Architecture Commons^™

Harnessing The Power Of Data Can Help Solve Our Housing Needs, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Ireland has traditionally been poor at collecting data, collating statistics and disseminating information. It’s not that we are an innumerate country; I think it is more that facts often inconveniently jar with opinion on a range of topics, from rural Ireland to road safety, to housing.

We Can’T Expect ‘The Market’ To Provide A Housing Policy, Lorcan Sirr

Media

As the government grapples with establishing a worthwhile housing policy, it would do well to remember that affordability is key. As companies increasingly choose to locate in or near cities, and people followjobs, most of Ireland’s housing needs will be in the greater Dublin area. In 2015, about half the population lives on just 20% of Ireland’s surface area, but by 2030 nearly half the nation will be living on just 10% of the land. Figures vary but the Dublin area will need 8,000-10,000 housing units per year.

Can’T Buy, Don’T Want To Rent? The Catalans Have A Third Option, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Creativity is generally lacking in Irish policymaking, and this is as evident in housing, as it is in other areas. There is a reversion to the mean in times of crisis, where the usual methods, which have often failed, otherwise we wouldn’t have a crisis, are returned to. Einstein had something to say about this, and it wasn’t complimentary. We’re seeing it once again in efforts to get the building industry off its behind by using taxpayers’ money as an incentive, as if it’s 1996 all over again. Before you know it, we’ll all be buying apartments in Bulgaria.

Discover Joyce's Dublin By Reading And Running, Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

James Joyce told his friend Frank Budgen. “‘I want’ said Joyce, as we were walking down the Universitätstrasse, ‘to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.’” (Budgen, 1960, p.67, 68).

This research looks at the relevance of Dublin to Joyce’s writings and to the relevance of Joyce’s writings to Dublin. It is concerned with the virtual Dublin of Joyce’s writings, the physical manifestation of Dublin over time, and the relationships between them.

Numerous scholars read and analyse the writings of Joyce …

Squeeze On Space Lifts Profit But Shrinks Living Standards, Lorcan Sirr

Media

When it comes to the topic of apartment sizes, planners and local authorities should keep this old adage to the forefront of their minds: less is not more. Ireland’s size standards for residential housing have tended to followBritain’s since about the 1940s. The UK has been producing ever-smaller units and with, in effect, no minimum national standard, it has the smallest homes in western Europe. This is not a trend we need to follow. Minimum space standards for a one-bedroomapartment in Dublin reduced from 484 sq ft in 1961 to 344 sq ft in 1987—and finally up to a more …

Let’S Look To Uk To Solve Problems Of Our Ageing Population, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Europe is going grey, very grey. In 1800 no country had a life expectancy beyond age 40, but by 2050 one in three people in Europe will be over 60. By then, one in 10 will be over 80—nearly 500,000 people in Ireland. The ageing population will bring its own problems, caused mainly by health, income and government support. Denmark spends about €5,000 a year on social protection in old age; Latvia, Romania and Croatia spend €500. In Ireland, in 2011, the figure was €2,000.

Live In The Sticks If You Want But The Cost Of Services Will Soar, Lorcan Sirr

Media

As Ireland changes from an agricultural production-based country to one more dependent on its cities, rural Ireland finds itself squeezed between the need to support the source of most of its revenue and a desire to protect its rural identity. It’s difficult to have both, and TDs and ministers frequently find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to defend the closure of garda stations and hospitals in their own constituencies.

Urbanisation, Technology, And The Growth Of Smart Cities, Parag Khanna

Asian Management Insights

The dual trend of rapid urbanisation and sophistication of technology will eventually give rise to smart cities around the world. As new challenges emerge, what are Asian cities doing to ensure their success in the future?

Our Reliance On Family For Housing Support Won’T Last Forever, Lorcan Sirr

Media

History is more important than geography in explaining our relationship with housing. We have a funny relationship with housing in Ireland, one that goes beyond the usual explanation of our land and property obsession being a post-colonial hang-up. Given our location at the northwest edge of Europe, it would be logical to assume Ireland would have a similar approach to housing as Germany, France and the Netherlands. We are different from our regional neighbours, however, and more like our distant cousins in Malta, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Opportunity Knocks For Developers To Meet Students’ Demands, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Student accommodation is in short supply in Ireland, an issue that was covered in these pages last week. As a housing analyst, I see the topic arising time and time again. In a radio studio recently, Kevin Donoghue, the president of the Union of Students of Ireland, told me that, for the first time, it was not only first-year students who were asking for housing advice, but also second- and third-year students. Students who should have been able to house themselves. There are about 25,000 students in the private rental sector in Ireland. In Britain and Belgium, where I went …

Walking Is A Right (Civil And Human), Robert Bullard

Faculty Scholarship

PowerPoint opening keynote presented at the National Walking Summit in Washington, DC last month. Here is link to the Summit. http://walkingsummit.org/keynote-speakers . Some of themes include - walking as a right, "outdoor apartheid," "walking while black," and connecting nature walks and health (walking is good for the mind, body, spirit and soul) run through the talk.

Developers Hold Keys To Supply But They Can’T Control Demand, Lorcan Sirr

Media

WITH all eyes on Ireland’s homelessness crisis, rising rental costs and an undersupply of newhousing on the market, people ask where the rising demand for homes is coming from. By concentrating on the economic and construction aspects of housing, many people miss the hugely important demographic aspect. Housing is and always will be about people. Brian Hughes, of the government’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) expert group, and Declan Redmond and Brendan Williams of University College Dublin have identified the four main drivers of housing demand—and they’re not what you’d think.

Rent Certainty Is Not Rent Control, Tom Dunne

Reports

The housing crisis and the debate about rent control should result in a beneficial change to the regulation of the sector but the opportunity could be lost for want of clarity of thinking about the nature of rent certainty and the distinction between it and rent control. At present rent is regulated by the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (RTA 2004) which provides that rent can only change once a year and cannot be more than the market rent. Many argue a greater degree of rent certainty is required and that rent should not be allowed to increase by more than …

Rent Controls Are Very Different From The Forbidden Freeze, Lorcan Sirr

Media

A growing number of people in Ireland now rent. Up to one third of urban dwellers live in rented accommodation and may never buy, according to the National Economic and Social Council. This is a for a variety of reasons that range from changes in household formation and immigration to incomes, house prices and credit.

Appalink, Appalachian Studies Association

Appalink

No abstract provided.

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Fall 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Humanitarianism's History Of The Singular, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

In “The New Universalism” Daniel Bertrand Monk and Andrew Herscher bring together global history and global humanitarianism to argue the emergence of a new (perverse) universal singular—a monadological refugee and form of refuge that threaten to efface both. By putting shelter and displacement side by side, they insightfully point us to different global patterns, such as the turn to the principle of the particular. Monk and Herscher read these patterns against the grain, offering us—almost in passing—a new history of humanitarianism.

Adams, Josh (Fa 818), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 818. This collection “Architecture of Danville, Ky.” includes information about cabins, farm buildings and fences found in Boyle County, Kentucky. This narrative was written by Josh Adams at Western Kentucky University for credit in a folklore class.

Brochure: The World’S Finest Beach Jacksonville Beach, Florida., Jacksonville Beaches Cottage And Motor Court Association

Tourism

Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

Brochure: Jacksonville Beaches Cottage and Motor Court Association / The World's Finest Beach Jacksonville Beach, Florida. PALMM.

Brochure: The Seminole, Jacksonville, Florida

Tourism

Seminole, Hotel, Jacksonville, Fla.

Brochure: The Seminole, Jacksonville, Florida: air-conditioned : Jacksonville's leading hotel : a J. B. Pound Hotel. Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville [Fla.], Litho U.S.A. Drew. PALMM

Conveniently Located Disaster: Socio‐Spatial Inequality In Hurricane Sandy And Its Implications For The Urban Sociology Of Climate Change, Gordon Douglas, Liz Koslov, Eric Klinenberg

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

Hurricane Sandy was a major event with major implications for how sociologists think about the relationship between climate change and crisis in urban areas. The storm’s impact on New York provides a valuable case for considering how to study the impacts of climate change on large, densely settled cities with vulnerable hard infrastructure and highly complex social conditions that produce differentiated experiences across many different communities. This working paper considers data at several levels of analysis with the aim of assessing neighborhood inequalities in the impacts of such extreme weather. Drawn from the authors’ ongoing research project on unequal vulnerability …

Renting Trouble: Current Government Policy Of Relying On The Private Rented Sector To Deliver Social Housing Is Unlikely To Succeed, Tom Dunne

Reports

A review of the history of housing in Ireland shows that owner occupancy and social housing were policy choices by successive governments. Owner occupancy was heavily supported through a system of grants and tax breaks and social housing was directly provided through local authorities at subsidised rents. In recent years policy has changed and tenure neutrality is now guiding the government’s attitude to housing. This is a significant change which has not been sufficiently discussed and has consequences which are not appreciated. Relying on the market to provide rental housing for people on low incomes and who may be in …

Planning And Design For Hurricane Protection With Sea Level Rise, Bob Ivarson

May 22, 2015: Megaproject Protective Structures for Hampton Roads

No abstract provided.

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Summer 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Effect Of The Physical Environment On Teacher Satisfaction With Indoor Environmental Quality In Early Learning Schools, Stuart Shell

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

While the quantity and quality of teacher-child interactions plays a key role in emotional and cognitive development for children, there is scant evidence regarding the contribution of physical environment to child outcomes. This study seeks to understand better the relative importance of variables within the physical environment for occupants. The research design targets teachers’ satisfaction with the physical environment as the outcome variable, based on the assumption that teachers who are more satisfied with their classroom provide higher-quality interactions with children. Teachers from two early learning schools with a total of 31 classrooms completed a written survey that asked about …

Boyd, Richard, Jr. (Fa 809), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 809. This collection contains information about folklore in Kentucky’s Pennyroyal Region collected by Western Kentucky University student Richard Boyd, Jr. for credit in a folklore class. Information included in the collection includes such things as agricultural practices, beliefs, and legends from the region.

Early, Linda (Fa 807), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Folklife Archives Project 807. This collection contains information about Breckinridge, Logan, and Simpson County, Kentucky, folklore collected by Western Kentucky University student Linda Early for credit in a folklore class. Information included in the collection includes such things as fiddle tunes, vernacular architecture, and agricultural information from the counties.

Precarity And Gentrification: A Feedback Loop, Samuel Stein

Graduate Student Publications and Research

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein explains the mechanisms that link these two trends affecting citizens and calls for a tightening of rent-control laws to stop the spiraling descent of American residents into poverty.

Scholar Week, James Upchurch

Scholar Week Archives (2011-2015)

ONU's Scholar Week #5.

Gentrification And Community Development Groups: Boston Area, Aqsa Butt

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Gentrification plays a significant role in the Boston area. Its influx of affluent residents benefits those who are economically stable. There is considerable increase in housing costs and in property value for locals that may contribute to their housing insecurity. Community Development groups assist lower income residents that may lack guidance, social, economic, and political power to address issues that arise with subsidized housing.

An analysis of vulnerable populations in Boston: elderly, poor, minorities, homeless, substance dependents, and the disabled, reveal a challenge for Community Development Groups: gentrification contributes to housing insecurity of local residents. The city needs to redefine …