Meadowbrook Residents Association Wrkshop Architects

Meadowbrook Residents Association

Meadowbrook Residents Association brought members of their community together and started conversations about Decarbonisation to initiate some new plans for climate action

Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11) Climate Action (SDG13) Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG7)

Meadowbrook is quite a typical 1980s Irish residential estate, its unique location at the elbow of the river Shannon, a place with a rich industrial and religious history, goes largely unnoticed. The overall effect of the community green hints at something almost utopian. What communities need is an excuse to interact; a focal point where interests overlap. A modest structure, sculptural in form, which creates this overlap of function, would become a new prototype for a “community centre”. The structure becomes a symbol of their shared identity and an expression of their common values. Energy, freely generated and provided, becomes a public asset, like the produce of the garden. Water stored and filtered is available to everyone. Bicycles are stored, as are the tools to tend the garden.

UPDATE #7

Raising the Platform

21 October 2022

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The project involved the co-design of a sheltered platform raised above the flood levels in the shared green area of Meadowbrook. The notional structure was used as a device to generate ideas and momentum for carrying out decarbonising initiatives. Creative thinking happens in response to a proposal so by proposing a structure the community generated ideas that could be incorporated within it. Many of these ideas then could become detached from the structure and pursued by members of the community. We hoped that a physical manifestation of the structure would act as a reminder of the project and when people met on or around it would initiate conversations about the other proposals that were generated around it. This would help to maintain moment beyond the timeframe of the project. On the 21st and 22nd of October we cut and erected a 1:1 mock up of the notional structure with members of the community in the green. This gave an impression of the size of the structure and was also used to engage a wider cross section of the community. We prepared a 'Book of Ideas' cataloguing the proposals that had been generated in conversations around the design of the structure. We also printed drawings of the proposed structure. These were all hung on the structure itself which was left in-situ over the weekend. We stayed in the green on Saturday and spoke to residents who called over to enquire and share their thoughts on the structure and the Book of Ideas. There were 5 people involved in raising the structure. Roughly 15 local residents called out on the Saturday to discuss with us and many more met over the weekend to share their thoughts.

UPDATE #6

Meeting with Active Travel Team

18 August 2022

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We met with the community and Richard Gorey from the Active Travel Department in Limerick City and County Council to discuss the plans for the Mill Road. Following this meeting we have produced a number of images to engage with other members of the community for the proposed platform. We have been in contact with Cedarlan who are working on a similar timber frame structure at the moment and have also been in touch with Bat Conservation Ireland following a conversation about the local bat population and potentially incorporating bat boxes. We have contacted Andrew Baczynski of Aqua Systems based in Waterford about natural methods of filtering water in a water harvesting tank.

UPDATE #5

First Meeting

13 July 2022

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At our first meeting with the community we discussed what decarbonising meant and looked at some of the things that they were already doing that had a significant positive impact on the environment. At our second meeting we had prepared a map of the area and proposed a structure that would support the positive initiatives in the area. We then proposed the question 'If you did build a structure what else could it achieve from an environmental perspective?' We created visuals of the structure which changed in response to the ideas of the community. Essentially we facilitated a conversation between the communities and then represented what they were saying back to them in order to continue the conversation. We would hope that a physical place to gather would continue this conversation and these initiatives beyond the time frame of the project.

UPDATE #4

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The garden of Meadowbrook Residents Association, that is a vocal point of their Decarbonising Together Project

UPDATE #3

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Wrkshop Architects have proposed a structure, the relevance of the structure in terms of decarbonisation, energy poverty, biodiversity and most importantly community engagement. Since sharing the visualizations with the wider community a number of people have expressed an interest in hosting classes and talks on the structure.

UPDATE #2

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The proposal for a structure that would support the community garden, act as a focal point for discussion and activities around decarbonisation and act as a symbol which communicates the principles of the community to live more sustainably.

UPDATE #1

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The creative partners found that when the group gets together they are very engaged and proactive in suggesting decarbonising measures. They discussed the local ecology and the wildlife in the area and how that could be encouraged.