Material culture in rural Ireland

non-peer-reviewed The objective of this thesis is to explore theatrical space and the cultural relationship of materials as they are experienced by people in rural Ireland. The method involved the investigation of five handball alleys in Co.Mayo, the identification of materials and the location of the sources of those materials. The results found that one of these handball alleys was part of an urban arrangement of theatrical spaces. The alley was no longer in use, in a state of disrepair and the materiality experience was lost due to the ivy covering the walls. I propose for this project a reuse of the site as a theatre with poetry with an associated playwright hostel, using this to explore a nomenological approach to design through the relationship of old and new materials with reference to past and present culture. TOC: Introduction / Primer projects in Shannon and Hamburg / Chapter One - Theatrical Space / -Theatre in everyday life / -Three Theatre Experiences / Chapter Two - Material / -Physicality of materials / -Sense of Place / Chapter Three - Investigation / -Learning From Alleys / -Advanced Construction / Conclusion - Final Presentation / Bibliography