In the early 1900's, Belfast machinery manufacturers Mackies persuaded Sir Otto Jaffe, a prominent local businessman who also owned a brickworks on the river Lagan embankment, to build a large spinning mill on the Newtownards Road in east of the city. He subsequently sold the mill and the business to Mackies, and it went on to become the Strand Spinning Company. In its day it was the largest flax tow spinning mill in the world. 

Following the outbreak of World War 2 and the loss of European flax supplies, the Mackies redesigned the flax machinery to spin Viscose fibres produced by Courtaulds. In April 1941, the northern end of the building was damaged in the German Blitz bombing of Belfast and never rebuilt leaving an 18-bay block. However, under the continued ownership of the Mackie family the mill continued to operate for many years. 

The steady decline of the UK textile industry forced the mill to close at the end of 1983. The mill was reinvigorated during the 1980's as Portview Trade Centre, providing useable workspaces for small businesses.

B101 is on the first floor, and has fine views north west over saw-tooth industrial roofs and workers terraces towards Belfast dockyards and Blacks Mountain. The memory of the mill remains in the painted brick walls, and in the worn and stained light terracotta floor.

The studio is a single room almost 5 metres tall, with large windows admitting large quantities of soft northern light. In the middle of the room, we have made a single large table, over 7 metres long and 2.4 metres deep, at which we all work. A low partition of shelving separates a meeting area with a long table. Models cover the table and any other free surface. 

This arrangement ensures everyone in the studio shares the life of the practice. Conversation is open, drawings and models are passed around, impromptu meetings occur, we sketch, debate, advise, enquire, and learn around this single table. Each staff member can hear the telephone conversations of other staff, enabling both a basic understanding of the projects they are not directly involved in, and facilitating a more economic transfer of knowledge. 

All staff are witness to the ups and downs of all of our projects, which number around 30 at any one time, all at various stages in their journey from idea to building.