Reimagine Athenry
A community-led vision for one of Ireland’s most intact medieval towns.
Project type: Public Space Design
Status: Complete
Client: Athenry Community Council, Galway Rural Development Co. LEADER
Date: 2019-20
Collaborators: Amicitia, Heather Griffin
Team: Daryl Mulvihill, Augusto Rodriguez
Reimagine Athenry is a community-led vision for Athenry's town and its environs, commissioned by Athenry Community Council and funded through a LEADER grant. The project sets out a future framework for the town based on the ambitions of the community as documented during public consultations and an online survey.
Athenry is a well-known historic Co. Galway town and one of Ireland's most intact medieval towns, with a fine-grained, human-scale public realm full of heritage and history. It has an active and vibrant local community eager to see the town realise its full potential. Great road and rail infrastructure make it a key town in the wider Galway region, with strong potential for development in the future.
On a local level, the residents have many concerns based on their everyday experience of the town. This project sets out a vision to address these concerns based on the ideas developed with the community. The key challenge for Athenry is how to maintain its accessibility while simultaneously improving the public realm for its residents and visitors.
The project began with a public consultation evening at Amicitia on Old Church Street, where residents came together to share their ideas and concerns for the town. At the Bia Lover Festival, we worked with the children of Athenry to build a large consultation model, generating ideas and discussions about the future of the town's streets, squares, and parks. An online survey extended the conversation to those who could not attend in person. The ideas gathered through this process form the foundation of the community-led vision.
This vision creates a framework for future developments to connect with the historic town centre. Our plan learns from and extends the existing townscape to shape a public space framework for the town's future generations. The vision is divided into a number of key projects which, when brought together, link neighbourhoods, create green routes to the schools, and walks through the town connecting the heritage sites, while simultaneously improving the experience and appearance of the centre. Futureproofing Athenry and making it a better place for all ages, residents, and visitors alike.
