Built: East Pavilion

Project Info

Built: East Pavilion is this year’s Small Project winner. Judge David Morley says, “We all know what a Belfast sink is but few of us knew what a Belfast truss was until we were presented with this project. This modest project deserves recognition for how it uses timber to positively engage the community as a flexible place to move through, meet, mend bicycles or, initially, to hold an exhibition to remind the community of its heritage.”

Built: East was the winning design in The Belfast Flare competition run by the Royal Society of Ulster Architects.

With cultural identity being a divisive issue, it was important to find cultural common ground shared across the neighbouring communities. The site has a rich industrial history, and the Belfast truss represents the area’s history of manufacturing ingenuity. Originally designed to make use of waste ship building timber, the Belfast truss also inspired the team to make careful use of resources. Many of the city’s largest factories had such a roof, including the Belfast Ropeworks which previously faced the site.

Each element evokes memories of the area’s industrial structures. Rather than a nostalgic look backwards, it draws attention to Northern Ireland’s emerging construction innovation and contributes to the local economy. The pavilion is an assembly of three elements, each crafted in a local factory. Traditional craft skills combined with innovative technologies created bespoke building components that could be rapidly assembled on site. 1:1 scale prototypes were CNC produced to develop the design of each truss and joint. The entire roof structure was assembled in the factory before being dismantled and transported to site.