Micah Jones, from Ballynahinch, who graduates this week with BA Architecture First Class Honours at the University of Ulster summer graduation ceremonies at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, used the Peaceline as his inspiration for his final year design project. Micah who was among the first cohort of UU students to graduate with BA Hons Architecture also picked up awards for Best Design and for highest aggregate mark in Year 3.

For their final year project students had to design a Northern Ireland Cultural Centre in Amsterdam. "My aim was to design a building which expressed certain aspects of Northern Ireland’s culture, both positive and negative," says Micah. The inspiration for his project came from a plaque he saw on the peaceline wall, which said people were unable to talk about it.

"I decided to use this concept to try and remould something negative that people couldn’t take about into something positive. I wanted to make this a wall that people can talk about, an open discussion point. The other aspect of the project was to look at different aspects of culture in Amsterdam like artists’ accommodation using compact barge living."

Following his graduation, Micah hopes to spend some time in professional practice, both in Northern Ireland and in Amsterdam before returning to York Street to do his MA in Architecture and continue working towards becoming a fully qualified architect.