Discussions on Estate Life
Laura & Ciarán both grew up in housing estates and are fascinated with the successes and pitfalls of housing developments of this type: their territory, privacy, personalisation, play and communality, are all areas that interest us. Our main aim for our research project Reimagining Elderhood was to find out how people live in these estates, within our study area of Balbriggan, and engage with a group of older men and younger women to test ways these housing estates could be developed by their residents to allow them to age in place with dignity.
We were curious to see if there was appetite from the residents to make their own long term strategic improvements in their neighbourhoods. A lot of existing Irish housing estates include an array of public greens, mounds of grass, laneways, turning circles and paths that make up the in-between spaces. We see great potential for revaluing these often-overlooked public spaces within the semi-private realm to be more useful social spaces for all ages and abilities.
This focus on activating the in-between spaces could serve as a stepping stone in unlocking the latent potential of existing housing developments to become neighbourhoods for intergenerational living.
We presented and exhibited our findings at the Project Arts Centre Dublin
