The Reimagine Café is a community space for all those involved in placemaking and reimagining their built environment, meeting on the last Tuesday of every month.

For our August edition, we will be focusing on the critical issue of dereliction in our communities, with widespread impact visually, socially, economically as well as representing a huge loss of our built heritage. In some cases, this poses a very real physical danger to people, with unsafe structures crumbling around us. There are many undercurrents of concern to this issue, from the motives that drive property hoarding to the policies that cause waves of urban decay and neglect. Most importantly for this discussion, is to think about what can be done to prevent, mitigate and undo the problem of dereliction in our cities, towns, and villages.

Gerry Folan, Head of Housing Development at Peter McVerry Trust, will speak about their recent regeneration work in Limerick bringing vacant properties back into use as social housing. Architect Paul Leech has been trying to bring action behind the cause of the at-risk Classical School in Navan, and will share the current situation. Colm Murray from the Heritage Council will make a case for the transformation and adaptive re-use of old buildings.

If you would like to join us to discuss this topic, or to share an example from your own area, join us on ZOOM on Tuesday, August 31st at 1pm. We would love to hear about successful strategies and case studies, of buildings brought back to life and vibrant, lived-in streets.

Click here to register in advance for this meeting.

If you have a project, challenge, or idea you would like to share, email engagement@architecturefoundation.ie before 25th August.

Reimagine is a Creative Ireland funded programme, supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Irish Architecture Foundation is supported by the Arts Council and the OPW.