Place Shapers: Latest News

"We've spoken about this for years, and this is the first time we've had young people come in and say it to us"

Councilor Peggy Hamil, Fingal County Council

The students presented their innovative urban design solutions to local government officials and councilors at Fingal County Council last week. The presentation was broadcast live over the internet and can be viewed online here: http://connect.fingalcoco.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_v7.php?a=101451&t=&m=flash&l=en_GB/

Introduction

This blog documents the work of the Place Shapers project, an architecture/urban design design project for young people in Fingal initiated by the Irish Architecture Foundation and Fingal County Council Arts Office.

Architects, Kate Dowling and Robert Bourke in collaboration with film maker, Peter Kelly, were commissioned to work with Transition Year students from Luttrellstown Community College in Blanchardstown, west Dublin.

In Phase 1 of the project, we show the students how to investigate their built environment using different architectural and audio-visual techniques. We ask the students to identify aspects of their neighbourhood that are important to them and ask them to think about ways in which changes or improvements could be made.

Phase 2, which started in January 2013, saw the students zone in on their neighbourhood and create design solutions to address the issues that they had identified in Phase 1.

Phase 3 will see the young urban designers refine and construct their proposed design, stage a public event to present their work and initiate a discussion about the issues that they have identified. Stay tuned for further updates!

Facilitators:

Robert Bourke
Architect and director of Robert Bourke Architects (www.rba.ie), Robert also teaches at the School of Architecture, University College Dublin. In addition to Place Shapers, he has designed and led several other youth and community engagement projects including the Irish Architecture Foundation's A Space for Learning project (2010-2012).

Kate Dowling
Kate Dowling Architect has worked extensively on a broad range of projects both in Ireland and abroad. Kate has worked on a variety of school building projects and has a strong interest in education and how design impacts on learning. Kate worked with the IAF on their Space for Learning Project 2010 & their Architects in Schools programme 2012.

Peter Kelly
Peter Kelly is a freelance film maker and youth arts facilitator. His work includes promotional and corporate videos, short films, documentaries and and feature films. In 2005 Peter established FilmCircle, a mobile company that travels to secondary schools nationwide to facilitate filmmaking workshops. In 2012 FilmCircle helped over 1000 transition year students to make nearly 50 short films.

Irish Architecture Foundation
Rachel McAree, Education Curator

Fingal County Council Arts Office
Julie Clarke, Youth & Education Officer

Draiocht Theatre
Sarah Beirne, Children & Youth Arts Co-ordinator

Luttrellstown Community College

Place Shapers is an initiative of the Irish Architecture Foundation in partnership with Fingal County Council, made possible by the support of the Arts Council and the Government Policy on Architecture Implementation Programme 2009 –2015. Place Shapers is additionally funded by Fingal County Council and supported by Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown.

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