Vacancy and dereliction blight the centres of our towns and villages. Why? Because nobody is thinking about them with imagination as the brilliant spaces they could be.

Pandemic –developed expertise with Zoom means remote working is not just an idea but a new paradigm for a parallel existence. Flexible working allows us to re-imagine in turn how we live – changing traditional mindsets which have been baked into us since the 1960s.

We all want to live more lightly on our fragile planet. It’s time to change our view about endless growth and consider everything from the ground up, asking the question, do we need to build at all? Could we adapt? Re-use? Re-imagine?

Irish towns are a built idea distilling the essence of how to live together around a communal space. Revitalised, they could present us with thousands of instant environments, PLACES made by a wall of buildings, a theatre of the everyday. Smaller size and scale put us directly in touch with nature, give us places for kids to play and learn, the 15 minute city translates to a town environment where there is life, fun, community and culture.

How can we move from simply thinking this is a great idea, to achieving it?

Vacancy and dereliction could be investigated for the potential they accidentally offer. If used imaginatively they could become a serious part of solving our housing problem while offering people a sustainable and interesting way of living together.

New plans for our towns need to be about small scale brilliant ideas in all kinds of places. Using what’s there, being ingenious , imagining it into something fresh for now, developing new models of habitation. In doing this we are reinforcing the unique cultural landscape in towns we have inherited, into which we should intervene with care.

Three of Ireland’s emerging practises will present their own unique approach to investing existing fabric of our towns and villages with historic and cultural value. Essentially a form of architectural salvage; a sustainable and viable means of rebuilding remakes our towns and re-purpose them to be functional brilliant places.

Moderator Valerie Mulvin (McCullough Mulvin Architects)

• Damien Curry, Emily-Ann Gilligan, https://canicearchitects.com

• Helena McElmeel & Blair Stanaway, https://mcelmeel.ie

• Pasparakis Friel, https://www.pasparakisfriel.com

Hold that Corner

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