“We expect too much of new buildings, and too little of ourselves.”

– Jane Jacobs

 

Partners:

In 2018, we established a partnership with the Athenry Community Council and secured Leader funding to ‘Reimagine Athenry’ through a public space design project. Urban designers studio dmau we commissioned to collaborate with us and create a community-led vision for one of Ireland’s most intact medieval towns.

The project sought to set out a future framework for the town based on the ambitions of the community as documented during public consultations carried out in our social hub and at the Bia Lover food festival. This offline engagement was supplemented by responses captured through an online survey.

Public engagement, images @ studio dmau

Athenry is a well known historic town in east Galway with a fine-grained, human-scale, public realm full of heritage and history. It has an active and vibrant local community who are eager to see the town realise its full potential. Great road and rail infrastructure make it a key town in the wider Galway region, with lots of potential for development in the future.

On a local level, the residents have many concerns based on their everyday experience of the town. This project sets out a vision to address these concerns based on the ideas developed with the community. The key challenge for Athenry is how to maintain its accessibility while simultaneously improving the public realm for its residents and visitors.

Reimagine Athenry, images @ studio dmau

The full report of the project can be viewed on the pdf document below.