Imagine Dundrum engaged the Irish Architecture Foundation to devise and deliver a series of workshops with, and for, children and young people to hear and include their voices, their lived experience and their aspirations and ideas for Dundrum’s built environment and its future. Importantly, the children’s’ ideas and work were to be submitted to the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Local Area Plan.
Imagine Dundrum wanted young people to engage in imaginative exercises to visualise their aspirations for Dundrum while considering a variety of issues that directly impact them, such as places to play, connectivity and cultural and recreational activities.
We worked with young people from Taney Parish Primary School and Holy Cross Primary School, as well as fifth-year students of St. Benildus College. Children and families in attendance at Open House Dublin also got to lend their voices to this visioning project.
As part of creative engagement process, each group took part in two sessions — one walking tour with local historian John Lennon and a design workshop with urbanist Eduardo Rico (Relational Urbanism). John Lennon’s walking tour gave students a rich history and background to Dundrum, while the tandem creative sessions were designed to elicit ideas around the future of Dundrum, encouraging them to imagine not only what they would like to see in their village but what others might want and need too.
They drew and mapped their visions, playfully considering routes types and ways of experiencing space by walking, crawling, and dancing on heat-sensitive surfaces. They mulled over big ideas and small details, and they discussed the materials, character, and qualities they would like to see in future designs.
With the older students, architect Patrick Dunne explained the basic framework of Local Area Plans and County Development Plans, and how they are used by planning authorities to direct future development of an area. The students discussed the roles of developers, construction professionals, planners, and the general public in urban design and public policy.
The outcomes of these workshops included wish lists of what they want to see implemented for them, including parks and recreational facilities. Interestingly, there was a sense that the young people wanted to see the old character of Dundrum maintained as much as possible, with a real preference for a ‘squiggly aesthetic’ — spaces that are organic or curvy, meandering, and relaxed.
Imagine Dundrum is a group of concerned local residents of Dundrum and surrounding areas, actively interested and engaged in the changes and developments in their community. They are working for a community-focused vision for the renewal of Dundrum’s core built environment, in collaboration with the County Council Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, with local developers and with all interested local organisations, businesses and individuals.
