Love Our Laneways
A Playful City was engaged on behalf of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to help reimagine Pearse Drive laneway (‘The Gaps’) in Sallynoggin with the community to support DLRCC in transforming it into a playful, people- centred place.
The project was made up of multiple models of engagement, which included stakeholder engagement and partnerships, community consultation, trialling of community goals and the production of toolkits and guides for the community and DLRCC.
Every step taken in this project involved listening to and collaborating with community members and local partners.
Community engagement
& local partnerships
A Playful City partnered with The Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), Sallynoggin College of Further Education (SCFE) and with the Local Residents Forum to co-design a model for engagement with the local community across each phase.
A Playful City enabled this through engaging with the community by bringing the conversation in-person door to door in the Pearse Estate, an online portal, to engagement with third level institutions, primary schools, bingo groups and the estate management group of Peare Drive Laneway.
This ensured that community insights was at the heart of long term change for their own neighbourhood.
Presentations to Local Councillors
A Playful City and DLRCC kept local councillors up to date from the outset through emailed updates, invites to community events and quarterly presentations. This ensured that local councillors were up to date should residents approach them, and ultimately led to the project gathering momentum and support within the Council.
Pop up Trialling
Based on the feedback collated throughout the phases, A Playful City worked closely with a steering group (made up of key DLRCC departments), the Residents Forum, IADT and SCFE to trial playful design elements on Pearse Drive laneway through flagship events.This included new planting areas of the lane from DLRCC Parks Department, improved cleaning rotas for the lane from DLRCC Cleansing Department and playful stencilled games on the laneway supported by DLRCC Active Travel. These trials and more were showcased at Christmas and Summer Pop up Community Events in the laneway.
Toolkits
A community guide was created for residents to help guide the conversation forward with the local authority for Pearse Drive Laneway and to build on the capacity and relationships developed over the course of the project.
A toolkit has also been designed for the local authority to guide them through the process of improving laneways and public realm in other parts of the authority's boundary.
