RE-Purpose: Built to Last Conference

The Theme of Dublin City Council’s Conservation Conference 2021 was “RE-Purpose: Built to Last” highlighting examples of where buildings and sites have been brought back from vacancy, dereliction and underuse through high quality conservation repair projects and strategies.

The article below is adapted from my presentation on D8Development’s work in Inchicore to tackle vacancy with community-led initiatives.

It’s not that I’m trying to do social engineering around people using bikes, walking & transit. I’m trying to undo the 60+ years of social engineering around the complete reliance on the automobile. — Gabe Klein

I’m the principal at D8 Development, a social enterprise that renovates empty properties in Inchicore where I live with my three year old daughter.

I’ve been asked to talk about how I’ve brought empty buildings back into use but before I do that, I think it’s really important to spend some time addressing the question of why. Why is there so much dereliction in Dublin? Why are there so many empty buildings, when there is such a huge demand for space, when rents are so high and the price of property has put home ownership beyond the reach of even families with high incomes?

Addressing that question is the lion’s share of the work of we do at D8 Development because there is no point in us investing thousands of euro in these buildings if we do not tackle the underlying reason for them falling derelict in the first place.

And that reason is cars.

I was born in 1985. I’ll be 36 next month and in my lifetime the number of cars on the has risen 215%. There are currently about 2.6million registered vehicles in Ireland. 2.6 million cars takes up vast amounts of space and they have not only changed how people move around, they have fundamentally altered how we live, where we live, and the relationships we have with our neighbours and wider community.

Investments in roads and motorways and city centre car parks have hollowed out our network of urban villages, and few places tell that story as poignantly as Inchicore.

Up to about 50 years ago, Inchicore was a powerhouse of public transport. Trains, buses and trams were all manufactured here at the Inchicore Railway works and the Spa Road Works. Neighbours of mine tell vivid stories of the thousands of workers arriving by bicycle every morning at the Works to design and build 120 tonne steel locomotives from scratch. Everything from wheelbarrows to engines to the workers’ uniforms were manufactured in Inchicore.

And then this happened, Ireland’s decision makers fell in love with the automobile. And a whole way of life was paved over, tram tracks were ripped out and buried in tarmacadam, railway lines abandoned, and an indigeonous industry haemorrhaged jobs while we built sprawling estates dependent on imported cars and imported fuel.

You can feel that story as you walk the streets of Inchicore today. What was once a thriving Dublin village, just 4km west of the city centre, is now largely a thoroughfare for cars. Vacant and derelict buildings buildings are a persistent feature of the streetscape here. Narrow footpaths and loud traffic make it a hostile and dangerous environment for people walking, cycling or using mobility aids:

As Aoife Lalor, the teacher at the end of that video correctly identifies, for Inchicore to work as a hub for its community we have to create more space for people.

D8 Development is taking up that challenge to create more space for people and we do it through two tranches of work: one that advocates for healthy, accessible streets and the other that tackles the empty buildings which are the result of a hostile, car dominated road network.

We advocate for healthy streets largely through public consultations on big public transport projects like Busconnects and Dart+ and by putting forward our own designs for walking and cycling improvements. Getting involved in these consultations, and talking to councillors about the benefits of walking and cycling is something anyone can do and should do. It doesn’t cost anything and can lead to much better outcomes than processes which rely too much on the views of business owners or residents associations. To make our communities vibrant, we have to cater to the needs of everyone — particularly the people typically overlooked in the design and planning of our communities.

And the second tranche of work is the reason why I was asked to speak today and I appreciate you being so patient as I meandered my way here!

Renovating and adapting heritage buildings, as I’m sure everyone is well aware is a complex challenge — it’s frequently more costly than new construction, and property owners can be reluctant to take on works of only marginal benefit to them in terms of return on investment.

D8 Development provides an accessible funding method, design expertise, and committed tenants, in order to make the renovation of heritage buildings an attractive alternative to vacancy and speculative accumulation of property. The foundation of the enterprise is fostering relationships, both with the owners of vacant buildings, and with the community seeking to use them.

The process is as follows:

1. We compile a database of vacant properties in our target area
2. We make contact with the owner(s)
3. We identify reasons for vacancy, the current state of dilapidation, and the owners’ plans — if any — for development.

If the owner is amenable to exploring a rejuvenation project:

1. Our architect conducts a survey and makes a plan
2. Plan is costed by a local contractor or a quantity surveyor.

In parallel, we utilise our network within the neighbourhood to seek prospective tenants. The approach is consciously flexible and adaptive, allowing end-users to influence the design.

At this stage we might discover the tenant is sufficiently committed to partner in funding the renovation, but we also consider what grant funding is available, and, if appropriate, work with the prospective tenant on an application.

Armed with a plan for the building, we begin lease negotiations with the owner. Of particular importance is establishing a significant rent-free period to cover the costs of the renovation. All profits in the subleasing arrangement is re-invested into the next project.

So I wanted to be really transparent about the business model in the hopes that people watching feel inspired to copy D8 Development and adopt a building in your area. I know people all over Ireland walk by empty and shuttered buildings and think “what a shame, this space could be a fabulous studio or bookshop or home”. And having local people with that vision for their cities and towns is what we so desperately need to make them liveable, vibrant, irresistible places. So here is the formula I’ve worked out to create spaces that enrich communities, enable the tenant to flourish, and cause minimal fuss to the owner.

So I’ll show you a video of 122 Emmet Road to give you a feel for the quality of the work we’re doing.

When I first toured this shop unit it had one of the ugliest, saddest shop fitouts I’ve ever seen, and it was only when we removed the layers of 80s panelling and suspended ceilings we could appreciate the beauty of the original proportions, and design our way around the fragments we found of the original interior.

Since that project was completed, D8 Development has taken on the development of two other commercial units in the same building and we’re at the pre-planning phase of converting the dilapidated bedsits at the rear of the property into a family home.

D8 Development is still a very new player, and a very small one, in the property development landscape, but we’ve made ripples. I was looking back at the database of empty properties I originally compiled two years ago, and many of those buildings are now occupied — not because we developed them, but because their proximity to sensitively restored, well-used buildings makes them a much more attractive prospect for someone looking to start a business. There are still big projects I would like to take on, but the goal of ending vacancy in Inchicore may be reached sooner than I imagined possible.

I’ve heard that people can generally remember just three points from a presentation. So I’ll try to distill all of this into three takeaways.

1. Support measures to improve walking, cycling, and public transport in Dublin. All of the research shows that this will massively improve quality of life for the people who live here and will also benefit local businesses.
2. Be nosy. If there’s an empty building near you, you can take the first steps of bringing that building back into use by asking questions and playing detective. In all but one of the empty buildings I’ve surveyed the owner was not living locally. Building that relationship, and helping the owner understand the effect their empty “asset” is having on a community is really valuable.
3. If you have more than you need, build a longer table not a higher fence…

There are good reasons to do things other than making money. If profit is our only motivator Dublin will not survive the pressures of international finance. In the 1960s, local people in the Kilmainham area, with no state investment, undertook the restoration of the Kilmainham Gaol. The Gaol had been abandoned in 1924, and successive governments allowed it to fall into dereliction. Volunteers spent six years clearing trees and shrubs from the site and repairing and replacing ironwork, timber and plaster so that the Gaol could be a usable space in time for the 50th anniversary of the Rising.

It was a labour of love, of civic pride, and every time I walk past the Gaol I am inspired by the ordinary people who gave so much of their time and skill to preserving this building. The lesson of Kilmainham Gaol, now the most successful tourist attraction in the state is this: we can be more than distraught observers of our city’s decay and demolition. We can be its saviours.