Diversity in the arts : perspectives and challenges of the production of art & architecture

This case study is an urban regeneration scheme in Belfast, one that was built on thehistorical success of the shirt industry in Derry with the intention to harness the iconic buildings capacity to overcome the divisive visual perception of the built environment.The paper examines how the two communities in Northern Ireland visually perceivetheir shared built environment and the extent to which architecture can access or createa blending of such visions, thus instilling a sense of symbiosis among the communities.The context of the paper is the explicit cultural frame, which appears to impact ondecisions in the design and implementation of urban regeneration schemes andarchitectural design in Belfast. By asking whether the culture concept has indeed a roleto play in the design and building of contemporary architecture in Belfast, what it pertains to do, but actually does, this paper calls for the rethinking of our assumptionssurrounding the question of how diversity is to be managed in order to be sustained