Projects in PS1 specifically responded to the nature of transactions, how these might change in the context of Brexit and what implications they will have along the border while maintaining the principles of the Good Friday agreement, this included explorations of cross-border mobility and new kinds of spaces and how these might drive changes in residential accommodation. The students appraised the cultural, political and economic context of Belleek to explore housing as a border condition. We asked that their ideas should be manifest in a global context and produce housing which is effectively sustainable and typologies that are transferrable to other territories with similar conditions. Schemes had to take account of the alternative building regulations on either side of the border.

Extending these ideas, PS2 explored the nature of contactless transactions at the scale of the high street and the city through increasingly obsolescent building typologies, such as Banks. Students were asked to make a proposal for the re-use of the Bank of Ireland Building (Joseph Vincent Downes, 1929-30) in central Belfast which included both transaction spaces and work spaces. Students then developed a workpackage of drawings which explicitly address matters of climate change and carbon literacy, professionalism and building and life safety. Projects reflected on the heightened need for contactlessness during the course of the unit as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Set in Belfast, these projects now form the basis for discussions with Belfast City Council about the future development of the city centre.