A window on: Dublin

Niamh Moore-Cherry, Ignazio Vinci

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A significant literature exists on the urban impacts of deindustrialisation and global economic restructuring and how the shift to the ‘new economy’ has created opportunities for redevelopment and spatial reorganisation. Among the medium to larger-sized European cities, Dublin is one of the most emblematic for the social and physical impacts of urban economic restructuring and the role that this process has played at national level.

The most significant impacts were felt in the Greater Dublin Area as new economic activities chose to locate either in the city centre or in the inner suburbs, while rising property prices forced workers to reside at ever greater distances from the urban core. Major physical infrastructure projects were developed to accomodate this demographic shift with some limited policies introduced in an attempt to re-balance unsustainable sprawling development patterns (Moore & Scott, 2005). While much of the new construction over the last 15 years has been accomodated in the formerly predominantly rural counties on the edge of Dublin, the city centre has gone through a series of major changes that may be characterised as a series of distinct, but not necessarily separate, phases.

This article analyses the general trends in urban development in Dublin, focuses in particular on a case study of the docklands area which provides empirical evidence of the city’s development trajectory, and discusses the key challenges that face future urban development in the city.

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• (ENG) Urban regeneration and the economic crisis: past development and future challenges in Dublin, Ireland
by Niamh Moore-Cherry, Ignazio Vinci