We spent our final Leadings Cities day in Dublin at Dublin City Hall — finding out about all their initiatives which focus on two pillars:
- smart, digital, green
- leisure, tourism, culture
We are very fortunate to have a wonderful point person form the City of Dublin on Leading Cities — Jamie Cudden. He is now “seconded” to an initiative called Activating Dublin out of the Chamber of Commerce. The project focuses on city regions, transportation, talent and telecommunications.
We heard from about several city projects including Dublin House, Pivot Dublin, The Studio and Dublin City Beta Projects. This blog deals with the first two.
DUBLIN HOUSE http://www.dublincity.ie/HOUSING/CITYARCHITECTSDIVISION/Pages/DublinHouse.aspx
The Dublin House idea explores and promotes the potential of small-scale residential development in inner city and inner suburban areas. It is aimed at people who want to create a home for themselves and their children in the city.
Ali Grehan, Dublin City Architect, presented this project which has been in the works for 4 years. She also suggested an interesting twist on the UK Double Diamond Design Process (Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver). Her’s is HOPE: Hunger, Opportunity, Permission, Execute. The Dublin House project has several premises: Architectural (developing vacant plots); Economic (small is beautiful); and Social (design/co-creation).
PIVOT DUBLIN http://www.pivotdublin.com/
PIVOT Dublin is a Dublin City Council initiative, devised and co-ordinated by Dublin City Architects, because cities that value and apply design in how they think plan and act are more humane, attractive and competitive.
PIVOT Dublin connects design to community by:
• Promoting design as a resource that can help us adapt, innovate and grow.
• Inspiring a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Valuing and cultivating our national and international network.
• Offering opportunities to explain, demonstrate and celebrate design’s positive impact.
• Translating ideas to action through projects.
The Pivot Dublin project was launched from the City’s bid to be considered the Design Capital of the World (last year Helsinki). The bid process itself got Pivot Dublin going — as well as Creative Dublin (CreativeD). http://www.citieslinked.com/uceu/creative-d/creative-d
I met with Clodagh O’Brien and Mitchell O’Gorman from Newmarket Consulting and Karan Thompson from KT Consulting to discuss their experiences with CreativeD and with the creative industries in Ireland generally. They have had several productive partnerships within the European Union — funding always helps. They have put a lot of energy into moving ahead with the creative sector — but facing similar challenges to us: time, money, willingness to collaborative and effectively get the Q.Helix going: govt, business, academia & civil society. Thanks to Clodagh, Mitchell & Karan for being so generous with their time.