December 6th, 1pm – 2pm

Science Gallery, Dublin.

Book your place here. 

Our final Reimagine Cafe for the year will be held in the Science Gallery, Dublin as part of the Housing Unlocked exhibition. This cafe will focus on Town Centre First initiatives, including the IAF’s Hometown Architect programme, and will include presentations from Mairead Hunt and Philip Crowe.

Mairead Hunt

Appointed as the National Town Centre First Co-ordinator in August 2022, Mairead brings over 25 years’ experience in Local Government across 4 Local Authorities and multiple departments.  Most recently, Mairead led a multidisciplinary Strategic Projects & Public Realm team for Kildare County Council. The team were successful in gaining an unprecedented level of funding for the delivery of Kildare’s key strategic projects which are transformative in terms of both place making and economic opportunity.

Dr Philip Crowe

Dr Philip Crowe is Assistant Professor in Climate Responsive Design in UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy and the School of Civil Engineering. He is also co-Director of the UCD Centre for Irish Towns, a trans-disciplinary centre for research and collaboration that coordinates stakeholders, research, and innovation relating to the revitalisation of Irish towns. Philip has worked on many funded projects and is currently co-PI on the EU H2020 Green Deal Probono project on Green Buildings and Neighbourhoods, and the Creative Ireland Ripple project on citizen engagement with climate change. Research interests include urban resilience, vacancy and adaptive reuse, revitalisation of towns, urban ethics, and citizen participation with change. In recent years, Philip co-authored the synthesis report for the Town Centre Living Initiative (Irish Government). Philip’s background is in architecture. He was Director of Sustainable Design at M.CO (Dublin) for 9 years, where he worked on a portfolio of award-winning and innovative projects relating to energy efficient design, universal accessibility and urban regeneration.

Bring along your lunch, and join us for a discussion on some of the key policies, projects and initiatives aimed at revitalising towns and villages around Ireland.