Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism

In Ireland, as in most of the English speaking world, the professions of architecture and town planning have been separate since the early part of the twentieth century. This is quite distinct from Continental Europe where the professions are more closely intertwined.

From the mid 1960’s, there has been a growing reaction against modernist urbanism, in particular as a result of the poor quality of the public realm it created. From the 1970’s there emerged a growing interest in urban design among architects and planners.

At the time much modernist architecture appeared to focus on individual buildings while planning had become preoccupied with process, economics and zoning.

Urban design is concerned with the connection between the form of cities and their architecture, especially ordinary buildings. Our cities, towns and villages are made primarily from these ordinary buildings, which for the most part are houses, shops and services – backdrop buildings.

The fabric of the urban tissue created by these backdrop buildings is only infrequently punctuated by special public buildings –civic buildings, schools, churches. While this is an obvious truism the architectural profession has tended to focus on these special buildings. A cursory examination of most architectural journals is sufficient to emphasise this point.

The Celestial & Terrestrial Cities, Master Francois, 1473	Hammarby, Sweden	The Three Magnets, Ebenezer Howard 1898	The effects of good government at Ambragio Lorenzetti 1337-39

In Ireland, as in most of the Anglo- American world, our urban design culture in the last century has been distinguished by the evolution of the suburb. Our country has been, and continues to be, distinguished by a high degree of home ownership and a propensity to live in houses with gardens.

Long before our continental European partners we lost the constraining effect of the need for urban fortifications. This has been reflected in the form of our cities and towns which expanded early beyond the confines of their medieval urban cores.

Many architects and planners prefer to ignore the suburb, considering it to be inconsequential as it is distasteful. Most built environment professionals see themselves as urbanists, whose professional focus is on the architectural opportunities provided by urban culture.

As a profession we tend to consider urban values to be dominant in our culture and the suburbs to be an aberrant form of settlement. Unless we confront this reality and the fact that the suburbs have a persuasive hold on the Irish imagination, it will continue to dominate developing urban forms.

The formula for the historic successful and beautiful city seems to be constant: permeable layout, a range of quality buildings to fill it and a series of successful public spaces. In addition most successful cities and towns have required sufficient density for the whole entity to be full of life.

Over the past century and in particular in the post war period, the way of life of most urban dwellers has changed profoundly. The increasing ownership rate of the motor car simultaneously encourages and interferes with the daily commute from home to workplace. Information and communication technology should, in theory, have rendered much of this commuting unnecessary.

The average family size has become smaller and there is an increasing range in the profile of house occupation patterns. Our habits as consumers have been gradually altered while our leisure patterns have evolved beyond recognition.

From the beginning of the Modern Movement architects have been central to the creation of utopian visions of the future of the city from Le Corbusier’s Ville Contemporaine in the 1920’s to The Plug – In City of Archigram in the 1960’s.

They have failed because, while peoples way of life may have evolved, their basic needs and traditions have remained constant. The changes anticipated as a result of mass culture has not occurred in the way that was anticipated, Information and Communication technology has not rendered face-to-face communication obsolete, rather it has enriched the process. In communication technology radio, television, cinema, video and DVD have evolved to enrich the range of our information and entertainment choices.

Similarly the radical transformation in urban living predicted, particularly in the post-war period have not occurred. We travel mainly by car but also walk, cycle and use public transport on occasion. We work in the office but also at home. We purchase most of out needs at the shopping centre but also use the local convenience store, an evolution from the former corner shop. We dine at home but we also visit restaurants. We spend leisure and relaxation time at home but also in public places such as city shopping streets and public places.

People still need traditional and new urban spaces in which to interact with as their ancestors did: to stroll, to see and to be seen, to meet and relate to other people, to debate the issues of the day, to conclude business deals. These activities are part of the traditional activities of civil society in the same way as the urban streets and squares in which they occur.

Urban Design
Urban design in the early twenty first century is generally accepted as being concerned with the careful renovation, intervention and expansion to our cities and towns. Without reverting back to imitation of historical models each new architectural or urban design intervention should evolve from the patterns already existing in the cities form.

The city’s network of streets, squares and neighbourhoods should constitute the basis of any new intervention or extension .New architectural and urban design intervention and extensions ought to make the history of the city as legible as possible forming a new stratum to the layers of the city’s past. The objective of each architectural and urban design intervention should be to form a new layer, which adds to the historic layers of the past.

Saint Augustine & the City of God, Nicholas Polani, 1459

Each city and town has its own character. This has evolved over the centuries as a result of social, economic, political and urban design interventions. We recognise this character in its latest form, which is a constant state of evolution. Writers, poets, artists and film directors have often best articulated this character of the city. Giorgio de Chirico conveyed the essence of Turin in his early paintings; Orhan Pamik has portrayed Istanbul in a unique way in his books; and, of course, James Joyce in both Dubliners and Ulysses has captured the quintessential character of Dublin.

Sensitive urban design intervention should approach alterations to the city’s character with care. The city’s character is made up of the collective effect of its buildings, streets squares and its memories, experiences and aspirations.

By the time the renewal of the city commenced early in the 1990’s there had been a general reaction in Europe against modernist architecture and urban planning, as articulated in the Athens Charter, which failed to take account of urban grain and context. A new theory of urban design evolved which took as its starting point the historic European city and from there evolved a new approach to city planning. The principles

However, in the suburban areas of all of our cities and towns there are areas where little thought appears to have been given to concepts such as urbanism and place making. Rather they are a poor amalgam of many of the worst aspects of modernist city planning theory and the principles of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City movement. This is a serious problem and regrettable phenomenon, which we share with our European partners. It is in the suburbs that the next major breakthroughs in architecture and urbanism needs to occur.

The success of Irish architects in winning international competitions and awards is a clear indicator that we are capable of competing with the best internationally. However, it is important that such high standards become more evident in the new extensions to our towns and cities.

Visions for the future
Since the foundation of an independent Irish state in 1922 there have been many national achievements but none more significant than the two great policy initiatives of the post-war era:

• The opening up of the economy in the early 1960’s under the leadership of Taoiseach Sean Lemass and his Chief Financial advisor J. K. Whitaker
• The Social Partnership of the mid 1980’s which involved government, employers and trade unions in a long term social and economic pact.

As Ireland entered the 1990’s following a prolonged period of a recessionary economy few could have anticipated the impact that these two initiatives would have for the future of the Irish economy.

Having entered the European Economic Community in 1972 and with a young well-educated workforce, Ireland was well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities which the following decade would provide.

In 1989 Ireland had a total of 18% of its workforce in creative or knowledge economy activities. By 2002 this had risen to 33% catapulting the Irish economy to top place in the International Creative Class Index as defined by Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class.

This change in the makeup of the workforce reflected the fact that in a short period Ireland began to attract investment, initially from American pharmaceutical and information technology companies but also at the fledging International Financial Services Centre in Dublin’s Docklands from a range of financial investment companies and banks.

Customhouse Square Phase 1

These changes in the Irish economy have created unparalleled opportunities for Ireland’s architects. Economists now predict that Ireland’s economy will continue to grow over the next decade. While at the first outset of the phase of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy the country had a high level of unemployment (17%), a high number of emigrants working in other countries and a high number of women in the home, which combined to provide a significant resource to meet labour requirement’s in the early phase.

This resource has now been exhausted and statistics in each of these categories are now closer to the European norm. There has been an emerging trend of foreign workers being required in all sectors of the economy and the projection is now that a total of 40,000 immigrant workers will now be required each year to meet the needs of the expanding economy.

This is likely to have a profound impact on Irish cities and towns, and Dublin in particular, where it is estimated that approximately half of this immigrant population will be absorbed. The Central Statistics Office predicts that approximately 625,000 new homes will be required between now and 2020.

This is a major challenge, which bears comparison with other challenges that Ireland has faced in the last half century. It is essential to the social and economic future of our society. The achievements in reviving our capital city could not have been predicted 20 years ago.

Let us hope that the next two decades can produce a similar success in the implementation of public policy for sustainable neighbourhoods and integrated development in the new extensions to our cities and towns.

To achieve this, however, will require a more widely shared understanding, and consistent implementation of the public policy principles by government, local authorities, planners, urban designers, architects and all those involved in the development of our cities and towns.

It is currently estimated that up to 75,000 new homes will be built in Ireland this year, with similar rates of approximately 50,000 per annum expected up to 2015 to meet with anticipated demand. While an amount of this will be built on brownfield sites where many architects see the best opportunities, the majority will be built on the edges of our towns and cities, and this is where the real challenges lie.

Irish architects and planners have initiated a series of policy initiatives aimed at promoting quality in urban design and urbanism to ensure that future renewal and extensions to our villages, towns and cities are well designed and sustainable. The material displayed at the urbanism exhibition at the National Housing Conference was indicative of an increasing involvement of Irish architects in urban design and concern for good placemaking.

It represents a fundamental challenge to society and should be seen as an exciting opportunity for Irish architects, urban designers and planners to design successful and sustainable communities, which may in turn become models for town extensions in Ireland and elsewhere.

Temple Bar West End	South Wharf - DEGW