Filmmaker Éamon Little writes for Culture about his experiences documenting an innovative social housing project in Kilkenny.
In March 2013 I was commissioned by Commonage, a collective for art, architecture and research in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, to document from its beginning, Nimble Spaces, an innovative, participatory project partnered with Camphill Callan and focused around housing and its design, particularly but not exclusively for people with special needs.
Ireland was still struggling post the 2008 crash, social housing was insistently a hot issue, self-determination and a more rights-based approach to housing for our more vulnerable citizens was pointing to a future less of congregated residential settings for them and more of living, with adequate supports, out in the wider community. The project wanted to explore ideas of 'home', how our needs and desires might better be catered for and what the 'social' in housing might really mean.
I arrived into the KCAT (the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent), a multi-disciplinary Arts Centre where I'd recently made the documentary Living Colour, for the first batch of Nimble Spaces workshops. The place was buzzing. Participants included architects, artists, residents of care communities and others, and in the air was a palpable feeling that something really worthwhile was being pioneered. The footage shot that day, and at another set of workshops, led to the first in a series of short videos:
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At that point, the project was purely explorative, about ideas, possibilities and ways to discover and engage outside of the traditional architect-client relationship. The movement workshop featured briefly in that first video merited shorter a video of its own:
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The artist Francis Casey, then living in a small room in a shared house in Camphill Carrick-on-Suir, was motivated to get his own flat. Nimble Spaces arranged for a contributing architectural practice, Studio Weave, to work with Francis. This short video highlights how everyone's needs and preferences are truly unique:
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The project gained momentum and attracted interest from afar. Another architecture practice, LiD Architecture, based in Berlin, became deeply involved in what came to be called the Enabling Design process. This short piece outlines how they developed a board game to explore preferences:
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By now the project was moving in a number of directions. One led to a terrific international conference in Carlow in 2015, with participants from related projects the world over sharing experiences and expertise. The strong energy radiating from that suggested that it's time now for a bottom-up approach to social housing, for the creativity and personal input of residents to inform housing outcomes rather than the developer-led, profit-oriented goals of others.
Meanwhile, the idea of building what were coming to be called Inclusive Neighbourhoods, had taken root in Callan and plans for three small housing projects with innovative design solutions were afoot. By late 2016, those plans had come a long way and this video expresses the thinking and passion behind this concept:
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Now, in 2018, Commonage has led to Workhouse Union and the challenge of blending private development with government-funded schemes has influenced further changes. But the Inclusive Neighbourhoods continue towards fruition, with government backing, 90% of required funding secured and a push for completion money pending. It's been a wonderful journey to document and I intend to be there with my camera when the first citizens enter these new homes with their own keys.
Find out more about the Nimble Spaces project here.
