The Lisdoonvarna project is one of five around the country selected in 2023 for the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Reimagine Hometown Architect initiative, a programme which focuses on the revitalisation of Ireland’s towns and villages.
The “Lisdoonvarna 2050 – A Vision of Wellbeing” project set out to create a sustainable and equitable masterplan for Lisdoonvarna, rooted in the town’s heritage of wellbeing. A three-stage consultation process engaged all demographics of the community, gathering their perspectives and ambitions to produce a community-sourced vision.
Two workshops designed and mediated by the Lisdoonvarna team invited the community to participate in the process, which, through a series of exercises, established the challenges and opportunities and explored possible pathways for the future that can realign the town more closely with its wellbeing heritage.
The town’s map was used as a device that allowed for layers of ideas to be added at each stage. A large print of this map, which illustrated the community input, was hung on the community hall for the final event in November 2023, where a report was presented back to the community. The event also included a panel discussion with members of the community, mediated by Pritzker Prize-winning architect and Lisdoonvarna native Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects.
Tapping the Well – A vision for a sustainable, inclusive and thriving future for Lisdoonvarna expresses the community’s most widely shared ambitions and is the culmination of this Hometown Architect project. The town is now in the process of forming a town team to start acting on nine of the most widely-shared ambitions of the Lisdoonvarna community, as identified through the Hometown Architect process.
In the video below you can watch a work-in-progress presentation by the Lisdoonvarna team during a Reimagine Café held in August 2023.
Hometown Architect is part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Reimagine programme, which aims to connect communities with architects to co-design and improve their local built environment. The Reimagine programme believes that local insight and tacit knowledge from all stakeholders are integral to developing solutions for our urban spaces, fostering a sense of agency, ownership, and pride among participants.
Funded by the Arts Council and Department of Rural and Community Development, with additional support to the Irish Architecture Foundation from the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage. This project aligns with the national Town Centre First policy, which aims to revitalise towns across Ireland, building and sustaining vibrant town centres where communities can flourish.
