Yearly Archives: 2025

How can cities activate unused green spaces and buildings?

Picture yourself in that dark grey building or street, which does not smell nice, feels unsafe and makes you wonder only about one thing: I feel so bad, why did I come here? Now, picture yourself in that same building or street wondering only about one thing: OMG, it’s an amazing place, why didn’t I come here earlier?!

So… what’s happened? What’s changed to this area that you have to twist your daily itinerary to come and enjoy this area? And what is there actually to do?

The 9 Project Partners of the GreenPlace network – Boulogne-sur-mer, Bucharest-Ilfov, Limerick, Löbau, Nitra, Onda, Quarto d’Altino, Vila Nova de Poiares, and Wroclaw- have experimented this journey, using the knowledge and methodology gathered over the first year and a half of the network. Their stories tell us more about actions to make abandoned buildings, forgotten tram depots, unused green areas, or unused yet to be renovated built areas – attractive and worth coming to.

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13Jan/25

The power of singing

Launch of the first dementia-inclusive shopping centre in Ireland, Mahon Point, 14 November 2023

During the farewell speeches given to Cllr Kieran McCarthy at the Annual General Meeting  of 21 June 2024, many councillors praised the artistic vibe of the outgoing Lord Mayor. He was, indeed, praised, in the general public, as the “singing Lord Mayor”. While being a singing aficionado for 20 years, having played in multiple plays and concerts, and benefitting from weekly coaching, he continued his passion while making the most of it during his mayoralty.

The best demonstration of the power of singing for Kieran is through the favourite moment of his mayoralty: when invited to launch the first dementia-inclusive shopping centre in Ireland, he sung from a single voice with people suffering from dementia. During that short moment, all the patience got reunited, in time and space, beyond illness, to be together.

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