The rural condition of life in Connemara is changing. The land management practices of turf cutting, forestry, fishing, farming and home building are all subject to increased legislation that fundamentally changes life in this landscape. There is also a movement of people to and from the area which accelerates the changes and provides an urgency to our project.
We are proposing to begin the project with a focus on three rural conditions that we have identified through conversations with fellow practitioners, and mentor, Architecture at the Edge. These three identified conditions are farming, coastal dwellers and the isolated mountain landscape. Through archiving the architecture, landscape and culture of these rural conditions we will create a body of information that will form an Atlas.
We have chosen collaborators who specialise in a particular category so that each member of the team brings a unique perspective to the project, these are as follows:
Stefan Laxness is a lecturer and researcher at the Architectural Association in London. His field of research is in the consequences and opportunities brought about by the climate crisis. His research in Connemara will investigate territorial transformation, environmental restoration, climate crisis, environmental conflict and spatial analysis.
Peter Carroll is a practising architect based in Dublin and teaching throughout Ireland. In Connemara he will focus on the impact of landscape and policy on the architecture of the area.
Archive for Space whilst curating and compiling the gathered information will focus on the culture of the three conditions through stories and conversations with local people.
We hope that through a process of conversations between each category we can identify biases that can be presented for discussion through the compiling of the Atlas.
Connemara