Building a better future
Lifestyle - Everyone loves looking behind other people’s hall door – but not as many really consider what role architecture can play in improving our environment and community. Architecture at the Edge looks at the big and small picture – and BERNIE NÍ FHLATHARTA spoke to its organiser to find out more.
Architecture is about more than bricks and mortar – it’s about designing spaces for us to live better lives as individuals and as a community. It’s also about connections and future proofing – but more importantly in the current climate crisis, it is an opportunity to adapt, reuse and re-imagine existing buildings.
And while many of us only ever think about the space we call home, the buildings in our community are probably just as important, as they reflect the way we live. Yet most of us never stop to think that we may have a say in how our villages, towns and cities are planned and designed.
For anyone who has any interest in the role all this plays in our daily lives, a visit to the Architecture at the Edge Festival in Galway next month is a must. And even for those who never stopped to think about this up to now, it is an opportunity to engage in a process that may indeed change their lives.
The two day festival on October 12 and 13, will include talks and discussions on ways that disused buildings could be adapted into cultural or community hubs that would inspire as well as meeting an ever growing demand for such spaces.
Frank Monahan, a Galway-based architect and director of the festival, is passionate about creating spaces which can be used for the public good whether they are creative hubs, food markets, art galleries or performance areas.
He was the man behind Ghost Chapel in the Claddagh for the Arts Festival in 2018, he has worked as a set-designer in London and he is about to start a lecturing post in GMIT.
Frank believes the theme of this year’s third annual event, ‘Adaptive Reuse’ is topical and one that will engage the wider community because of the current debate about the need for a multi-purpose arts space for the city and arts centres further afield in the county.
He points out that Inis Óirr is the only location in the county with a dedicated arts centre and that it’s time to ‘make it happen’ simply by people taking an interest and engaging with local authorities.
“This year we are focussing on looking at how old vacant buildings have been re-purposed and how some more could be put to use. We saw this year how the International Galway Arts Festival turned a former telephone exchange building in the centre of the city into a fantastic gallery.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.