Ellies Nursery Part 2 Project 2025 Thomas Crowe Ulster University | UK Ellie’s Nursery is both an architectural proposition and a conceptual continuation of my undergraduate dissertation, The Typological Problem of Belfast’s Peace Walls, which argued that these structures persist not for security but as symbols embedded in cultural identity. This thesis builds on that by drawing from evolutionary biology—specifically Richard Dawkins’ theories of the meme and extended phenotype—and Bret Weinstein’s view of cultural evolution as a form of adaptive strategy. Within this framework, architecture becomes a tool for narrative disruption and memetic transformation.Situated on North Howard Street along the Cupar Way peace wall—a contested urban boundary—the project proposes a counter-typology: a nursery and storytelling centre that functions as an alternative extended phenotype. Where peace walls reinforce inherited sectarian identity, Ellie’s Nursery seeks to nurture new narratives grounded in coexistence, shared memory, and intergenerational empathy. Storytelling and music—powerful, transmissible memetic forms—are used as early developmental tools to pre-empt sectarian conditioning.This thesis moves beyond the physical wall to interrogate the narratives that uphold it. Rather than proposing demolition, it offers a long-term strategic intervention that may help communities imagine alternative futures—where sectarian identity is no longer the dominant cultural meme. Tutor(s)