Sense of Place

'Sense of Place' Symposium

National Built Heritage Service with Waterford City and County Council

At the Medieval Museum, Waterford

4^{th -} 5^th June 2025

(Image extract from WONDER WANDER Waterford by National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, Waterford City and County Council)

‘Sense of Place’ is a town symposium to support heritage led regeneration presented by the National Built Heritage Service (NBHS in association with Waterford City and County Council ( The venue of the Medieval Museum Waterford provides an opportunity for an immersion in the topic of the historic urban landscape, its understanding, conservation and management as the basis for revitalisation and renewal Participants are invited to presentations of experts and practitioners working in this way and to experience first-hand the Urban Landscape Character Assessment approach a new methodology devised with the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental policy UCD

Day One of the event provides an opportunity to engage with the Waterford City and County Council Architects and Architectural Conservation Officer, to visit completed and live urban regeneration projects in the city and to experience how Waterford City and County Council have pursued and built out a vision for the historic city fabric and character over time

Day Two focuses on the revitalisation of historic urban centres of all scales, through case studies that include the assessment of landscape character and qualities of a historic urban place as the basis for the re making and re-imagining, retrofitting and revitalising of urban fabric to benefit present and future communities

4th June 2025

3.30 Walking Tour of Waterford City

A walking tour invitation with Waterford City and County Council Architects and Architectural Conservation Officer to experience the historic urban landscape
layered over time, to visit a number of strategic sites where WCCC Architects’ vision of historic places in the city have been built out incrementally for the
benefit of all WCCC Architects and Architectural Conservation Officer will describe how they have collaborated and worked with city stakeholders and developed practice and expertise to take a strategic approach to complex sites, in order to unlock the potential of the historic city core.

Please let us know if you will be able to join us by booking a ticket on this page. This will help us plan the event.

5^th June 2025 ‘Sense of Place’ Symposium

9,30 Registration
10,00 Welcome

• Sean McKeown Chief Executive, Waterford City County Council
• Daniel Sinnott, Principal Officer, NBHS

10,15 Key Note
The Irish Town an approach to survival Fifty year’s on
• Grainne Shaffrey, Shaffrey Architects

11.00 Session 1
Working with the historic urban landscape
Chair Mairead Hunt, National Co ordinator, National Town Centre First Office

11.00 Heritage as a Tool for Urban Regeneration

• Morris Conway, Senior City Architect Waterford City and County Council
• Rose Ryall, Architectural Conservation Officer , Waterford City and County Council

11.30 Dun Laoghaire waterfront re imagining, high quality intervention, conservation repair and reuse of historical landmarks and sites prompting urban renewal and incremental infill and bringing benefit to all

• Peter Carroll, A2 Architects

11.50 Model Housing –‘Urban Horticulture’. An Incremental Approach to Housing

• Marcus Donaghy & Will Dimond , Donaghy and Dimond Architects

12.10 ‘Building Biographies’

• Sarah McCutheon , Local Authority Archaeologist, Limerick City and County Council

12.30 Episodes, elements and experience re defining Bishop Lucey Park

• Alastair Hall, Hall McKnight Architects

Light Lunch served in Mayor’s Exhibition
RIAI film 'Old Town New Place' will be on display during the lunch break

14.00 Session 2 Urban landscape character assessment
Chair Dr. Alan Mee, Assistant Professor in Urban Design, UCD School of Architecture Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD

Urban landscape character assessment is the key step to understanding and appreciating the character, form, and cultural significance of the built fabric of urban centres at all scales.
In particular, the identification of areas of special interest through townscape characterisation may prompt wider and more effective use of the Architectural Conservation Area ( designation The ACA offers a practical means of protecting historic fabric and character while providing for appropriate new development, and encourages sensitive, area based approaches to urban renewal, repair and resilience, preserving amenity and supporting social and environmental aspects such as community well being and the circular economy Irish towns have a wide range of historical origins: ecclesiastical, Norman, plantation, C18th Landlord estates, military establishment, etc. (see Approximate Formality, Valerie Mulvin (Dublin, 2020)). Each type creates a settlement of different scale and plan form requiring different responses to context. This session will provide participants with an opportunity to consider and discuss a new methodology for Urban Landscape Character Assessment under development by UCD’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Environmental Policy.

14.00 Overview of RIAI publications and their work around the theme of 'Sense of Place‘

• Maire Henry, Director dhb Architects, Vice President Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland

14.10 Listowel's Historic Urban Landscape A method for defining its 'Sense of Place' and/or significance

• Dr Finola O’Kane, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental policy UCD

Discussion

15.00 Urban Landscape Character Assessment workshop 

led by Alan Mee with Finola O’Kane UCD, National Built Heritage Service and National Monument Service
‘Sense of Place’ Workshop designed to familiarise participants with the concepts and steps to undertake to understand a historic place and to establish through this process a statement of cultural significance of the place as the core outcome Participants introduced to the landscape character assessment approach through the course of the afternoon session are invited to work with a number of town typologies selected from already published ‘ in the Irish Historic Towns Atlas Series Questions posed on Context and ‘Sense of Place’ extracted from the high quality criteria assessment tool ‘Towards a shared culture of architecture investing in a high quality living environment for everyone’, the EU architectural Policy, published 2021 will form part of the discussion
Recorded outcomes from the workshop to inform the final version of the Urban Landscape Character Assessment methodology.

16.30 End

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT WILL BE RECORDED

Please note that attendance to the event on the 5th will yield 7 structured RIAI CPD points.