#TheCorkPapers - Sustainable City in the Making

Delighted that the collection of 20 papers with expertise on Sustainable City Making will be launched on Wed 27th June in Cork City as part of the Academy of Urbanism annual Congress with a focus on Cork. I selected the essay writers because of their particular expertise. This A5 book of 150 pages was commissioned by Cork City Council and is part of a series I have curated and edited including The China Papers and The British Papers.

Many thanks to Cork City Council for sponsoring this publication of “The Cork Papers – Sustainable City in the Making”.

Thanks to all the essay writers who only needed a small nudge from me to take part with a critical review in relation to Cork with their expertise and some gems of wisdom.

The intention of this publication is to look at Cork with fresh eyes and see its great potential so that government, Cork city and county leaders will act on the suggestions in these essays from prominent leaders in their areas of expertise.

We all hope that The Cork Papers is a useful prompt for the huge potential in Cork city and county waiting to be released and give them confidence to just do it!

It is often only by stepping into the distance that we realise what is on our doorstep. It is also important not to feel compelled to work in competition with your neighbours, be they regional county or country wide, because we will thrive and gain most from working together and making new partnerships. Cork is a unique place at a moment of change – it needs the decision makers to realize its value for the benefit of the whole country.

Climate change is upon us and Ireland will not meet its CO2 reduction targets and has in fact a 1% increase in emissions and will face heavy fines. Cork is leading the way in the research and development of clean energy wind and wave power and they have the answer to Ireland's problems - but only if funding comes their way. The vast Tivoli docklands site and South docklands site could provide 10,000 homes and jobs in sustainable industry.

Cork is a welcoming city for business and fun, as are its surrounding Counties. There is huge design talent and universities are churning out students that can work in Cork and be trained in specific High Tech industries.

This is Cork's Time to Flourish. 

The cork papers present insight from:

1.  Angela Brady - A Focus on Cork’s Opportunities
2.  Brian Lalor - In A Linguea Franca of Water
3.  Sean Kearns - Second Chance for New Docklands City
4.  Prof Stephen Willacy - Re-connecting/Re-thinking/ Re-focusing/Reflecting
5.  John Hegarty - Signi cance in Urban Cork
6. Peter Murray - Heritage in the People’s Republic
7.  Frank McDonald - Growing Pains of Expanding Cork City
8.  Dr Sandra O’Connell - A Vision for 21st Century Living
9.  Andrew Carr - Life After Design -Predicting and Prompting the Socail Life of Buildings
10.  Walter Menteth - Coastal Flood Resilience - Delivering Thriving Waterfronts
11.  Valerie Mulvin - Cork -A Place

12  Marie Donnelly - Cork - The Rebel City

13  Claire Lambe - The Power of the Sea

14  Jose Ospina - Self-Help / Self-Build as Innovation in Housing

15  Adrian Joyce - Long-Term Strategies for Energy Renovation of Buildings

16  Giulia Valone - Re-Inhabiting the Streets

17  Rory O’Connell The Soil Under our Feet Is Not Dirt, - It Is Our Future + #MadAboutCork by Alan Hurley

18  Mary McCarthy - Cork - a Creative City - in the Making

19  Alison Ospina - History of the Creative Community

20  Mikael Coville Anderson - Putting Back the Bike in Cities

Many thanks to all contributors above to this book

The Cork Papers:

A Focus on Cork's Opportunities by Angela Brady OBE

Everyone who has visited Cork City has their favourite memory or anecdote about a City that generates mythology as a natural resource. One of my own is the vision of arriving on a warm summer’s evening, walking along the quays at sunset and realising that the silver sparkle on the river was actually the enormous salmon running up stream to spawn. We approached the bridge close to Shandon to find a crowd of lads leaning dangerously over the parapet gaffing the beasts directly out of the water and disappearing within seconds into the impenetrable jumble of streets that gather on the hill around St Anne’s famous steeple, thereby shaking o any unwanted Garda Síochána attention for what seemed like a chancer’s activity. The passage of time has doubtless inflated the size and number of the fish and the fieriness of the setting sun, but the sense of the abundance of nature, the picturesque setting of an ancient city where people still live in its heart and the romance of likely lads getting one over on the authorities, are all part and parcel of my vision of the spirit of Cork. 

Less romantic but equally pertinent is the knowledge that salmon no longer run up the Lee in that way due to many factors both local to Cork, for instance the hydro-electric schemes further up river, the plethora of salmon and mussel farms along the coast and the wider impact of climate change and environmental pollution. In a nutshell this memory sums up the issues faced by many cities; How do they manage change while conserving and protecting the distinctiveness of character and place? 

These Cork Papers are intended as a ‘primer’ for the future of Cork City. This collection is also in many ways, a primer for all cities as the issues of growth in a nite world, sustainability, conservation and quality of life are universal and equally apply, but of course all cities are unique in their own specific set of circumstances and each city must play the cards dealt to it by history, nature and circumstance. In this sense Cork has been blessed with the resources and potential to make it a city that is first amongst equals. 

Firstly the issues faced by Cork City are not the issues faced by many post-industrial western cities - those of regeneration, renewal and reinvention. The city is not dead on its feet having lost its commercial raison d’être, it is a thriving, prosperous city popular with residents and visitors alike for its legendary hospitality, good food and welcome. Cork’s dilemma is summed up by the old adage ‘the only constant in life is change’. How can a city preserve the authentic qualities for which it is renowned while adapting to meet the constant pressures and demands of the 21st Century? 

Careful restoration of significant city structures adds tangible value and separates a city from competing locations. Comparable to the incredible Pont Neuf in Paris, Sir John Bensons’ St Patrick’s Bridge could act as a key anchor to promote regeneration in Cork if carefully repaired and accurately restored. 

Secondly the cards dealt to Cork by the Fates include a clutch of aces. The natural beauty of Cork’s location with the surrounding hills, the Atlantic seaboard and the magnificence of Cork harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney, are more than the leisure and tourist attractions they undoubtably are. They have an abundance of renewable energy generating options as Claire Lambe and Valerie Mulvin illustrate in their papers. This needs to be a focus for Ireland and not just Cork. 

The riverine setting of the city amongst the ever present channels of the River Lee and the still largely contiguous historic fabric, create the stage for city life and the setting for the history and traditions of the place, as described by Brian Lalor and John Hegarty who feel it to the core. The city still has to recognised many historic buildings of signi cant national importance and it also has a wealth of ne working buildings emblematic of Cork and in which the history, traditions and memory of the place are embedded.

The city must value and conserve these buildings, as Peter Murray makes clear in his paper and be aware of the full scope of Cork’s history reflected in both monuments and the ‘mat’ of urban fabric that contributes equally to what Cork is. As an example (but let’s hope not a cautionary tale), some of the nest historic warehouses in the city could be under threat at Customs House Quay, not from demolition necessarily but from emasculation by the preposterous tower proposal on the Port of Cork site. If ever a development represented a wake up call to the city this is it - a proposal that has nothing to do with Cork, nothing to do with the history, culture and tradition of this place and which shows no understanding of any of the issues championed in these essays - a design from the last century which could irreparably damage the future trajectory of the whole city. Hopefully it has gone quiet! However - good design can change our lives for the better. So if a scheme inspired by 1980’s Manhattan (yes really) does not represent a credible future then what does? 

Let us look to the most sustainable city in Europe. Prof. Wulf Daseking, past director of planning in Freiburg was instrumental in writing the Freiburg Charter. Its ideas are intended as basic principles, designed to provide food for thought and inspiration to act. He says “We hope that the Freiburg Charter will be received openly and used to promote efforts to advance sustainable urban planning through the sharing of ideas”. 

This alternative vision for an exemplar sustainable city, indeed an achievable and desirable one is in accord with the Government’s 2050 vision for Ireland. He also says “New sources of much needed energy must be found while cutting consumption at the same time. There is no doubt that urban development and planning play an important pioneering role in solving these issues before us. The areas of economy, ecology, social a airs and education as well as cultural diversity must be addressed through an integrated approach. Involving citizens at an early stage in the planning process and giving consideration to regional integration, are basic preconditions for viable urban development”. 

Cork has the potential to become the standard bearer for sustainable living to o set our fossil fuel hungry country that is still not taking climate change seriously. There are many role models in Europe whose example could help change the trajectory of a country currently headed in the opposite direction as Ireland struggles to reduce its CO2 emissions in line with EU targets. According to the May 2018 GHG projects report - Ireland is set to increase rather than decrease its carbon footprint by 1% and will face heavy fines - perhaps this money could otherwise have been spent on carbon reducing initiatives by harvesting our natural energy resources and by radically improving insulation standards in our existing stock of buildings - as championed by Adrian Joyce and for future developments as outlined in Mary Donnelly’s and Claire Lambe’s papers. All of these essays in their own way advocate the future development of Cork as a 21st century sustainable economy based on a full understanding of its particular spirit and character. This spirit resides in the people as much as in the built fabric, a fact that manifests most clearly through the work of the region’s artists and crafts people. Cork and West Cork in particular have a living tradition of the arts and crafts revived in the 1960’s when many artists moved to Ireland for the quality of life and inspirational landscape. These artistic skills are in abundance but they need more national recognition and financial support. Cork has the Sculpture Factory described here by founder and past director Mary McCarthy but more, similar arts centres are needed as greenwood chair maker Alison Ospina points out. She has been trying to get a Skibbereen Craft Centre funded for over ten years and it is still needed - yet she puts together annual shows with over 40 creative artists under the banner of West Cork Creates. 

Indeed this issue of funding and Government support, both central and local, can be seen as key to any plan for future growth and development. Frank Mc Donald tells the story of past initiatives many of which foundered due to the lack of support or vision from government departments. Compare that sorry tale with the positive story of Aarhus in Denmark, a city with many similarities and shares much common ground with Cork, in Professor Stephen Willacy’s inspiring contribution. So often shortsightedness and perceived competition, with the next town or city, clouds the vision for what a city could achieve or deliver for themselves - if only they collaborated rather than competed with their neighbours. Collaboration is the key to the success of Aarhus docklands redevelopment and a key strategy for Cork to pursue. As an example of this, Dr Sandra O’Connell’s paper describes the collaborative design process adopted by the Port of Cork for the initial masterplan stages of the redevelopment of the 62 hectare Tivoli Docks waterfront site. 

Stephen Willacy’s essay also concerns itself with Aarhus’s role as the ‘second city’ of Denmark and how the city responds to that sometimes pejorative designation, one which Corkonians are all to familiar with, as Sean Kearns points out. This is a ‘thing’ all second cities find themselves having to deal with such as in Marseilles in France.

I asked writer and broadcaster - and well known Marseillais - Jonathan Meades to comment: “Marseilles is nothing like Paris – It is to Paris what Liverpool is to London, what Glasgow is to Edinburgh - awkward, disobedient, bolshie and not really very French.” 

There is something very familiar to Cork about that. But take a look at la Joliette and Les Docks and see how Marseille’s historic buildings have been cherished and transformed to new uses on a grand scale. 

Other colleagues however challenge the very notion of top down, Government managed, change and champion grass roots action and individual responsibility as the means to transform the 21st century city. See how Giulia Vallone, town architect of Clonakilty, has transformed her town with the community at her side bringing influences from her home country Sicily. 

People like to connect with nature and Alan Hurley is a guerrilla gardener and through their organisation #MadAboutCork are making small but radical differences to neglected parts of the city. In East Cork the Ballymaloe empire and school of cookery with magnificent gardens are inspirational to visit, dine or take a cookery course. Rory O’Connell tells the story of their organic gardens and of connecting with the soil and how we all need to know about where our food is sourced. The key point of the central importance of good food in city living is well made. The ‘shell house’ is among its many hidden architectural gems. Jose Ospina provides a radical guide to the potential of self build housing schemes offering an alternative to the norms of housing provision. This could work well in Cork as it has done in Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. We need to break away from suburban pattern book housing. 

No book about Cork in 2018 can duck the issue of the flood defences that are proving so controversial in the city and a running example of top down government imposition. Rising sea levels and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events will affect all low lying towns and cities but the solutions available are many and varied. Walter Menteth’s essay looks at the example of Portsmouth in the UK and how community action has been working to widen the discussion and look at alternatives, based on an holistic view of the options available and to challenge the ‘silo thinking’ of the government engineers. In Cork a similar role is being taken by the ‘Save Cork City’ campaign with “Love the Lee” flood defence group. Andrew Carr in his paper makes proposals via the Morrison’s Quay architectural competition that this group arranged, suggesting how the necessary but prosaic lumps of engineering, can be reimagined as multi functional pieces of street furniture that both prevent flooding and contribute to the social life of the city. 

Elsewhere in the region the Bantry Bay, “Protect our Native Kelp Forest” group are fighting the threat of mechanical kelp extraction in the bay which could adversely affect local fishing and marine life. ‘There was no public consultation’. Local opposition in Skibbereen is opposing what some see an environmentally damaging plastics factory and An Bord Pleanala recently gave permission for a controversial waste-to- energy plant in Cork harbour. When people are kept in the dark until after decisions are made, they will naturally object. It’s time to instigate a proper consultation process, so that change can happen, with support - not suspicion from the community. 

Charles Campion of JTP one of the leaders in community consultation has released a book, “20/20 Visions: Collaborative Planning and Place making”, to help communities engage with planning and consultation. He says “All too often communities are shut out of the real design and decision making processes for where they live and they are usually only involved in cursory consultation when it is too late to make a real input. History has shown that this can lead to ill-conceived, unpopular and unsustainable developments”. 

Charles continues; “Just as the act of voting is a right, it is inherently democratic to bring people genuinely to the heart of planning and place making”. 

His book aims to give practitioners and communities the inspiration and confidence to introduce Charrettes into their planning processes. Twenty international case studies illustrate the strengths of the Charrette process and shows that they can be delivered for a range of project types and scales. As an architect I enjoy the community consultation process. After all it is the community that have to live with design decisions, so it is essential to ask their opinion and win their trust and respect to give them what they want and need. Charles concludes, “It is time to change the way things are done and to bring communities genuinely to the heart of planning and place making.” 

Many of these papers refer to the fact that in Europe and UK public consultation is becoming the norm for all manner of government decision making - but let’s not mention Brexit! Community involvement is a key driver for the success of any project. In order to lead you must listen before acting - community consultation should be an essential and integral part of the way any mature city or county carries out its decision making process and that consultation must be embraced as a positive and important contribution and not a cynical tick box exercise. For proof of this look no further than Giulia Vallone’s community led projects in Clonakilty or Mikael Coville Anderson’s inspiring paper on the triumph of cycling in Copenhagen. These papers have wider messages for Cork city as a whole and the way that future projects could proceed best with widespread public support. 

‘Sometimes residents will have a say, but the message from committees is likely more re ective of the committee rather than the people they represent’. 

Local architect and campaigner Kevin Smyth says; “The City Council under City Architects has a strong history of urban regeneration and community led engagement. The dependency on project based nance and centrally funded projects alongside recessionary pressure have led to a stagnation of these initiatives over the last decade. Cork was one of the earliest councils to adopt a full on approach to dealing with problematic housing ‘solutions’ from the 1970’s. A corner stone of this success was public engagement and asking the residents what they wanted”. Kevin went on to say “They transformed numerous derelict buildings and sites in the 1990’s into new housing in the city centre and reclaimed problematic estates from the grip of anti-social behaviour. This was hard work - but it worked with a large community buy in at the time”. One can point to a new community led success at Skibbereen’s ‘Ludgate Hub’ a start up business facility, championed by David Putnam, which brought in a 1GB internet connection to transform the way local sme do business. This success is community led against the background failure of central government to provide an adequate internet infrastructure to many parts of the country which holds businesses back, particularly small to medium sized sme and start ups. 

Sometimes we cannot see the beauty on our own doorstep or value our own city’s history, culture and identity 

Having travelled to over 100 cities in my professional life I have come to value cities like Copenhagen and Aarhus, where I lived for 18 months as a post graduate student. I have seen them change and develop over time in such a positive way. All value their city waterfront and treat it as their main asset and there is no reason why Cork cannot do the same by growing as a ‘people led and people rst’ community. How is it that the Danes recognise the value of good design and sustainable living - from cycling to house design. Why can’t Cork engage with its riverside landscape like Copenhagen, Aarhus or even Bristol and make it a special destination. When I sat on the active Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) / English Heritage Urban Panel for seven years, we visited over 25 cities, market or seaside towns around the UK, to advise local authorities and development groups on major new projects. We acted as a ‘critical friend’ through a diverse group of advisors and experts, to encourage them to see the bigger picture beyond the red line boundaries and point them towards good examples of similar work to take inspiration from. We saw at first hand the damage to cities inflicted since the 1960’s by the road engineers’ power over the pedestrian with their car first policies and we try to help them repair their urban fabric. 

We must create healthier, cleaner, more walkable and liveable cities which will require dramatically changing our love a air with the car in favour of life as a cyclist and bring back our cities for the pedestrian. 

Cork has so many natural advantages to support and facilitate this change of perspective and I hope that these Cork Papers can contribute to the conversation about the best ways to make this happen. 

The Focus is now on Cork; Please seize this opportunity 

(The selection of photos above appear in the book with thanks to #PureCork, Cork City Council and Port of Cork and Giulia Vallone)