Elevating the ‘in-between’ in a city with two names. Derry/ Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

The core idea for this ESALA MArch studio has been to research ‘edge effects’, (changes in community and spatial structure that occur at the boundary of two or more habitats) and the ‘in-between’ they generate, referred to in ecology as the ‘ecotone’, (a region of transition between two biological communities). The old walled city of Derry lies on the west bank of the River Foyle, in the Foyle basin in the north-west corner of Northern Ireland. This has been our canvas, our test bed for exploration, synthesis, and ideation.

As a studio we have physically, digitally, and metaphorically walked our selected edges, uncovering, recording, unpicking and extracting narratives, as a springing-off point for a series of architectural and landscape propositions, driven by place specific prerogatives of enhancing and enriching the urban eco-tone.