Year award at the Leading European Architects Forum. Unfazed, Kuhne remains confident that the building is succeeding at telling the Titanic story to legions of visitors. “It was a huge backhanded compliment,” Kuhne said. “Very English.” Keep in mind that the museum is merely a cornerstone of the estimated $10 billion–$15 billion Titanic Quarter mixed-use development that will occupy the Queen’s Island area of <strong>Belfast</strong>. “The local authorities thought we were dreaming at the time,” said Pat Doherty, the chairman and founder of Harcourt Developments, recalling the process of acquiring the vast site nine years ago. “It was a clear site almost in the center of the city with the opportunity to do something very special, and Eric has a magical way of doing things.” Kuhne and Doherty worked with myriad government departments, harbor authorities and investors to make way for the development that’s changing the face of <strong>Belfast</strong>. Profit-driven inner-city revitalization schemes too often fall victim to blank banality. To break this trend, Kuhne, in his role as the lead concept architect on the project, consulted directly with the very people who had abandoned central <strong>Belfast</strong>’s blight and violent legacy for surrounding suburban hamlets. “We interviewed almost 100 people and asked them one simple thing: ‘What would it take for you to come back home?’ And they asked for me to build something like their villages in the center of <strong>Belfast</strong>,” Kuhne said. “Eric always had a humanistic commitment that has allowed him to abstract his project designs in such a striking way,” said former classmate Stephen Fox ’73, architectural historian and lecturer at the <strong>Rice</strong> School of Architecture. A dedicated Renaissance man, Kuhne penned a Shakespearean sonnet for the real estate venture to pay homage to the city’s shipbuilding roots: TITANIC BELFAST: We were the best who worked these hallowed slips Bending iron, timber and steel ’to ships ’Neath gantries and cranes with Biblical names Our sweat, our tears, and sweet salt air did raise Fleets for trade, exploration and mail, Liners, warships, and immigrants set sail — Navigating charts on rhumb-lined seas with Optimism! Opulence! at Godspeed! Four centuries measure our balancing Our will and Nature’s equanimity. Time once again to lead the charge: <strong>Belfast</strong>’s Sons and Daughters sing songs of these shipyards; Choirs of workers shout across the seas: Once where we built ships, now we build cities! Left to right: Inside the Titanic <strong>Belfast</strong>, massive chains denote the scale of the Titanic and its sister ships. Visitors take in a view of the ship as it now rests on the ocean floor. A cut-out steel sign in front of the museum. Children check out the interior galleries. Opposite: A view from the top-floor balcony of a large compass rose that locates the cardinal directions for visitors. Visitors peruse one of nine galleries featuring interactive exhibits on the museum’s opening day. The Titanic Quarter was then conceived around the idea of seven “villages,” each with their own Georgian square, in which courtyard gardens imbue a sense of safety to public space. When complete, the development will complement new condo blocks with an expanded campus of <strong>Belfast</strong> Metropolitan College and a bevy of retail distractions. Plans are afoot to incubate a new financial center for Europe, and new media is staking a claim via a cluster of budding film industry studios. Strung together by grand boulevards and a new tramline, each of the villages stands no more than two blocks away from the fresh air of water or park space. “Waterfronts all over Europe and North America are being transformed,” Kuhne said, “but none of them has this level of complexity of mixing new economies with housing, parks and gardens.” Northern Ireland still suffers from a shaky real estate market, so the Titanic Quarter developers are thinking long-term, with a projected completion date of 2030 or beyond. For all of the Titanic Quarter’s beguiling ambition, Kuhne understands the importance of historical context in design. This penchant for storytelling through architecture has brought Kuhne’s pedigree from Houston to 32 current projects spanning five continents, all informed by their local context. A new tower complex rising in Kuala Lumpur is ensconced in seven gardens representing the seven civilizations that have characterized Malaysia’s history, while a Buddhist pilgrimage site in Nepal takes its form from the three strands of the pocket of rice that Buddha wore. Kuhne’s studio walls showcase blueprints for a skyscraper in Kuwait that will top off at 1,001 meters — a nod to the region’s lionized collection of folk tales, “1001 Arabian Nights.” While these projects reach for the sky, the story on the ground of the Titanic Quarter is a narrative with big themes — resilience, rebirth and pride in a lost heritage. Eschewing a focus on urban trauma to honor innovation, the Titanic <strong>Belfast</strong> museum invites visitors to consider the pinnacle of human achievement — as well as hubris — and to launch a new story in <strong>Belfast</strong>’s history. 18 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
<strong>Rice</strong> Magazine • No. 15 • 2013 19
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