An architectural installation with a focus on the environment, sustainability and biodiversity is set to take over ‘The Walks’ in Loughrea over the course of 2020.

The project will commence in March and is part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Reimagine… project, which brings together local communities, architects, designers and planners to develop projects which will enhance the local built environment of each of the towns.
The IAF, in partnership with Galway County Council Architectural Conservation Office and the Loughrea The Walks Project Steering Group is supported by the Galway County Council Creative Ireland Programme. Creative Ireland and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture’s Small Towns Big Ideas programme sought applications from architect and design practices in 2019 to design the architecture installation.

BothAnd Group, a research collective of graduate architects and bioscientists from TU Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, have been announced as the successful practice.

Commenting on the project, Nathalie Weadick, Director of the IAF, said: “We’re delighted to announce that BothAnd Group will be working with the local community in Loughrea to develop an architectural installation for The Walks. Sustainability and protecting the environment has a huge impact on how we currently live, and how we build and plan for the future. “This project is an exciting opportunity for the people of Loughrea to have their voices heard and to influence their local architecture while re-thinking our shared environment, and the type of world we want to live in.”
The ‘Reimagine…’ project is supported by the Creative Ireland Programme’s National Creativity Fund.

Reimagine Loughrea is also partially funded through Galway County Council Creative Ireland Programme” and Galway2020 Small Towns Big Ideas.

Also commenting on the announcement was Mairin Doddy, Architectural Conservation Officer at Galway County Council, who said: “We’re looking forward to working with BothAnd Group on Reimagine Loughrea. This project is unique in that it allows Loughrea people to directly interact with their civic spaces and opens up the conversation as to what sort of environment they want to live in, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results. This project supports one of our main strategic objectives – ‘Places and spaces: to revitalise and regenerate our towns, villages, townlands and islands, and to improve the connectivity of communities to the built environment and public spaces’”.