TheCityInvites: Combining the imagination of Architecture and Environmental Psychology

It was refreshing to hear about socially engaged architecture at the Open House Europe Annual Summit #TheCityInvites 30th-31st Jan 2024 hosted by The Irish Architecture Foundation. A recurring theme was the gift of imagination that underpins our built environment. Imagination can shape how we use and re-use buildings and cause as little harm as possible to the surrounding ecology or indeed embrace it. I listened intently to the collective aspirations of Group91* architects for Temple Bar as it was conceived at the beginning, in particular their lack of fear and approach to collaboration. Temple Bar itself has endured multiple changes over the 30 years that ensued, not all fitting with that initial imaginary. Our collective imagination, however, both as people and architects, can shape how our built environment in Ireland evolves.

(*including speakers from the original Group 91):

• shay cleary, Founder of Shay Cleary Architects
• Siobhán Ní Éanaigh, Co-Founder of McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects
• Yvonne Farrell, Co-Founder of Grafton Architects
• Valerie Mulvin, Co-Founder of McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Shane O’Toole, Writer and Critic
• John Tuomey, Co-Founder of O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects

Here are 7 takeaways from the event:

1. Buildings need diversity – existing buildings, new ones and the cracks in between all interweave. Existing buildings can be reframed with some great examples from Germany, through industrial heritage in the Ruhr area by Timo Hauge (Head of the Industrial Heritage Team at Department for Culture, Sports and Industrial Heritage at Regionalverband Ruhr), empty churches being re-used as social spaces by Felix Hemmers (Project Manager and curator at Baukultur Nordrhein-Westfalen), repurposing Kiel university by Matthew Griffin and Britta Jürgens (Co-Founders of Deadline Architects), or Barbora Ponesova and @ Marie Joja’s (Architects and Placemakers in Archipop / Institute of temporary use) work to create new 3^rd spaces in disused buildings in Czech. In Ireland, how can we re-use or re-frame our buildings such as pubs and shops and offices that are closing?
2. Buildings are a lasting legacy that can give back to society – what happens after the build stage of the building? How is it lived in or used by the people? Can it provide a legacy for society? As Ailbhe Cunningham (Architect and Founder of AMPLE Space Architecture) said, buildings are restless objects – always dynamic and shifting. Cities are never finished.
3. Bio-regional approach – “Materials are heavy and should stay local, ideas and people are light and can be global” was the backbone of the bio-regional approach by Daniel Bell (Architect at Atelier LUMA) for example in Arles where they mapped the resources in the bio-region and used them in construction. What can different Irish regions do to emulate this approach about reconnecting with the natural resources around them?
4. Re-building trades and skills – likewise, Daniel noted that we have lost a lot of trades and skills. How we can heighten inter-generational learning from those who have living memory of old traditions and knowledge? In Ireland, we have initiatives like www.ourcommonknowledge.org which works to bring back some of the skills we have lost.
5. Projects happen at the pace of trust – another recurring theme was that the property/housing market in Ireland has been hyper-financialised: our trust has been disrupted. Currently many people are disempowered in our built environment. Yet, as Marta Ribera Carbó (European Project Director of The Shift) stated, housing is a right, not a commodity. Building trust is as important as building buildings and trust involves communities and people. I think new approaches such as www.progressireland.org seek to rebuild trust in the possibility of the right to housing in Ireland.
6. Architecture lives in our bodies – Our bodies live in buildings but not all buildings are built to meet our sensory and accessibility needs. As John Fulham (Public Engagement Manager at the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA)) highlighted, someone in a wheelchair should not have to crawl up the stairs from one wheelchair to another to simply go to their bathroom or bedroom. Likewise, Jack Kavanagh (Director of Move the Needle) revealed that many people with wheelchair accessibility needs are locked out of the private property market because ground floor flats are quickly snapped up. Ideally we should build or adapt our homes and offices for a diversity of needs by using universal design as outlined by Fíonnadh Mcgonigle (Standards and Monitoring Officer at the National Disability Authority and The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD)) or by repurposing backland sites as Nicola Ryan (Co-Director of Studio Red Architects) does in her own home and architectural work.
7. A trans-local participatory focus – Participation and participatory democracy were common threads in the Summit with outstanding projects like Aliénor Saint-Cast’s (Head of Studies at Plateau Urbain) work which links people to vacant Parisian spaces at affordable prices and Akil Scafe-Smith and Seth Scafe Smith’s (Co-Directors of RESOLVE Collective) trans-local engagement work to redistribute power and create disruptions. As they stated well, design isn’t just for the professionals, individuals also need to be part of urban policy.

Yet, as Siobhán Ní Éanaigh pointed out, Dublin is an empty city from the ground up. How can we ensure people want to live on the carpet and streets of Dublin to retain its vibrancy? How can we ensure houses and spaces are built for our diverse needs? Buildings can change and be a change. We are people who live in buildings, and these buildings sit within places and communities and cultures. We construct and reconstruct these spaces. Collaboration worked back in 91, and it can work now – delving into our ‘meitheal’ roots. Culture can meet construction but we also need a societal push for a vision of a different built landscape.

Thanks to Christele Harrouk (Editor-in-Chief of ArchDaily) and Emmett Scanlon (Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation), Manijeh Verghese (CEO of Open City),  Cormac Murray (Architect, Lecturer at TU Dublin and Series Editor at TYPE), and Louise Bruton (arts journalist, playwright, disability rights activist, DJ, aspiring screenwriter and author) for facilitating and moderating a fantastic event.

Please do get in touch if you’d like to chat more about any of the points raised in this article. Environmental psychology is a new discipline in Ireland and there are many ways to collaborate or create synergies.

#architecture #accessibility #inclusion #CreativeEurope #urbanism