MATILDE MEIRELES

DRIFT was a project commissioned by Belfast 2024 for Belfast's River Lagan. A collaboration between OGU, MMAS and sound artist Matilde Meireles, DRIFT hosted a series of listening sessions and related events in August and September 2024.

The pavilion was open daily as a floating public space for the city to use. DRIFT was designed to be adaptable to a variety of different site conditions along the river. From its first location at Stranmillis Weir in South Belfast, DRIFT was partially dismantled and towed downstream to be reassembled in a different form at its second location in the city centre.

Aiming to refocus attention on Belfast's relationship with the River Lagan, DRIFT investigated the city's disconnected and utilitarian approach to its waterfront, drawing out the complexity of exchanges between people and the waterway. At the heart of the project was a floating "instrument” that drew attention to the river in new ways by enhancing the multisensory experience of being on the water. By highlighting the existing interdependencies between the river ecosystem and urban life (recognised points of human interference), the project started a transformative public conversation about the potential for a more accessible river that embraces a series of valuable public spaces.

DRIFT envisioned a citywide discussion about the potential for more wildlife-friendly urban spaces to be made available to the city along the Lagan’s edge. The "instrument" was designed to examine existing and latent relationships between people and water, and to catalyse public discourse by identifying and mapping places with the potential to form more meaningful physical connections with the river. The project provided a lasting legacy for policymakers by locating parts of the waterfront that might be redefined as civic spaces, and aims to have already drawn attention to the significance of such places to nearby residents and visitors.

The result was a floating, adaptable and site-specific architecture with space to hold conversations. The architecture sought to focus on the sensory - and particularly the sonic - experience of being on the river at points where it intersects with human-made processes, engaging with the river’s historical significance and cultural identity. Working with people and communities along the river, DRIFT responded to sites where a new relationship between urban life and waterway can be initiated.