to advance spatial justice in the city.

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