In 2023, five projects were selected by a panel of experts following an open call that invited community groups and an architect who has a connection to their town or village to partner on and submit a regeneration project proposal that aligns with the Government of Ireland’s Town Centre First Policy.

The Town Centre First Policy aims to promote the regeneration of town and village centres across Ireland and to create town centres that function as viable, vibrant and attractive locations for people to live, work and visit. Each of the Hometown Architect projects will receive €10,000 in development funding, as well as practical support under the IAF Reimagine placemaking programme.

The selected projects are:

• a masterplan solution for a cluster of vacant buildings in Tipperary town;
• a visionary blueprint for Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare that’s rooted in the spa town’s heritage of wellbeing, by Pritzker Prize-winning architect and Lisdoonvarna native Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, together with the skill-sharing not-for-profit Common Knowledge, co-founded by Harrison Gardner, presenter of the RTÉ television series ‘Build Your Own Home’;
• a pathway for making ‘The Granite City’ of Aughrim, Co Wicklow more accessible for all ages and abilities;
• a whole-community vision for the sustainable development of the historic planned market town of Belmullet, Co Mayo;
• a one-stop shop for bringing the community of Tuam, Co Galway together to address the issue of vacancy within the town.

Read the full announcement.