Changing Landscapes

Regeneration
Steph , Gareth & Ciara

Artist Statement

Changing Landscapes

The aim of this project is to explore issues surrounding

regeneration within a disadvantaged area. Specifically , we will
look at St Teresa's Gardens in Dubin.8 which is in the middle of the
regeneration process. We will explore the plans which Dublin City
Council have in place and the impact it has on the communities
involved.
As part of the development plans for St. Teresas Gardens Dublin
City Council state that they aim to protect, provide and improve
residential amenities and to preserve, provide and improve
recreational amenity and open space. However research suggests
that underlying social issues are not addressed during this process.
The regeneration process has been completed in Fatima Mansions
and there is evidence that suggests it has not been successful as
the existing residents have been moved back into the new
buildings without addressing the rampant social problems at hand.
Although it is clear that this form of regeneration is not successful
on its own, Dublin City Council are continuing with their plans for
St. Teresa's Gardens and Dolphins Barn is next on the list. We aim
to document this ongoing cycle, looking back to the launch of
Dublin City Council Flats in the 1950's and how they have degraded
over time with the introduction of drugs and other social problems
in the 1980's and how the communities and Dublin City Council
have dealt with this issue for better or worse.

Contents
Mind Maps
________________________________________________________
Initial Investigation
________________________________________________________
Artist responses to issues encountered
________________________________________________________
Mind Maps part 2
________________________________________________________
Support Studies Artists
________________________________________________________
Regeneration
________________________________________________________
Crime history drugs and heroin
________________________________________________________
The problem
________________________________________________________
Case studies
________________________________________________________
Fatima Regeneration vs Results
________________________________________________________
Dolphin house Residents Decide
________________________________________________________
St Teresa's Gardens
________________________________________________________
Ideas for resolved piece
________________________________________________________
Work In progress
________________________________________________________
Final Piece
________________________________________________________

Mind Maps

Initial Issues

Drugs ,Alcohol, Gangs

Criminals ,Social Depravation,
Appearance, Brain
development and
Health

Investigating the Area

First look

Artist responses

Visuals

The life and time of Steo

I wanted to do a narrative on
the story of disadvantage
areas and the impacts that
drugs effect the community .
Steven ( Steo) uses the
primitive and child like
imagery to represent the
turmoil that he witness and
later involves himself with
that becomes his down falls .
The uses of fairy tails and
crude positioning of imagery
represent the impacts the
Steo faces

Mind Maps

A closer look at Disadvantaged areas

Disadvantage , Regeneration, Drugs , Destruction, Disintegration

, Damage, Scumbags, Filth , Identity , Problems, Community,
Impact, forcefulness, abuse, engulf, absorb ,penetrate ,
Demolition , devastation carnage , up cycling .

With the mind map shown , we broke the word demolition

down and constructed how we felt through imagery what
destruction was all about , using artist and illustration we form
the bare bones for the final piece .

Cornelia Parker

1956

British born Cornelia Parker focuses on capturing the

uncontrollable and formalising it in her sculptural and
installation pieces. Her work deals with destruction ,
metamorphosis and space between objects. Many of her
works are created using found objects suspended within
a space. Her works include: Thirty Pieces of silver ,
Rough sea and Subconscious of a Monument.
Subconscious of a Monument.

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View is the restored

three-dimensional volume and contents of a garden
shed exploded by the British Army at the request of
the artist Cornelia Parker. The surviving fragments
have been used by Parker to create an
installation suspended from the ceiling as if
captured and held mid-explosion. Lit by a single
lightbulb the fragments cast dramatic shadows on
the gallerys walls
Exploded View is a kind of technical term, which you
get in, say, car manuals or motorbike manuals or
sewing machines. It will show you an exploded
drawing of the piece of machinery to show you how
it works. So its a diagram or a technical term for a
diagram really and so, and everythings labelled in
the Exploded View drawings in these manuals to tell
you what each part does, so its a kind of way of
mapping and understanding something. Cold Dark
Matter, the other part of the title is stuff in the
universe that you cant measure, it hasnt yet been
measured this material that a lot of the universe is
made up of that we cant map (Parker)
Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991
Mixed media
unconfirmed: 4000 x 5000 x 5000 mm

This piece came out of a series of works I was doing about cartoon deaths - things like, things falling off cliffs, things being run over
by a steam roller, things being blown up, shot full of bullets, like Roadrunner or Tom and Jerry. The garden shed came about because
I was trying to find something universal and archetypal and that we all identified with and that was familiar to us. It's not the house
but it's this kind of attic-y private place at the bottom of the garden which we put all our left-over stuff in. And so it seemed like a
depository rather than the place that you live. We took it out to the Banbury Army School of Ammunition, to their demolition
grounds where they do all these experiments with explosives and they were really keen to blow it up. I actually pressed the button
that detonated it.
The whole point of suspending it is to rob it of its pathos. After it was blown up and all the objects were lying on the floor, all very
distressed, they had a pathos and somehow putting it back in the air where they were a little while before, it sort of re-animates
them.
The title of the piece is called 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View'. It's a two-part title really. The 'cold dark matter' I really like
because obviously explosions have all kinds of connotations, dark ones being the most prominent. Also, 'cold dark matter' sounds
like a psychological state - a mood or an atmosphere or a depression - I like the sound of that. It's a scientific term: it was coined to
describe all the stuff in the universe you can't quantify, all the stuff they know is there but you can't see, which seemed a perfect
description. And then 'an exploded view' is the kind of diagram you get in technical manuals to describe how a car works or a bike or
a lawnmower, a very pragmatic laying out of stuff. And so that's what I was trying to do, to organise something tat was totally
beyond our control and emotional control.(Parker)

IloveDust

Design Collective

Meat liquor Project in collaboration with Shed London

We are ilovedust, a
multi-disciplinary
studio founded back in
2003. Based on the
South coast of
England, surrounded
by the rolling English
countryside and
whipped by sea air, we
create fresh,
innovative design
which makes up our
award-winning
portfolio.

The concept: to take an

idea borne of location and
environment and mince
that up with the Meat
Wagons utilitarian no
nonsense approach - all
materials in their raw
form, all elements explicit
in their function. (Shed)

Detroit Demolition Disneyland

Ongoing

The city of Detroit has gone through a

major economic decline in recent
decades. Detroit was renowned for its
once thriving automobile industry but
this has suffered greatly with global
competition, resulting in huge areas of
the city in urban decay. Artist collective,
Object Orange started painting some of
the citys 7,000 abandoned and
dilapidated buildings bright orange to
bring out the beauty in the decay. When
four of the original eleven painted
houses were quickly demolished by the
city, the groups endeavor turned to
raising awareness about the hazardous
conditions associated with blight: low
morale, depressed property values, and
crime.

This ongoing project, otherwise known as

Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland (referring to
the widely available paint, from Behrs Disney
Color series Tiggerific Orange ) evolved into a
call to action, with the group declaring, These
buildings arent scenery. Dont look through
themPick up a roller. In further statements
about the project, the artists said: Our goal is
to make everyone look at not only these
houses, but all the buildings rooted in decay
and corrosion. If we can get people to look for
our orange while driving through the city, then
they will, at the same time, be looking at all the
decaying buildings they come across. This
brings awareness. And as we have already
seen, awareness brings action. This can be
seen as a catalyst for change as well as a
striking piece of artwork in themselves.

Rachel Whiteread

Contemporary artist

Rachel whiteread is an
English artist who
primarily produces
sculptures, which
typically take the form
of casts. Whiteread
was the first woman
to receive Britains
prestigious Turner
Prize in 1993) and is
recognized
internationally as one
of the leading
contemporary
sculptors for her
outstanding public
works.

Presence, a sense of place, relationships, and the power of the past are common themes in her work.
She is most famous for her pieces, Ghost and House, where she made plaster casts of the
interiors of London homes. These monumental yet ethereal sculptures generated discussion about
urban preservation. (House, a public-art commission made in a condemned East London terrace
house and exhibited in situ, was controversial enough that a local council destroyed it after just a few
months.)
Place(Village) is another
of her works, an
installation of 200 vintage
dollhouses lighted from
within and arranged on
stepped pedestals in a
darkened room. It
encourages voyeurism,
inviting viewers to peer
into one empty room after
another and comments on
the ongoing epidemic of
house foreclosures.

reMIX

Studio

Beijing designers reMIX Studio created a

string installation that guided visitors through
a derelict building to a pop-up restaurant at
Beijing Design Week 2013. Entitled Paizi 38,
reMIX Studio created the intervention as part
of the urban regeneration of the historic
Dashilar hutong in Beijing. Following the
intervention of the collective he space is to
be built up into a Boutique Hotel. In their
oiwn words, reMIX studios proposed a new
connective path that reveals the existing
building secrets and tunnelling throughout
the architectural body it highlights in few
observations points the quality and
characteristics of the future intervention. The
system of new portals is a succession of
points of view that, passing in the position
where the new hotel circulation will be
placed, forces the visitors into an unexpected
journey; challenging his imagination and
forcing him to redefine the meaning of
"exploration".

Lengths of string and a wooden

path created a journey through
three traditional courtyards,
leading visitors over rubble and
through holes in the walls.Threaded
through the doorways, the strings
spanned room lengths in grouped
arrangements.In the final courtyard
space, lightbulbs hung from the
ends of the strings over dining
tables at a temporary restaurant.

Hotel Ballymun

2007

Guests at Hotel Ballymun were able to

appreciate the spectacular views over
Dublin, just weeks before these views
ceased to exist. Clarke Tower is due for
demolition in Summer 2007.
In addition to the nine individually designed,
single and double bedrooms there was a
garden room, a tv lounge, communal
kitchen, reception area, breakfast and
seating area, as well as an intimate
conference and events centre.
The rooms were furnished with one-off pieces,
customised and remodelled from existing
furniture, which were designed and made by
people from the Ballymun area, during a two
month series of workshops with Irish design duo
Sticks and recent RCA graduate Jonathan Legge.
A diverse programme of cultural and social events
took place in the Hotel. Talks, live art and music
performances took place at the Hotel throughout
the day and in the evenings. From 2.00 p.m to 5
p.m daily there was also a chance for the general
public to take the lift up to view Hotel Ballymun.
There were a maximum of twenty places in the
audience or for participants, depending on the
nature of the event, making for an intimate and
memorable experience.

Favela Painting

Brazil

Haas&Hahn
Favela Painting is the
name of a series of
community artwork
in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil painted by
Dutch artists Jeroen
Koolhaas and Dre
Urhahn (known as
Haas&Hahn) with
the help of local
people. Firmeza
Foundation, an
organization based
in Netherlands runs
the project. The
project is mainly
funded by grants
and donations and
the main idea is to
collaborate with the
local people to
create community
artwork.

Three artworks have been completed

under Favela Painting as of 2013. The
first artwork in the project, "Boy with
Kite" was completed in 2006 followed
by the completion of the second
artwork in 2008 both painted in Vila
Cruzeiro, a slum in Rio de Janeiro. In
2010, the duo painted murals over
7,000 square meters (75,000 sq. ft.) of
public square in the Santa Marta. The
ultimate goal of the artists is to paint
an entire hillside favela in the center
of Rio.Haas&Hahn have plans to
return to Brazil to do further work
under the Favela Painting project.

Noun

Regeneration

The act or process of regenerating or the state of being regenerated; rebirth or renewal
The regrowth by an animal or plant of an organ, tissue, or part that has been lost or destroyed
(electronics) The use of positive feedback to increase the amplification of a radio frequency stage

Crime, social problems abuses -Dublin 8

Regeneration

The Dublin 8 area has

been notorious for
crime and drugs even
to this day . In the
1980s the residents
were so concerned that
they took the law into
their own hands. The
residents felt that the
Garda and government
were doing nothing .A
group known as
concerned parents
against drugs was
formed . They marched
on the houses of the
dealers resulting in a
parent being shot.

Dublin City council strikes again as rubbish lays waste on the ground

Regeneration

Steph image of bin man walking by

Three case studies

Regeneration

200 million

Fatima Mansions : Completed

15 million

St Teresa's Gardens: In Progress

16 million

Dolphin House : About to commence

Regeneration

Fatima Mansions
Fatima Mansions was built in the post-war period as part of Dublin City
Councils inner city housing renewal programme. For the first three
decades, the residents of Fatima were relatively settled and part of the
typical working class community of the inner city area.

In the seventies and early nineteen-eighties, however, the downsizing

and closure of many local industries, which were a significant source of
employment to residents, had a detrimental and destablising effect.
Problems of chronic unemployment were further compounded when
heroin and other drugs began to flood inner city communities.

Throughout the seventies and eighties social conditions in Fatima

Mansions began to steadily deteriorate. The Housing Surrender Grant,
which encouraged tenants to surrender their flat in return for a grant to
enable them to purchase their own home as a policy measure to free up
social housing, also contributed to many of the stronger families
deciding to leave the community.

By the early eighties, Fatima had become one of the most notorious
local authority flat complexes in Dublin, even in Ireland. It was
synonymous with the worst social conditions of deprivation and
disadvantage, chronic levels of early school leaving and unemployment,
a magnet for anti-social behaviour, drug dealing and associated
criminality.

In response to the above, Dublin City Council invested in a substantial

refurbishment of the flat complex in the late nineteen-eighties at a
significant cost for the time of 5 million pounds. In the absence of any
measures to address the social problems of families living in the
scheme, however, the improvements were quickly undermined and the
complex deteriorated further.
A unique feature of the regeneration of Fatima is the
equal emphasis that has been given to the social and
physical regeneration of this community. A five-year
Social Regeneration Plan was been produced to
complement the physical regeneration programme.

This visionary and ambitious Plan contained thirty-seven

areas for action across eight key themes which are
viewed as integral to supporting the existing population
into the future and promoting the integration of the
regenerated community with the wider Rialto area.

The eight themes were as follows:

1. Creating a Safe & Sustainable Community
2. Education
3. Health & Wellbeing
4. Enterprise Training & Employment
5. Arts & Culture
6. Sports & Recreation
7. Environment
8. Planning & Design of Community Facilities

2003 The demolition of the first five blocks commences.

Fatima Mansions the results

Regeneration

The area is as bad as it has ever been . Why?

The problem is not with the buildings but
rather the people within . A change of
dressing does not cure a disease. Changing
the landscape will not change the
destructive nature of the people who
occupy the place.

Dolphin house Dolphin Decides document highlights some of these issues

Regeneration

A view of the problem

A virus will always try to invade and destroy

Insider View : Ciara

It would seem that they are trying to keep all the scumbags contained in the same area for fear they might infect a more decent area .
Authorities are putting a plaster over a problem and trying to contain it rather than fixing it . The problem is not with the buildings but
the people that they put in the buildings. Not all may I add just some . These scumbags give us all a bad name. These people dont care
about the negative impact they are having on their community. Until this changes no amount of regeneration will change the area.
Socialisation will continue causing degradation.

Stephs view

Regeneration

I grew up just off The South Circular road, near

the canal. I was around the corner from
St.Teresa's Gardens and Dolphins Barn Flats.
When I was younger my parents always warned
me never to venture into those areas as they
were seen as dangerous.
It's been interesting doing this project as it has
given me a chance to look into the history of
these areas and see why they have been
deemed dangerous and how social problems
such as drugs and substance abuse creeped into
these areas, giving them a bad name.
I looked into the regeneration plans for
Dolphins Barn flats and found that they plan on
demolishing the flats and rebuilding. They
convey a very positive message in their
regeneration plans, outlining their social,
economic and environmental vision.

The problem with these plans is that they are focusing on the structure of the building as a
means of regenaration when actually they are ignoring many underlying social issues which
will cause the area to degrade again and again. Fatima mansions flats have already
undergone the regeneration plans and are no better for it, the same social issues cropping
up and Dublin City Council still plan on carrying out the ir plans with Dolphins Barn Flats and
have began demolishing Teresa's Gardens

Regeneration

Gareths View

As an outsider to the project I spent my times listening to Steph

and Ciaras stories . I was fascinated by the diversity of the
characters that came with the area . I became very concerned for
the people that where struggling with the damaging effects of
drugs.
When visiting the area and watching how these building that
brought great memories where being destroyed , I felt very
much separated from the situation due to my background .i
found that with regeneration of my area , it was due to
modernising the building as a focal point for the areas
development ..
Research allowed me to see how the people where tormented by
the drug abuse and criminal activity and how it has impacts the
other areas around . With developing the project with Ciara and
Steph, I was disgusted that regeneration was a kind of sweeping
under the rug, approach to tackling the real problems of abuse .
Though I find that I truly dont understand the impacts of what
went on , I feel educated about the inner city areas especially
heritage and how drugs and criminal activity can truly ripple
throughout the community

Research

March 2015l

Research

March 2015

The isolation of how these building have been left dormant as they move the tenants into limbo .

Research

March 2015

Research

March 2015

Research

March 2015

Research

March 2015

Research

March 2015

March 2015

Research

Research

Video March 2015

Artwork

Residents of St Teresas discussed their memories and feeling a loss of

community . The only positive part of life in the flats was the happy times
they had with their community. This was being replaced by new buildings
and new faces. What once had made the place happy was being lost.

A Visual Map of The Project

Planning The Final Piece

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress

Finished piece

Brick 1

By filling a structure with problems it disintegrates. Building around a problem does not fix the
problems at the heart of regeneration .

Finished piece

Brick 2

The pure intentions hopes and dreams that underpin the regeneration process

Brick 3

Finished piece

The happy memories and people who kept the community together

Before image inserted

All 3 bricks

Finished piece