Alex Milton is a thinking designer with ideas from making Dublin 8 a leading cultural and creative quarter to creating our own future by design. Like many creatives earning a buck today, he has many strings to his bow as an academic, author, curator and designer.

He is currently the Programme Director of Irish Design 2015, a year long initiative which is promoting Irish design and designers through various events both at home and abroad. One of the events that Alex has programmed is on this week in Milan. It’s called Liminal and features over 20 Irish designers, companies and studios involved in collaborations across disciplines, and presents them for the first time in Milan.

He is a visiting professor at the National College of Art and Design, Ireland and Aston University, UK and his books include ‘Product Design’ and ‘Research Methods for Product Design’.

As Director of National Botanic Gardens Mathew and his family are resident in the gardens in a large townhouse just a minute’s walk from the main gates. The house is one of the last big houses left in the area and was built in 1740 by Thomas Tickell.

Matthew is a botanist who has worked at the National Botanic Gardens for 18 years and has been Director for the past four years. He studied as a taxonomist (biologist that groups organisms into categories) at Oxford University. He later lived in Papua New Guinea where he was involved in many collecting expeditions and the naming of numerous species.

He has written papers on various botany related topics, including climate change, coral reef ecology and wasp breeding behaviour. He reckons that plants are the most important organisms on the planet (agreed) but they remain essentially invisible to urbanised humans (hmmm).

Broden Giambrone is the Chief Executive of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI). TENI work towards equal rights for trans people and their families by providing support, education, advocacy and capacity building.

Broden has over ten years experience working with trans communities in Ireland and Canada. He is an active advocate for transgender rights and is currently leading TENI’s campaign for inclusive gender recognition legislation.

Ireland is the only country in the EU that has no provision for legal gender recognition. Legal gender recognition allows an individual to change the gender on their birth certificate and be recognised by the State in their true gender. Without this transgender and intersex people have no formal legal status and this impacts on their access to basic social services including social welfare benefits, education and marriage and various other aspects of life that can usually be taken for granted by individuals.

There has been some progress, last December, the Irish Government introduced the Gender Recognition Bill 2014. This piece of legislation would formally recognise trans and intersex people in Ireland. As the Bill has been published, it will now be debated in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Re-dress was founded on the core principle that the fashion industry should be better, pushing aesthetic boundaries, respecting human rights and natural resources and pushing consumers, industry and governments to effect change. We’ve engaged the biggest global brands, Irish media and the public in creative projects to encourage better practice in an industry that plays a key role in personal and cultural identities.

Michael Hayes is the editor of 2ha – a printed magazine, that looks to suburbia and architecture to fill its pages. The ninth issue has recently been published and is based on the theme of how our leisure activities shape our suburban landspace.

In each issue four essays are published. The essays are written by architects, academics and artists and are based on various themes. Past issues have covered the relationship between suburbia and photography, cinema, history, typology, language, modernism and public space.

Michael is an architect living and practising in Dublin who is seemingly obsessed with publications. As well as editing 2ha, he is an editorial board member of Architecture Ireland and Publications Officer for the Architectural Association of Ireland.

Studio Red Architects are Gráinne Dunne, Nicola Ryan and Shane Coyle. Nicola and Gráinne set up Studio Red Architects in 2008 after working for Gilroy McMahon and DTA Architects respectively. Shane Coyle joined the firm in 2014.

Studio Red design flexible spaces for long-term use and accessibility. They champion the use of renewable energy and renewable and innovative building materials. Their work extends beyond their office; they are active in exhibitions and think tanks, they collaborate with intellectual disability service providers and guest lecture at DIT School of Architecture.

Studio Red Architects received an Irish Architecture Award for our their Farmhouse Extension in 2014. Their, “…clients required a new living space with ancillary services, in the location of existing sheds at their home – a period farmhouse by a lake. The sheds were leaning to the gable of the house and held high sentimental value. Our proposal incorporates a new ‘shed’, set off the existing house, which opens new views through the house and site, whilst recalling some of the materials, agricultural detailing and characteristics of the original buildings,” explain Studio Red.

The extension is quite modern compared to the period design of the original house but the two exist well together. A floor made of local Doolin stone feels and looks like traditional flagstone floors and a sliding barn door echo the more traditional design of the orignal house.

Concrete Collar is a gorgeous blog by two architecture graduates Becky Wallace and Ciana March. They started the blog in October 2012 to showcase and draw lines between independent fashion design and Irish architecture. They have since expanded their repertoire to include art direction, styling and photography.

While the concept seems fresh and new, fashion designers often reference architecture as inspiration, while architects like Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas have delved into the fashion world, collaborating with brands on limited edition lines.

The blog is a success because they, “simply began creating original content. We loved the process of dreaming up, planning and then realising photo-shoots ourselves. It’s a highly rewarding hobby and we became hooked. It developed quite organically in that the more blogging we did the more we would be approached by designers and creative professionals for collaborations.”

Concrete Collar collaborated with IAF for Open House Dublin 2014. They shot nine looks using Irish fashion design and Irish architecture. For the collaboration they photographed a lone model in three locations – the Dublin Port Centre, The Lake House and the Merrion Cricket Pavilion. See the results HERE.

Colm O’Gorman is the Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland. He is founder and former director of One in Four. He is a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, and first came to public attention by speaking out against the perpetrators. O’Gorman subsequently founded One in Four, an Irish charity which supports men and women who have been sexually abused and/or suffered sexual violence. He was a Senator in 2007, representing the Progressive Democrats.