The Parnell Square Cultural Quarter (PSCQ) will be a landmark destination which will complete the Civic Spine of Dublin at its northern end. Following on from the public launch of this major project, Dublin City Council is now seeking an outstanding Design Team to deliver that landmark. The Civic Spine route includes the Grafton Street and Henry Street prime retail areas, important third level institutions and major cultural and tourism destinations.
A public procurement process, to select an architect-led multi-disciplinary design team, to provide all the architectural, conservation design and contract management services required to deliver this vision, is underway.
Seeking Local Designers to Make a Global Difference
Value Added in Africa Design Programme
Posted by Pivot Admin, 06.06.2013
Africa is changing. Economies are growing, middle classes forming, and solutions to poverty being creatively addressed. Entrepreneurship is flourishing, with many African co-operatives and SMEs moving away from reliance on raw materials to producing high-quality products for export. From Sole Rebels in Ethiopia to Sunflag in Tanzania, businesses across the continent are moving up the value chain of production, improving their livelihoods and communities in the process.
When you think of an inventor, Dublin City Council might not spring to mind, but Roy O’ Donnell, emerged as a serial inventor after winning three prizes in the council’s annual staff ideas scheme. Roy has also just been honoured with a Lord Mayor’s awards for his special contribution to Dublin.
Data is not useful until it becomes information. Turning raw numbers into a visual representation can help us understand meaning and connections much more quickly.
Cities are complex systems with many different networks, which must be managed by people and automated systems. We are becoming more connected through technology using smart phones, GPS or social networks to improve our experience of the city. It is a two way process.
The shape of cities and how they influence our behaviour is no longer just the concern of planners, architects, urban designers and politicians. Through the Dublinked open data network, the Studio have met designers, technologists, hacktivists, researchers and entrepreneurs who are all exploring how the urban environment is going to change in coming years. They are using Dublin as a test ground to develop new products and services using live city data.
The Studio is always looking at ways to engage with external partners to explore how we see the city in new ways. In 2011 we were approached by the National Digital Resources Centre to provide open data from for Ireland’s first 18 hour Open Data Challenge in the Digital hub. This initiated new relationships between the City Council and developers, designers and entrepreneurs and led to an ongoing collaboration with the Science Gallery with current participation in their monthly Urban Knights platform for change.
For the past two years the Studio have been working to identify suitable data and prepare it for release in ‘open’ or machine readable formats. The amount of information we generate through provision of city services has been quite an eye-opener. . Many are surprised that others would be interested in our data at all. We need to build awareness of the value of our data as a raw material by improving data literacy and knowledge management practices among staff.
Last Friday, Bryan Boyer & Justin W.Cook of Helsinki Design Lab were in Pearse Street library as guests of DCC Studio and the Department of Public Sector Reform to talk about their strategic design approach to public service challenges in Finland. Dublin was the last stop on their world tour to mark the windup and share their insights over the five years of Design Lab.
Word on the street; What we have learned from street engagements
by The Studio at Dublin City Council
Posted by Pivot Admin, 17.05.2013
The Studio has been working on new ways to engage with customers. As a starting point for public engagement we have taken to the streets on a number of occasions to explore what people like and dislike and to ask what could be improved in their neighbourhoods or city.
Dublinked –Open Data platform for the Dublin Region
by The Studio at Dublin City Council
Posted by Pivot Admin, 17.05.2013
Since 2011 the Studio has been working to open access to Dublin City Council data through the Dublinked data sharing initiative, an ideas and information sharing network which connects the Dublin region’s four local authorities with universities, companies and entrepreneurs.
While public sector reform is debated at length in the media and elsewhere, very little attention has been paid to the role that design can play. Dublin City Council has initiated a design Studio, bringing together a team of people from a variety of backgrounds to apply design thinking to public services and city challenges.
PILOTS: Navigating Next Models of Design Education at the Science Gallery, Thursday 16th May
Posted by Pivot Admin, 13.05.2013
PILOTS: Navigating Next Models of Design Education is a four week project devised and curated by El Ultimo Grito in collaboration with David Falkner at the Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston.
The IAF is delighted to announce the launch of the National Architects in Schools Initiative
Posted by Pivot Admin, 09.05.2013
Devised and delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation, this new initiative will provide students with first-hand experience of the design process under the guidance of design professionals.
The National Architects in Schools Initiative is co-funded by the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under the Government Policy on Architecture implementation programme 2013 and the Arts Council.
Big thanks to guest curator Dr David Robinson in association with Trinity College, Dublin and the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing. For the past two weeks David and other people in various fields of expertise have been contributing their insights into how we can discover new approaches to meeting the challenges and opportunities that an ageing society brings. If you missed them as they went up, and for ease of browsing, we've compiled links to all of the posts below...
Local Asset Mapping_ Transforming Dublin into an age friendly place
by David Robinson via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 02.05.2013
Over the last two weeks on PivotDublin we have read how Ireland is ageing, representing one of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our times. There is an international recognition that we will have to transform our cities into more age-friendly places. In today’s last post, I describe a preventive health project based in St James’ Hospital that will use existing community resources to effect this change in our part of the city.
The City of Dublin has launched plans for a new central City Library at Parnell Square. This new 21st century cultural hotspot will help launch the northern part of Dublin’s downtown as a new cultural quarter.
In times of financial crisis it’s hard to find money for new public buildings, particularly in the cultural scene and in a city like Dublin. What’s interesting about this project, initiated by Dublin’s City Architect Ali Grehan, is that it is financially made possible by a group of philanthropists. They will pay to make the plans and have committed to raise funding for the execution of the whole project. Peter Collins is Managing Director at Kennedy Wilson Europe. He represents the group of philanthropists that will pay for the massive building. We spoke to him about the library and asked him about philanthropy in urbanism.
The competition, entitled Imagine Energy, was run by Dublin City Council in association with Dublin’s energy agency Codema. The competition is part of a larger Ace project whose aim is to demonstrate and promote the increased use of renewable energy among local authorities, businesses and citizens across North West Europe. The Smart Energy Feature seeks to engage citizens on the benefits of renewable energy. A jury panel comprising of designers, architects, renewable energy experts and city officials selected the winning design after a six-month long competition process.
The University of Chicago, including my medical practice, is located on Chicago’s South Side – about 5 miles south of the city’s vibrant center. The South Side is home to more than 860,000 people, about half of whom live in poverty.
by Dr Gerard Boyle via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 29.04.2013
Somewhere along the evolution of electronics that created your much loved iPAD or Android tablet, a fairly seismic mutation had to happen in the technology family tree. Somehow, the great lumbering, room filling, valve driven computers that were built to serve the needs of venerable business and government institutions, sprouted a delinquent evolutionary lineage, selecting instead for the needs of the individual user. We can thank Bill, or Steve (W. or J.) or Clive, or the transistor, or whoever you think fit, but this shift away from the development of institutional electronic dinosaurs set the course for the emergence of technology designed for individual use. This technology has fundamentally shifted the relationship between individuals and the institutions we interact with. Going to the bank, visiting the post office, checking a book in the library, doing your shopping or paying your tax no longer means leaving your house or demands that you work around other people’s timetables and systems of work.
by Sam Russell via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 29.04.2013
How might we re-imagine non-clinical health services for the Liberties area? How could we draw on local assets and capabilities to deliver this new service?
This was the starting point for a recent collaboration between 3rd year Product Design students at NCAD and the Liberties Asset Mapping Project. Working with guidance from service designer Re Dubhtaigh the students started this project with an in depth ethnographic research phase. In teams of three they explored the Liberties area; sparking conversation, conducting surveys and observing and documenting human behaviour. We wanted them to build a meaningful understanding of local people, their skillsets and existing social networks that could feed into the design of a new age friendly service.
Shake, rattle and roll – can we change the Dublin Bus experience for us as we age?
by Desmond O'Neill via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 25.04.2013
Desmond O’Neill is a professor in medical gerontology at Trinity College Dublin, a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine at Tallaght Hospital, and is a regular columnist with the Irish Times.
Artisan crafts are making a revolutionary global comeback that goes beyond the coolness of bearded hipsters in Brooklyn. In the new economy more and more people demand authentic, locally produced, sustainable items that represent real value. Ireland has a unique history of craftsmanship, which could form a great basis for Dublin’s contemporary identity.
Older People, Well-Being and the Urban Environment
by Tom Grey and Mark Dyer via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 23.04.2013
The streets, roads, squares or parks that make up the public realm of our cities, towns and villages provide the stage for people to walk, cycle, drive or take public transport to work or school, to go about their business, to mingle with friends or strangers, to play, to exercise, or simply to sit and watch people and the world go by. Through density, proximity and mixed uses, urban areas have the potential to support vibrant and sustainable communities while hosting the necessary diversity, critical mass and human interaction to spark and sustain innovation, employment, sport culture and the arts.
A blog from Pr. Rose Anne Kenny via Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing
Posted by Pivot Admin, 22.04.2013
Professor Rose Anne Kenny is the head of the Department of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin and is an expert on cardiovascular and mobility disorders in ageing. She is director of MISA – the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing and is the principal investigaor of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.
People are living longer. These changes take the same worldwide strategic importance as global warming. Never before in the history of humanity has the number of people over 65 out stripped the number under 5. We are living longer by 5 hours per day- a baby girl born today in Dublin will live 3 months longer than her sister born on the same day last year. The biggest increase in Ireland will be in the numbers of people over the age of 80 years- an increase of 60% over the next 20 years.
What are the biggest design challenges that Ireland will face over the next 20 years? Peak oil? Global warming? Exiting the bailout? Most blogs and futurists occupy themselves with these and other resource-related questions. However, there is a change happening all around us - and to each of us - which is set to transform Irish society in a way that will affect every facet of Irish life: Ireland, and each one of us, is ageing. Not only are we ageing, but we are moving from the countryside into the cities. Since 2006, the number of people over 65 in Ireland has increased by 15%: over the next 20 years, the proportion of the population over 65 will double from 11% today (the lowest in the EU) to the European average of over 20%.
A co-creation event to redesign City supports for enterprise
Posted by Pivot Admin, 14.06.2013
THE GOAL
How can Dublin effectively encourage, support and create opportunities for the city’s start-ups and entrepreneurs? How can the city systems and resources be used to develop new business ideas? By sharing our experiences and skills can we quickly design initiatives that will make a real difference?
During our two-week Blogger in Residency in Dublin earlier this month we discovered quite an innovative approach to urban planning and development that other cities around the globe could learn from. Several departments within the Irish capital’s City Council have adopted urban hacking and interventionism tactics as serious tools to improve public spaces.
Conference poster explores 1916 Rising through typography and print
Posted by Pivot Admin, 22.04.2013
The GradCAM/UCD/NCAD ‘Object Matters: Making 1916’ conference that takes place in Wood Quay Venue on 26-27 April will be examining the material and visual culture of the 1916 Easter Rising. Speakers will be presenting research into many questions such as how the rebel uniforms were designed, how the Rising was presented in cinema and even where the tricolor on the GPO came from.
Dublin Warehouse Transforms Into A Member Club For Makers
by bloggers in residence PopUpCity.net
Posted by Pivot Admin, 17.04.2013
Mabos is the name of a warehouse in Dublin’s docklands area, that has been turned into a very special location for all kinds of urban niche activities. We spoke with initiator Dave Smith about his idea behind this multi-functional maker space, which hosts a wide variety of events ranging from women-only skateboarding events to robotic workshops, do-it-yourself furniture making classes and late-night BYOB parties.
Balcony Wormery Makes Urban Composting Easy And Fun
by bloggers in residence PopUpCity.net
Posted by Pivot Admin, 12.04.2013
Hey urban composters, this one is for you! During our stay here in Dublin we had the chance to chat with the guys of ABGC, a design and architecture firm that has its office in the city’s South Studios. They showed us some of recent projects, including a little wormery called WorkWorks. This urban balcony composter drew our immediate attention as it perfectly combines the recycling philosophy with a-do-it-yourself mentality plus great design on top of that.
Street Feast: A National Social Lunch Day For Ireland
by bloggers in residence PopUpCity.net
Posted by Pivot Admin, 11.04.2013
On Tuesday afternoon we visited South Studios, one of Dublin’s creativity hubs. During lunch around the corner at the wonderful Fumbally we ran into Samuel Bishop, designer and co-founder of Street Feast, a day of local lunches in public spaces all around Ireland on June 23rd, hosted by the people.
'This Stool Rocks' by Irish-born, London-based designer and Fabsie founder James McBennett is not only an exploration of innovative tools for designing and making furniture — it proposes a revolutionary re-invention of the production chain.
Right now that everyone in the international design blogosphere is talking Milan we’re talking Dublin. Last weekend we visited Dublin’s creative festival OFFSET 2013. OFFSET took place between 5 and 7 April, and we were lucky to get invited and mingle with the design community. We just spent our first days here in Dublin as Bloggers in Residence and the OFFSET Festival gave us a good opportunity to find out if something like ‘Dublin Design’ exists. Does this city has its own style expressed by the variety of work made by the local creative community?
Big thanks to guest curator Dochas, the representative umbrella organisation for Ireland's oversease development NGOs. For the past two weeks we've had Thomas Geoghan of Dóchas giving us an insight into how design impacts the workings and success of development NGOs and vice versa. If you missed them as they went up, and for ease of browsing, we've compiled links to all of the posts below...
In a great new design story for Dublin a major initiative has been launched to regenerate Parnell Square and the northern end of the Civic Spine - the route connecting the city's key historic space from the Square south via O'Connell Street, College Green and Dame Street to Christchurch - with the establishment of Cultural Quarter anchored by a new City Library for Dublin and the existing Hugh Lane Gallery.
Thinking about the success of Google, Facebook and the near-ubiquity of the term ‘data-mining’ in business circles, it may be a little obvious to say we’re living through a second, or even third, information revolution.
The collection of information is so huge that filtering that information in digestible form has become essential. We collect more and we can access more. But how do we process and interpret this data?
Entrepreneurs and businesses across sub-Saharan Africa are producing high-quality, export-ready products. But the world doesn’t altogether know this.
On one hand, while the continent’s infrastructure has improved, it can still be difficult for African companies to get their products to roads and harbours to make their journey to our shelves. On the other hand, expectations of business in Europe, for example, can present challenges for African companies who experience challenges not common in Europe and they must also learn more about ‘business culture’ of their potential customers and meet them in the middle.
At their best, innovation in the context of development aid can be brilliantly effective at improving the lives of poor people around the world, but they can also create unintended consequences.
Last year, as part of The Science Gallery’s Surface Tension exhibition, Ralph Borland presented his findings on the ‘Play Pump’, an idea that perfectly demonstrates that an innovative idea that looks great on paper can fall short for the intended users.
Ballyfermot College partnership with Evelyn Hone College Zambia
Posted by Pivot Admin, 28.03.2013
Since 2008, Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE) recently announced a new partnership with Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce (EHC) in Lusaka, Zambia. EHC is one of Zambia’s oldest independent vocational colleges and is currently working with BCFE to develop their first creative digital media programme. Dóchas caught up with Diarmuid O’Brien, vice-principal of BCFE, to find out more about this exciting partnership.
In a previous blog post Finding Frames, we talked about new research into how NGO awareness raising and building social movements and the challenge this research is posing to NGOs to reframe how the go about this.
In this follow-on blog post, we look at some interesting new directions and experiments already under way by NGOs to reframe development through visual communication.
Public opinion on aid and development in Ireland is heavily influenced by the ‘missionary tradition’ emphasising charitable donations rather than political engagement with the root causes of poverty. In short, the ‘Live Aid Legacy’ is alive and well. In response, Irish NGOs agreed a Code of Conduct on Images and Messages to reduce stereotyping and simplifications that often come with the competitive nature of NGO fundraising. This stemmed an image-driven ‘race to the bottom’ in pursuit of funding and sparked a lively debate on the ethics of NGO communications. This Irish NGO code was the first code of its kind and is now the European standard.
NGOs are using design to connect consumers to the global water crisis.
Water is vital, and most of the time, we take water for granted.
Here in Ireland we’re lucky to be able to take it for granted, but nearly 1 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water for their own consumption, their animals and crops.
Water is a serious global issue as the world heads towards a potentially massive water crisis. Most people would associate this global challenge with images of dirty water holes and parched landscapes in Africa. We tend to see the crisis as ‘out there’ and someone else’s problem, but it’s really our problem too. Our unsustainable consumption patterns are fuelling climate change and exacerbates the global water crisis.
To help shift perspectives, some NGOs have been creatively using consumerism as a way to engage people and connect global issues and the local realities.
Many people might not readily think of Ireland’s or any other development NGOs as ‘designers’. Many people working in NGOs may not see themselves as designers either.
Designer and design historian Jorge Frascara, there are four kinds of design: design to support life, design to facilitate life, and design to improve life. And then, there is inconsequential design.
It started with recording music, then the walkman, then the mp3, now recorded music is almost at a saturation point, with a majority of people listening to music everyday whether on the radio, television or on their smartphone or mp3 player. Due to the current music industry crisis of file sharing the trend in the music industry is to revert to the model before the advent of recorded music i.e. live shows, but I'd like to speculate about another direction that music could take, a musical experience somewhere between recorded and live music, Mobile Music.
In 1990 Glasgow became the first ever UK city to be named the European Capital of Culture, what followed was an unprecedented boom in the creative industries transforming the image of the city from industrial heartland to cultural metropolis.
In 2014 Glasgow will host the Commonwealth Games and the city is once more is shaping up for a period of development the likes of which may not be seen for another generation.
"Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell."
Starter for 6 is Scotland's premier start-up and investment programme for creative industry entrepreneurs. The programme is delivered by the Cultural Enterprise Office, Scotland’s business support and development service for creative businesses.
Four of our innovative architectural businesses and previous participants of the programme; Hoos, Pidgin Perfect, Kirsty Maguire and Icecream Architecture are making contributions to the Pivot Dublin Blog this week.
www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/starterfor6
Starter for 6 is delivered with funding provided by Creative Scotland's Innovation Fund (via Scottish Government)
Snuggling in to a lovely warm sitting room after a day outside in the crisp winter weather is a wonderful experience. But what’s on your mind? The cost of fuel has risen again? How much do you pay each year? In Scotland it’s likely to be around £1260 per year.
770,000 or 35% of Scotland’s households are in ‘fuel poverty’, spending more than 10% of their income on household fuel use.
The primary function of Britain's high streets is now widely recognised as obsolete. Essentially this is due to the global financial crisis and the growing demand for convenience through out-of-town retail centres and online shopping, and there is a tendency for local authorities to operate using this outdated model of what high streets should offer. With this comes not only a continued decline in local economy, but also the civic purpose and co-operation that is characteristic of vibrant communities.
Digital Fabrication has been at the forefront of manufacturing techniques from aerospace to engineering, these technologies are now increasingly penetrating architecture.
Home working is certainly on the rise. A survey of firms by the Confederation of British Industry showed that the number offering at least some teleworking rose from 14% in 2006 to 46% in 2008 and is expected to be even higher in 2013.
We've had two huge announcements in the last week about additions to the OFFSET 2013 line-up. We've been sitting on this news for a while and today we're delighted to introduce Iain Tait and FAILE.
Getting close to creative legends is part of the OFFSET experience – but it’s also the best opportunity you’ll ever have to get to know your creative neighbours both from Ireland and further afield.
And we’re kick-starting the mingling early this year!
OFFSET is one of the only events on the planet that incorporates design, illustration, street art, photography and film. We like how everything gets mixed-up and the lines between the creative disciplines get blurred. But sometimes it's helpful to concentrate on one area – last week on our OFFSET blog, we focused on illustration, covering our former speakers as well as looking forward to whats in store for OFFSET 2013.
Over the years, we’ve had individuals on the OFFSET stage who have changed the way we see the world – literally: Pentagram’s Michael Beirut recently updated all the street signage in New York City.
PIVOT Dublin map officially launched in City Hall!
Posted by Pivot Admin, 28.01.2013
This weekend saw the distribution of our new Dublin Design map to outlets around Dublin city centre. Designed by Conor and David in resplendent hues more golden than Willy Wonka’s ticket and filled with ten times the promise, the map directs you to over 200 places in Dublin where you can shop, sip and see design.
Showcasing Irish design for the opening of the EU Presidency
Posted by Pivot Admin, 09.01.2013
Cast Architecture designed this mobile exhibition unit for PIVOT Dublin as part of our 2013 programme. We’ll be using it to showcase design stories throughout the year.
We are currently seeking an intern to work with PIVOT Dublin and Dublin City Architects researching and communicating about the design and architecture of the city.
IADT Visual Communication recognised among Europe’s top design schools for 2013
Posted by Pivot Admin, 14.12.2012
Congratulations to all at IADT's Visual Communication Design programme which is one of only twenty-five graphic design programmes to be listed in the DOMUS Top 100 European Design Schools for 2013.
Makers & Brothers are opening their shed for the festive period. On December 1st the doors open to a shed stuffed full of wonderful gifts. The best craft and design they have sourced from around Ireland and further afield.
Atlas of change. Mapping identity for next generation Dublin.
Patrick Mc Cabe
Posted by Pivot Admin, 22.11.2012
Riet Bakker, a famous planner in the Netherlands once described her profession in the curtest of terms: ‘Planning is war!’ The battleground that is Dublin and Ireland has been utterly transformed over the last fifteen years. The country has become relatively smaller as the time travel dynamic has shifted. Our improved infrastructure has made us more mobile than ever before, and as a nation we are rediscovering with a passion, the value of the outdoors and the beauty of our own landscape. We have become weekend tourists as the Cork Mountains and the pleasure -scapes of the western seaboard have come within easy reach. City festivals and local markets abound. Adventure sports such as marathons, city swims, hiking, and kite surfing are on the up. Even the café terrace culture (with some thanks to the smoking ban) has become a permanent fixture in the streets of Dublin. All these trends point to a higher demand for quality in our surroundings, as we seek new opportunities to exploit our urban landscape in creative ways.
Greenport Dublin. A new vision for a working landscape
Patrick Mc Cabe
Posted by Pivot Admin, 22.11.2012
Every city needs a working landscape where it can belch and groan, get down in the grime and carry out the dirty work necessary for it to function properly. As a designer I have always been interested in the austerity and beauty of working landscapes and am inspired by their honest qualities. Partly out of curiosity, but also recognising the increasing importance role of ports as new landscapes of cities my company REDscape Landscape & Urbanism started a research project to compare the development of harbours in Asia and Europe. Our research explored the relationship between the harbour and the city in particular to regional logistical systems, public space and potential shared investments between port authorities and their respective cities. The findings of the study lead us to focus on a subset of smaller European harbours that showed clear potential for restructuring and growth.
The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) network was established in 1984 and runs along the coastline of Dublin bay, north and south of the city centre. Focusing on the southern branch of the DART - the line traces the route of Ireland’s first railway, the Dublin and Kingstown line which dates from 1834. The DART serves primarily as a service for commuters to and from the city centre, however its scenic route with sweeping views over the bay have made it something of a tourist attraction (Figure 1: Dart line, Dunlaoghaire, www.irishrail.ie). This placement of the railway line along the water’s edge is reminiscent of scenic lakeside railway routes in Switzerland, albeit on a more modest scale. Suburban centres, Martello towers, Georgian terraces, wildlife reserves and bathing places line the coast and are made easily accessible by the DART.
Return of the sea. Designing Dublin’s new coastal defences.
Patrick Mc Cabe
Posted by Pivot Admin, 20.11.2012
The form of Dublin Bay at over 22 km is a fascinating dance of shifting mud, moving coastlines, sequences of constructed sea defences and hundreds of reclamation projects. It is a hugely dynamic coastline in a state of constant flux, shaped and designed by a thousand hands. Yet it has still to face its greatest challenge; ´the return of the sea´.
Making the Bay. A prologue to designing Dublin’s Landscape.
Patrick Mc Cabe
Posted by Pivot Admin, 19.11.2012
Dublin Bay is the backdrop to many of our lives. Eulogised and immortalised by great writers such as Joyce, but more importantly cherished by every day Dubliners it has become cemented into the ‘hands off, or else…’, status. Its eb and flood is spectator to the daily narratives of piers, walks, baths, Martello towers*, worm diggers and dog walkers, teddy’s ice cream, mackerel feathers, kite surfers and ´it’s better than sex´ New Year swims. Somehow the bay always has, and always will be. But has its languid tides lured us into a false sense of reality? As Dubliners, have we not forgotten it’s a living, breathing landscape, a landscape in which change is inevitable?
Call out for Design Shops for Pivot Dublin Map/Guide
Posted by Pivot Admin, 12.11.2012
Readers of the site will know that Pivot Dublin put a call out for a team to produce a printed and online map/guide to Dublin design shops within Dublin City Centre. The graphic design team Conor & David have been awarded this commission, and the map/guide will be launched in mid December.
Celebrating 75 years Art Deco Style at Inchicore Library
Posted by Pivot Admin, 07.11.2012
This talk will look at the architectural history of Inchicore Library with some thoughts on the Art Deco style as interpreted more generally in building design. A talk by Susan Roundtree, Senior architect with Dublin City Council.
What is Imagine Energy? Imagine Energy is a two-phase project to design and install a smart energy feature in Dublin City Centre. This will be achieved in two phases, the 1st phase is a two-stage design competition and the 2nd phase will be tendering the fabrication and installation of the winning proposal.
The Dublin Design Collective has created Dublin Tagged! in association with PIVOT Dublin. It’s aimed at encouraging people to rediscover their city. This exhibition is being funded by Dublin City Council as part of its PIVOT 2012 programme.
American graphic designer Paul Rand is one of the most celebrated graphic designers in history. A modernist at heart, he is best known for the iconic logos and corporate identities he created in the 1950s and ‘60s for the likes of IBM, Ford and UPS. After working together on the NeXT Computer identity, Steve Jobs described Rand as “the greatest living graphic designer”. He continued to work until his death in 1996, both on design projects and as a lecturer. An influential designer who encouraged simplicity of thought and process, his work is perhaps best summed by his classic, Mies van der Rohe- referencing quote: “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.”
“Meitheal-ethic” Exhibition of Collaborative Works 2006-2012
Woodcollective
Posted by Pivot Admin, 31.10.2012
“Meitheal-ethic” Exhibition is a collaboration between Eugene Boyle of Woodcollective and Carol Melody a PhD Student in Agriculture Science (Horticulture) U.C.D. has been open since May 2012 and has made a strong impact on public and specialist audiences with 100,000 visitors to date and extensive coverage in print and broadcast media. The garden will close to the public for this year at the end of October and will open again in a new venue, Exchange Dublin (beside the Wooden Building), 2 Exchange Street Upper, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 as part of the design week 2012 schedule.
Imagine Energy Competition Opens for Entries November 6th
Watch this space!
Posted by Pivot Admin, 30.10.2012
Calling all designers, planners, ICT professionals, creative thinkers and visual communicators – the Ace project is setting you a challenge. On Tuesday, 6th November 2012, as part of design week 2012 schedule, the Ace Imagine Energy design competition to develop a smart energy feature in Dublin’s city centre will go live!
The City Council partners with two colleges on the ‘Dublin Project’
Posted by Pivot Admin, 24.10.2012
Dublin City Council has partnered with the Institute without Boundaries (Toronto), Dublin Institute of Technology (Mountjoy Square), and Design 21C to work on a new collaborative project entitled ‘The Dublin Project’, with the theme of ‘‘Innovation in Public Services for the 21st Century City’.
Walk down an Irish street in 2050 and you'll be more likely to meet someone aged over 80 than a 20-25 year old. That's the startling demographic shift that's inspired ActivAge 2012, a Dublin City of Science event taking place on the 2nd/3rd of November.
Helsinki World Design Capital 2012: Everyday Discoveries Core Exhibition
Dublin Design Collective
Posted by Pivot Admin, 15.10.2012
In addition to Helsinki Tagged! Everyday Discoveries exhibition, the Dublin Design Collective organised a collection of designs from Ireland, both old and new, to be exhibited in the company of similar themed objects from 23 different countries. This exhibition was curated by IMU Design and organised by Design Forum Finland.
As part of the Irish Governments Jobs Action Plan for 2012 Enterprise Ireland has been asked to run a Innovation Voucher pilot initiative to promote the use of design innovation by small companies. Companies must be registered in Ireland.
For the past 12 days REDRAWING DUBLIN has been talking about everything from “Traffic Lights” to “Unlocked Parks”, from projecting evening videos of “Urban Boulevards” on Dame Street to “Posting Postcards” from Castle Street (Boycotts notwithstanding)
REDRAWING DUBLIN has a walk (and talk) in the Park….some real some imaginary.
Motti Ruimy + Paul Kearns
Posted by Pivot Admin, 11.10.2012
What if everybody in Dublin City lived in well designed and spacious apartments and instead all the those front and back gardens of suburban Dublin – essentially private open space – were added together and magically converted into public parks, how many St Stephens Green could you ‘make’?
Dublin City Architect Ali Grehan told some 2,000 people at the TEDxDublin event last month “While Dublin was a very dynamic city; a city should be about more than places to work, shop and spectacle and should be somewhere people want to bring up families”
RED and GREEN what do you see?
Here is a simple “design” question REDRAWING DUBLIN believes is pivotal to Dublin urbanism. Why can’t Dublin City coordinate its pedestrian traffic lights signal with its vehicular traffic light signal?
Today we invite the residents and visitors of Dublin to write a postcard
“She took a folded postcard from her handbag.
--Read that, she said. He got it this morning.
--What is it? Mr Bloom asked, taking the card”
(James Joyce Ulysses)
The ACE project, including an exciting design competition was launched in Dublin’s Mansion House by Lord Mayor Naoise O’Muiri, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, Director of Codema Gerry Wardell and Ali Grehan, Dublin City Architect on Monday 24th September 2012.
We took the opportunity of Dublin’s participation in the inaugural World Tourism Cities Federation Summit Beijing 2012 to produce a booklet on the PIVOT Dublin initiative.
“A Place to Gather is about a respect for the power of Irish material culture. It is an exploration of how design, craft, literature, film - all these different parts of our culture - can connect people, ideas and places. It is about taking a holistic approach to Ireland’s material culture.”
– Jonathan Legge, Curator
Getting ready for Helsinki Tagged at Everyday Discoveries
Posted by Pivot Admin, 04.09.2012
Excitement building as Ireland’s representation at the Helsinki WDC2012 Everyday Discoveries International Design House Exhibition is being readied for tomorrow’s big opening which is the curtain raiser for Helsinki's Design Week.
China’s Most Successful Designs Awards 2012 - Judging starts today.
Posted by Pivot Admin, 29.08.2012
China has unique, flourishing markets made up of many diverse groups with strikingly distinct lifestyles and preferences. In order to compete in the Chinese market, designs have to be more than functionally and aesthetically pleasing, designs must also accomplish a strategic goal that is extraordinary, innovative, and beneficial to both the user and society. This is successful design.
Dublin’s second annual PARK(ing) Day is taking place on Friday 21st September from 12am to 6pm at various locations around the city. This year it will coincide with Culture Night and the Fringe Festival! PARK(ing) Day is an annual worldwide one-day event where metered car parking spaces are turned into temporary public parks.
How do you hack a city? How do use your body to crack the surface, engage with its physical makeup; to un-pick its code and explore its potentials? The city is much like any complex system; a series of commands and clauses directing flows around a physical architecture. Traffic lights are binary stop/go indicators, barriers are firewalls, and roads, drains and train tracks are pathways. These can be subverted and circumvented by hacking. Hacking doesn’t have to be limited to computers, we can use our bodies to hack the city’s geography. And through that hack we can re-take control of our city. All we have to do tap into the three Cs; courage, curiosity, and creativity, and use them to have adventures in the city.
