H Blocks

An Architecture of the Conflict in and about Northern Ireland

Louise Purbrick (University of Brighton, UK)

$170

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
23 February 2023

Theory of architecture; History of architecture; Museums & museology; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000

Shortlisted for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion 2023

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.

By: Louise Purbrick (University of Brighton UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350240025
ISBN 10: 1350240028
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 23 February 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Building the Blocks 2. Living in the Cells 3. The Global Witness and the Hunger Strike 4. Women Visitors: Waiting to Understand Prison Architecture 5. Erasure: The Last Murals and Final Performance of Long Kesh/Maze 6. On eBay: Who Owns the Keys of the H Blocks? Conclusion Bibliography Index

Louise Purbrick is Tutor in Design History, Royal College of Arts, UK.

Reviews for H Blocks: An Architecture of the Conflict in and about Northern Ireland

In this brilliant study of a place known to most only as an icon, Purbrick asks who and what made the H Blocks? As she shows, these processes are ongoing, long after the prison’s closure. Deeply sensitive to the challenge of writing about the trauma of others, she fills the site with bodies and things, politics and feelings. * David Crowley, Head of the School of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Ireland *