National Policy on Architecture
Places for People, the new National Policy on Architecture, is now available. Places for People will boost public engagement with architecture, empower the architectural profession, particularly within the public service, raise design quality, and improve data and research on our built environment.
Places for People asserts the need for architects and built environment professionals to work together to achieve a high quality living environment for everyone, bringing economic, environmental and social benefits to cities, towns and rural communities across Ireland through the delivery of high quality sustainable buildings and public places.
Places for People – National Policy on Architecture
An evocative new film, Places for People, illustrates the vision and ambition of Ireland’s new National Policy on Architecture. Watch it on YouTube.
In the film, Ireland’s Cultural Ambassadors for Architecture, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, speak about Grafton Architects’ projects set in three very different Dublin contexts. These are the ESB Building in the historic Georgian city, an Educate Together school in the new TU Dublin campus at Grangegorman and transformative plans for reconnecting Dublin Port to the historic core of the city. Grafton Architects recently won the most prestigious prize for architecture in Europe, the EU Mies Award 2022.
The film explores how we can transform our cities into places for people, through high-quality architecture and thoughtful “urban acupuncture”. It shows the importance of fostering a culture of architecture, for a high quality built environment which benefits people, nature and planet.
These projects resonate deeply with the values of the New European Bauhaus, which promotes an integrated approach to architecture and the environment that is “beautiful”, “sustainable”, and brings people “together”. Places for People featured in the recent New European Bauhaus Festival in Brussels.
Places for People was commissioned by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and was made by architectural filmmaker Ros Kavanagh.
Photographs: Barrel Vault at ESB Headquarters, Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, courtesy of Grafton Architects; Dublin Port Centre Precinct by Enda Kavanagh for Darmody Architects courtesy of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland; Grangegorman Urban Quarter by Mary-Louise Halpenny courtesy of Grafton Architects