H Blocks : an architecture of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland

Author/Creator:

Purbrick, Louise, author

Publication/Creation:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2023

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

H Blocks : an architecture of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland / Louise Purbrick

Variant Titles:

Architecture of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Maze Prison (Lisburn, Northern Ireland)
Prisons--Political aspects--Northern Ireland
Political prisoners--Northern Ireland
Collective memory--Northern Ireland

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Introduction -- Building the blocks -- Living in the cells -- The global witness and the hunger strike -- Women visitors: waiting to understand prison architecture -- Erasure: the last murals and final performance of Long Kesh/Maze -- On ebay: who owns the keys of the H Blocks? -- Conclusion.

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

"A place of incarceration and liberation, political debate and historical denial, the H Block cell units of Long Kesh/Maze prison in Northern Ireland housed members of both Republican and Loyalist military groups during 'The Troubles' and are now considered 'icons' of that conflict. The H Block's dual status as an articulation of and resistance against power mean that the area is still one of the most contested sites of conflict in Europe. Based on a long-standing site-specific investigation, and drawing on a range of sources from architectural plans to photographs of street protests, H Blocks explores the material relationship between the prison as a built articulation of power and its inhabitants, highlighting the ethical and political roles that architecture can play in situations of conflict. It also addresses the afterlife of such sites after the end of conflict and how they can adapt to the changing cultural meanings of their space. The book demonstrates how the conflicted histories of the prison are configured in its design and destruction, and the inhabitation and attempted preservation of the site itself, revealing how its architecture is bound up with questions of power and resistance, embodiment and attachment, witnessing and remembering, the materiality of history and its commodification"--

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

xi, 204 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937757585202486

ISBN:

9781350240025
1350240028
9781350240063
1350240060

OCLC Number:

1348495123

Barcode:

010003540812