TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

framework to deliver the basic motors of creativity, productivity and innovation to ensure
future progress throughout the 2030s and to reverse the current stagnation of the city’s
economy. Feeding off the fat of the land is no longer a viable option for the future. As Post-
Tigerland syndrome dies a slow death, Cork must attract smart business and high-end
commercial activities to ensure a good spatial distribution of job opportunities in the
metropolitan core and the Greater Cork Area (CGA), much like the situation was at the turn of
the century. This has become a top priority for all Irish cities in tackling the emerging trend of
“slowflation”, whereby the current state of the Irish economy is characterized by growth that is
too slow and inflation that is too high for comfort.
Urban Planning and Development
Throughout the 2010s, Cork was continually playing catch-up with quick-fix solutions to the
planning and development woes of the previous decade. This was at a time in Irish history when
finance meant power, and when green-field sites across the country were rendered fertile
spawning grounds for unsustainable, irresponsible development. The spate of office and
residential blocks and industrial parks that mushroomed on the outskirts of Cork city caused
many people to beg the question, “If you build it, who will come?” The disillusionment with
failing planning structures at this time led to a meeting in Cork in 2015 of the country’s elected
mayors and other public representatives to address the gaps in national and regional spatial
planning. This represented an important staging post for city governance in Cork, following
which efforts were made in earnest to consolidate metropolitan Cork and the surrounding areas.
In particular, transport played a crucial role in helping to achieve sustainable development
patterns, with land use being planned more proactively around existing public transport nodes.
The rise in energy costs throughout the 2010s ‘encouraged’ people to end their long-standing
romance with private transport, and by 2020, 36% of total car trips within the city centre were
shifted to public transport, a 7% increase on the CASP projections made for that year.
Throughout the 2010s, considerable emphasis was placed on the importance of value-led
development, rather than infrastructure-led development, in line with the pressing need for
"green urbanism" in order to transform Cork into an internationally recognised sustainable ecocity.
The implementation of the Public Realm City Guidelines in 2018 encouraged this shift in
development patterns towards more high quality, innovative, contemporary design
characterised by a vibrant land-use mix. The Docklands soon led the way in realising this type of
development, particularly on the outer harbour and along the two main transport routes.
However, the major challenge facing Cork in the 2030s is in avoiding the emergence of an
irreversible socio-economic divide between the prosperous and fashionable harbour area and the
more traditional age-old city quarter, which has to a large extent, fallen out of favour with the
‘bourgeoisie’.
Culture and Heritage
Ireland in general, and Cork in particular, underwent a significant cultural revolution during the
early 2010s, when the Irish identity began to evolve and reinvent itself, modifying its early 21 st
century materialistic values. As a result, traditional ideals were rekindled and there was a
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