H Blocks

The H Blocks were cell units at Long Kesh, also called the Maze, a prison in Northern Ireland. During the Troubles they held men from both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary organisations, and today they stand as emblems of that conflict. Their meaning is split: they embody state power and also became a place where that power was resisted. Because of this, the site remains among the most disputed locations in Europe. Drawing on many years of on-site research and a wide range of material, from architectural drawings to photographs of street demonstrations, this book examines the physical link between the prison as a structure of power and the people who lived inside it. It also considers the ethical and political responsibilities that architecture carries in conflict settings.

The author looks at what happens to such places once the violence ends, and how their meanings shift as society changes. The book traces how the prison's contested history is written into its design and its demolition, into the way it was lived in, and into efforts to preserve it. Its central concerns include the body and emotional attachment, acts of witnessing and remembrance, the physical substance of history, and the way that history can be turned into a commodity.