Communities in Transition – Reimagining Place, Communities and Climate Action

An IAF Reimagine Session and New European Bauhaus Festival online event, June 10th, 3pm – 4.30pm. Funded by Creative Ireland as part of the Creative Climate Action programme.

Communities in Transition – Reimagining Place, Communities and Climate Action was our first Reimagine Session of 2022. We aim to spark discourse and inspire action to support communities at the heart of climate action policies. In this event,  we looked at innovative post-industrial projects which place sustainability, culture, heritage, and aesthetics at their heart, as a way of reimagining a new future for these places.

The Zollverein Foundation presented “the most beautiful coal mine in the world”, a major industrial complex in Germany that is now a World Heritage Site. We also heared from Urbane Künste Ruhr about the Emscherkunstweg project, an art trail that follows the Emscher river which has been restored back to a near-natural state from its recent role as an industrialised channel through a coal-mine region. Finally, members of Ireland’s peatlands communities shared their journey so far and their aspirations for the future. By hearing from impressive and inspiring examples of post-industrial renewal, we wish to provide space to consider how our peatlands communities in transition can benefit and even thrive.

This Session was facilitated by Hans Zomer, CEO of Global Action Plan, an environmental organisation that has been a key partner in the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Workers’ Villages programme.

Photo courtesy of Kilcormac Development Association.