An Architect’s Account of DRIFT

04/03/2025

This article is featured in Volume 34, Issue No. 1 of Perspective magazine, to purchase a copy click here.

A Floating Pavilion for Belfast’s River Lagan

Introduction: A project for Belfast 2024

DRIFT, a floating pavilion on Belfast’s River Lagan, was one of 18 art pieces commissioned by Belfast 2024 (Belfast City Council) as part of a year-long programme of creative projects and events celebrating the city. A collaboration between OGU Architects, MMAS and sound artist Matilde Meireles, DRIFT was an artwork and also a piece of urban research. Recognising that the stretch of the Lagan running through the city is largely separated from the public – a problem worsened by the recent flood wall construction – it aimed to create opportunities for people to connect to their river and to investigate possibilities for creating better public space at the water’s edge. Although the pavilion was largely kept unprogrammed between 10am-6pm for people to visit and inhabit as a prototypical public space on the water, a series of activities and events were curated with partnership organisations which attracted further audiences and aligned with the project aim to foster connections to the river and its issues. These included plant identification workshops, ecology presentations, music, bat detection, river themed films, mindfulness sessions, stargazing and talks about light pollution.

A Pavilion that Adapts to its Site

The pavilion moored at two locations over September 2024. The first was Stranmillis Weir, a beautiful site at the start of the Lagan Towpath partially enclosed by the regional park woodland. The second site in the city centre outside Waterfront Hall had longer views up and down the river between Queen’s Bridge and the Lagan Railway Bridge. The structure took a different form each time to respond to these two contrasting sites. The same kit of parts was designed to fit together in a variety of forms so at the first location the pontoons zig-zagged away from the edge, creating a sequence of spaces and a sense of escaping into the middle of the water. At the second, more urban location, interaction between people on land and those inside the pavilion was encouraged with a more open envelope and the pontoons were arranged as one large room wrapped around suspended catamaran net overhanging the Lagan. Using scaffolding and a palette of reusable or biodegradable materials allowed the structure to be installed, disassembled and reassembled within five weeks.

A Collaboration Between Architects and a Sound Artist

Collaborating with sound artist Matilde Meireles was crucial to the project theme of ‘interference’. The team were interested in the relationships between humans and the river’s non-human inhabitants as part of their investigation into creating public space at the river’s edge. Through various recording techniques, Meireles was able to draw attention to phenomena that are usually out of human sight or hearing range, such as underwater activity, electromagnetic interference and life that flourishes in darkness. Visitors were given the option to listen to a sonic work created by Meireles that incorporated sounds evoking the lifecycle of water with sounds of the structure itself. On top of this, five public “Listening Sessions” – live performances of site specific work by Meireles – took place on the structure to further explore the sonic qualities of the locations. The materials used to construct DRIFT were crucial to the multisensory design of the pavilion. The floating structure moved with the water and the wind so the materials’ stirring could be heard. Therefore, in order to tell a story about a human relationship with the river, the sonic qualities of the materials chosen were as important as the visual impact. The creaking of the rolling gangway, flapping of fabric and jangling of eyelets evoke memories of the river. Meireles cleverly recorded this along with subtler sounds such as stretching rope so that this became part of the experience of the space as well. This worked alongside visual references to river infrastructure: cotton rope in a variety of blue shades references the blue nylon rope found wherever people are working with water. Fabric screens evoke tarpaulins and sails. The aluminium scaffold and brackets pick up the language of weirs and utilitarian structures on the water.

Urban Research: Discoveries and Suggestions

Identifying that large stretches of the Lagan are disconnected from the city and not publicly accessible, the project allowed people to step onto the river and experience the water from a perspective usually reserved for rowers and boat-owners. Because the project was actually on the water, the team encountered a series of challenges which were overcome in order to deliver a publicly accessible pavilion: a new company had to be formed in the process. One of the major findings was how spending time on the water positively affected people. However, an overly blunt approach to risk aversion underpins the modus operandi of many of the city’s institutions controlling the development of the river’s edge. If the city is to develop better quality connections and improved accessibility to the Lagan this needs further exploration. 

The commissioning of the work as a piece of art determined a certain scale as well as temporariness and demountability. This lightness and delicacy gave the project a sensitivity to weather and the movement of the water that large-scale river’s-edge projects usually do not have. This made the future conditions of increased flooding and the precarity of conditions for non-human species extremely tangible to those experiencing the pavilion and especially the community of people who became more deeply involved in the DRIFT project. This drew attention to the potential benefit small, flexible, engaged urban projects along the Lagan would have both for people and the river ecosystem: a method of making places that encourages an understanding of the river and works with rather than against the dynamic role the river will take in shaping the future city.

Collaboration: OGU Architects | MMAS | Matilde Meireles (Sound Artist)

Architect’s Account – Rachel O’Grady (Director, OGU Architects)

This article is featured in Volume 34, Issue No. 1 of Perspective magazine, to purchase a copy click here.

The Team:

Client: Belfast 2024 – Belfast City Council
Architect: OGU Architects + MMAS
Sound Artist: Matilde Meireles
Engineer: Design ID
Construction: Inland and Coastal Marina Systems, Advanced NI Scaffolding, Cimpina UK and Cuan Marine Services, with support from Department for Communities
Supported by: Queen’s University Belfast: Sonic Arts Research Centre and Research and Enterprise Directorate
Photography: Joe Laverty / Elyse Kennedy

Client Statement

We commissioned DRIFT as a strategic, active research project to explore the potential of Belfast’s River Lagan. Engagement with public, private and third sectors on attitudes to the river informed a co-designed approach to the structure and ways that the water could become more accessible. The result was a striking, transient public space that shape-shifted its way downstream, inspiring people and crucially for us, building an evidence base to advocate for more consideration of and investment in our river. DRIFT was part of Belfast 2024, a year-long programme of ambitious public projects commissioned and co-produced by Belfast City Council. – John McIlduff. Belfast 2024 Creative Lead