Ormeau Parklet, Belfast
As life rapidly changed during the pandemic of 2020, it was obvious that the increase of people being at home & needing to be outdoors resulted in congeston on our streets. Born out of that change, was the Ormeau Parklet, designed by OGU & MMAS Architects, in conjungction with Belfast City Council, .
In OGU’s words:
A desire to support local businesses and promote better street life on the Ormeau Road following the Covid 19 pandemic brought Belfast Buildings Trust, OGU Architects, MMAS Architects and Queen’s University together in an attempt to find quick, cheap ways of converting parking space to ensure social distancing, facilitate trading and create better public access to open shared spaces.
The team has converted five on-street parking spaces into designed outdoor space using temporary urbanism and collaborative co-design approaches. The additional pavement space can be used by the public for physical distancing, and by cafes and restaurants for business purposes, on a test and trial basis. The project incorporates a range of community and business engagement approaches as a collaborative local test for wider civic use. It is also evidence-based with impact and research studies to help inform other urban placemaking projects in Belfast. It is the first parklet delivered in Northern Ireland.
As with other collaborations with OGU, I documented the construction process, along with a day of planting by the local community.
The project was featured on the front cover of RSUA’s perspective Magazine.
