Under the Shelter of Each Other/ Ar Scáth a Chéile

Under the Shelter of Each Other/ Ar Scáth a Chéile

Design Competition for Designers and Makers, 2024



‘Under the Shelter of Each Other/Ar Scáth a Chéile’ is a collaboration between 9ft in Common, Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) and JP Corry Design Competition as part of a Belfast 24 commission. With a first prize of £1,500, it challenges designers, makers, and anyone with a good idea, to propose creative ideas for a wall-mounted, collapsible shelter in a residential alleyway in Belfast. While the proposals should be site-specific, concepts submitted should be transferable to other alleys and walls across the city and beyond.

9ft in Common: A Manifesto for the Alleys is a city-wide creative programme, led by Starling Start and Studio idir, which is exploring the social and spatial potential of often-overlooked spaces. It is a large-scale, collaborative investigation into the residential alleys and entries that crisscross Belfast, prompting citizens to reconsider the possibilities lying just beyond their backyard doors.

Competition Aims

The competition aims to:

● Generate debate, interest and discussion on both the heritage and potential future uses of Belfast’s alleyways, as social spaces of connection
● Explore what role mini design competitions can play in delivering imaginative small projects which enrich the urban environment
● Give new life to a small piece of leftover space in our built heritage
● Unleash and showcase the creative talents of designers and makers in Northern Ireland

Key Information

● Brief: Propose a collapsible, wall-mounted shelter in a Belfast alleyway for the good of all residents, which does not obstruct the alley for other users. The shelter should be approximately 2m x 1m when open and provide shelter for at least 2 people. When not in use, it should collapse or fold away to allow safe and easy passage of vehicles and pedestrians along the alley.
● Materials: All to be sourced from JP Corry, totalling around £500, or under.
● Eligibility: This competition is open to designers and makers, students, or anyone with a good idea, either living or born in Northern Ireland. You are welcome to enter as an individual, or as a team.
● Location: The location of the shelter will be announced later in August, to be fixed to a wall in a Belfast alleyway. The design, however, should be replicable anywhere.

Submission

To enter the competition, you must submit your design as a set of illustrated instructions for how your shelter would be constructed. These must be presented on an A1 poster, to be submitted in PDF format, at a size of no more than 10MB.

Poster - the poster must include:

• The project title
• A range of images/drawings/diagrams to best convey your idea/concept for an alley shelter, and how it could be built and used
• The key image that conveys your idea for the shelter
• A 100-word summary of your proposal
• A list of the materials from JP Corry that will be used to make your shelter

Explain/Propose - In less than 500 words:

• a title for your project
• the design vision
• how your project will meet the brief
• the overall cost for materials

Display - identify a lead image (in jpeg format) plus two supporting images for display at the showcase and provide a 100 word summary of your proposal. These should be at a size of no less than 2MB and no more than 4MB.

All files should have a title that includes the title of the project. As the competition will be judged anonymously, no applicant names should be included on the submission documents.

Please note that ideas submitted will be Open Source, and available for others to build and adapt for their own alley or wall in Belfast and beyond.

Competition Timeline

The competition is being run to the following timetable:

● 8 August 2024 – competition launch
● 4 October 2024 – submission deadline
● w/c 7 October 2024 – panel assessment
● 18 October 2024 – Showcase of entrants & announcement of winner at Architecture Night 2024, venue TBC
● November 2024 - winning entrant meets with contractor and alley residents to progress design
● December 2024, construction of shelter

Judging

The judging panel is to consist of:

● Architects from the RSUA Peer-Approved Design Quality Panel
● Representatives from 9ft in Common
● A representative from JP Corry
● A resident from the recipient alley

Proposals will be judged on:

● Creativity and design (30%)
● Meeting the brief (30%)
● Buildability (20%)
● Clarity of instructions/presentation (10%)
● Value for money (10%)

Prize
The winning project will be constructed in an alley before the end of 2024, and the winner will be awarded £1,500, courtesy of 9ft in Common and Belfast 24. There will also be runner up prizes. All entrants will be showcased on Architecture Night on 18 October 2024 (venue tbc), and again in an alleyway exhibition. Shortlisted entrants will receive a complimentary ticket to Architecture Night. The winning proposal will be constructed in a Belfast alley by the end of the year.

It is hoped that all entries will inspire people to create shelters in their alleys, and that, in time, we might see the competition entries inspiring all sorts of collapsible shelters to emerge across Belfast’s alleys.

Registration
To register, please email Kerry Campbell ([email protected]). You will be issued with a unique registration number which will ensure that the submissions are anonymous for judging purposes. Please register as early as possible.

Contacts and Resources

To find out more about 9ft in Common, visit: www.9ftincommon.com, and follow @9ftincommon on Instagram.

For any questions about materials, contact Connor Couston at JP Corry, [email protected] or 07525672201

And look at websites:
www.jpcorry.com for a wide range of products - (Link opens in new window)
www.jpcorrysolutions.com -  click on ‘solution’ tab and then ‘garden and landscaping’ for project ideas and links to products used - (Link opens in new window)

Please note JP Corry supplies and services extend beyond what is visible on the site, so if there are other products of interest, Connor will be happy to help source these.

Previous design competitions
RSUA has been running design competitions for early career architects since 2016 with a mix of ideas-only competitions and competitions that aspire to deliver a built project.

Design Box was the winning entry in the 2023 early career architect design competition ‘Please replace the handset and try again’. The challenge was to repurpose a derelict red phone box in the centre of Belfast. Design Box is due to be completed by Autumn 2024. 

The 2019 project Sound Yard along the Maritime Mile was launched on 20 October 2021. See more info here.
The first built project year was 2017. Here is a review of that completed project – Built:East.