ARCHITECTURE Feature ARCHITECTURE

BELFAST’S UPWARD SPIRAL L stood looking at the building I was aware of people looking at me, as they passed, wondering what there was to look at. Was it all a well-kept architectural secret?

The large rectangular concrete forms 72 of the extension pushed restlessly out 73 from the walls like a stack of froebal blocks, weightless and at the same time monolithic. On entering I was told to take the lift to the top and walk down.The soft curvaceous forms of New York’s Guggenheim spiral was replaced here with a more mysterious, Casbah like, intensity of light and space. Above me, the superstructures that enclosed the spaces of the museum, were held against the forces of gravity with the precariousness of a frozen waterfall.

Emerging from the lift I was at the height of the treetops glimpsing over the city and the distant hills. Things looked different from here.The I had known only from TV and radio news was transformed by this building. The balconies, terraces and big windows, asked me to look and think again on the city I could see before me. The lift that had taken me to the top had dramatised, like some decompression chamber, the contrast between the low entry space and the very large gallery volumes I was standing in. The terraces that pushed out from the spiral were all locked. “Pym’s drawings -large charcoal and pastel There was no way out on ‘deck’. sketches show heroic and bold intentions as

I walked down through the spiral that beautifully naive as Utzon’s sails. His leap of day, through , history, science and nature. Stopping for coffee in what imagination is forever frozen in time in concrete.”

was then the original restaurant, I looked out to the views below of the old graveyard and the Botanic Gardens.A large terrace from the café - formed by a projecting slab of It was the mid 80’s and I was made from concrete, it lifted towards Through the trees, a silver elephant storage rooms, extended the space standing in a second-hand bookshop the sky, behind tall trees. I read the skin of carefully shuttered concrete outdoors and would have given the in Glasgow looking through a volume description to find out where it was - was illuminated in the afternoon sun. feeling of being amidst the trees, but on modern architecture. It was the Extension to the Museum, The two structures – the original it too was closed. Somehow amidst kind of book that had long been Botanic Gardens, Belfast. neoclassical building and the an unintentional process of neglect, discarded as a coffee table slab, due extension, were radically different, yet the overall power of the spiral was to the unfashionable nature of Later, on a visit to Northern , I woven together in an almost still vivid. With time running out, I modern architecture. I saw a made my way to Belfast. At the geological way. I felt like a made my way back down to ‘terra photograph of a building. Looking like entrance to the Botanic Gardens I palaeontologist discovering the firma’. There was just not enough L a three-dimensional Jacob’s Ladder passed a statue of the scientist Kelvin. remains of a lost . As I time. Perhaps there never would be. L Courtesy: The Office of Francis Pym PERSPECTIVE PERSPECTIVE ARCHITECTURE FEATURE ARCHITECTURE

and pastel sketches show heroic and L Like a city in microcosm, The museum extension deserves discovery in a of International bold intentions as beautifully naive architectural territories have been new investment. Buildings like this tourism, bringing new expectations. as Utzon’s sails. The leap of claimed or lost. The sculptural can now be reconsidered for their The energy and confidence that is imagination is forever frozen in time entrance ramp and terrace have been quality and importance to our taking shape in Belfast to develop in concrete. turned into a car park. The courtyard contemporary culture. The ‘snow and implement a policy on to the old building roofed over. A blindness’ to our recent past has architecture and to open a new In 1972 the building opens. The shop and cloakroom are filled us only with preconceptions centre for architecture and the built 74 slowness of architecture is overtaken uncomfortably placed. The boundary that have devalued and stopped us environment (PLACE) has focused a 75 by events.The long period of gestation to the botanic gardens destroyed with reclaiming an important part of our passion and energy for change. Part and completion delivers the building cheap fencing.The entrance sequence architectural history. The work of of this process is valuing and into a time of ’s worst to one side blocked in and painted. various modern architects, such as safeguarding our contemporary period of conflict. Soon the architect The terraces are still out of bounds Denys Lasdun have come through culture. The spiral stands beside the and the building are forgotten as and the upper sculpture court looks the same cycle of complacent gaze of Kelvin, testament to the other events take hold. like a collection of leftover remnants neglect to re-emerge to be importance of discovery in our from a suburban garden. respected, published, and restored modern world. When I saw pictures of Zaha Hadid’s in the way they deserve. project for the New Contemporary The architect’s original intention of Paul Clarke Centre in Cincinnati with its walking upwards in the spiral has The extension to the Ulster Museum Paul Clarke is a Scottish born architect, dramatic projecting concrete volumes become diluted. We were meant to is a building of major architectural lecturer and writer formerly based in I thought of the museum. I wondered begin locally in the history of Belfast, importance. It awaits a wider Glasgow who is now living in Northern Ireland. how the extension must have on the ground floor -the extension of appeared when the shutters and the surface of the city, and then lift formwork were removed. upwards through history, science and nature to finish in the large spaces for The years that have passed have not modern art. We were meant to walk always been kind. Due to the out onto the terraces and sculpture pressures of restricted space, the court. To look out over the city and need for ever more sophisticated gardens and consider the ideas, environmental controls or simply in a images and objects that we have just counter effort to overturn some of the seen. Consider maybe, how they extensions own inherent might connect us to other cultures complexities, many adjustments and and ideas beyond these shores. additions have been carried out that have diluted its character. The The platforms of the spiral are like obligation to re-tell history with a vast geological shifts of space. They are quantity of objects and material has cultural ‘tectonic plates’, pulling and

L filled the ‘boat’ almost to sinking. Coming back to Belfast now almost ground - like the saga of the Sydney drifting apart to take us up over the Even the purchase of adjacent 18 years since I first saw the museum, Opera house, the architect resigned city. As the building folds, interlocks buildings to remove pressure on the I made my way back to the spiral. It and never returned to see the and spirals, it plays with our own extension cannot hold back the marked out for me a kind of decoding completed building. Later it seems he personal journey for knowledge. It is demands of occupancy that have of events. History had unravelled, but changed profession and turned to an icon to a period when architecture swelled way beyond the original brief. the museum like a landscape was religion (Perhaps the museum is more addressed at the very centre of its A game of spatial fire-fighting with fixed in a different time and space. transformative than I imagine). An responsibility, the optimism of the ever-expanding demands of a The power of the spiral guaranteeing assistant completed the project for modern life, culture and public space. the Northern Ireland Ministry of modern museum is played out with To the people who know and love it,

it a place in the shape of things. L “Now is the time to take stock. To look at the Finance.The drawings - large charcoal minimum budgets. it has remained a well-kept secret. The story behind the design and potential of the museum’s spaces, rooftop views, building of the extension has taken Now is the time to take stock. To look at the potential of the museum’s of adjacent sites for new staff accommodation on an almost mythic status.The young “The museum extension deserves new investment. and unknown architect Francis Pym spaces, rooftop views, of adjacent and parking. Take a fresh look at new materials produced a design for the Buildings like this can now be reconsidered for sites for new staff accommodation competition in 1964, which was and parking. Take a fresh look at new and methods used in modern exhibition design. their quality and importance to our contemporary materials and methods used in picked as outright winner. Nothing is To restore, clean and upgrade the shell. Perhaps known of his earlier work other than culture. The ‘snow blindness’ to our recent past modern exhibition design. To restore, a gazebo. The unusual and brilliant clean and upgrade the shell. Perhaps introduce some new buildings into the Botanic design solved the integration with the has filled us only with preconceptions that have introduce some new buildings into old building in an unexpected devalued and stopped us reclaiming an important the Botanic Gardens to intensify the Gardens to intensify the experience of the area experience of the area as a major masterstroke. In 1968 as soon as the as a major Cultural/Museum Park.” building starts to take shape from the part of our architectural history.” Cultural/Museum Park.

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