New Habit(at)s - Design with Communities for Resilient Neighborhoods

Academics, practitioners and interested parties are invited to attend a day-long symposium on the subject of community-led housing and its importance in the Irish context. 

The symposium is funded through SETU’s participation in the Resilient Design Curricula for 21st Century Professionals initiative, a joint project of all the Schools of Architecture in the Republic of Ireland. Funding is under the auspices of the Human Capital Initiative project, administered through the HEA.

The government of Ireland has produced a ‘Housing for All’ policy document in which they write: ‘Everyone in the State should have access to a home to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard and in the right place, offering a high quality of life.’ 

However, while the government plan does address location, sustainability and vacant property, it does not address alternative means of housing provision – that which is community-led. Arguably, in the current government proposal, property continues to be a commodity to buy and sell, which creates insecurity of tenure and has led to the current situation of crisis.

To attend, please email Máire Henry. 

Habit(at)s will be curated by SOA and hosted by SETU Architecture Department SOA is a not-for-profit action research think tank, formed in 2017 to research and promote cooperative and collaborative approaches to housing in Ireland.

‘We study proven and successful UK, European and North American strategies and look at how these might be adapted to Ireland. [SOA have carried out] a 12-month multi-stakeholder research project to inform and support the establishment of a Community-Led Housing (CLH) infrastructure in Ireland.’ https://soa.ie/

Guest speakers at Habit(at)s will be practitioners engaged with community-led projects and expanded forms of practice, including Jurgen Patzak-Poor of BAR Architekten in Berlin, Anthony Engi Meacock of Assemble Studios in the UK, and Ailbhe Cunningham, Architect, Cork. An opening talk will be delivered by the multi award-winning Brazilian urbanist, Theresa Williamson, founder of Catalytic Communities, a charitable organisation set up to promote and to support Favela communities in Rio de Janiero.

Discussions and presentations will examine the context of housing internationally and in Ireland, case-studies of community-led housing projects, the design implications in these projects as well as the skills specific to working with communities in the design process.

The day will conclude with a workshop in which attendees can discuss the issues raised and consider how to bring community-led projects into the BArch curricula in the first three years.