Landscape and planning: strengthening discussions in the decision-making process

Since the emergence of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in 2000, the important link between landscape and planning has greatly intensified. Now, more than ever, the fundamental role of the planning system in delivering the ELC’s requirements is recognised. This has been further substantiated within Ireland’s recently published National Landscape Strategy. However it has continually been suggested that decision-making processes need to adapt better to the holistic, valueladen and multidimensional approaches underpinning the ELC. In light of these milestones for the preservation, management and planning of landscape, this research sets out to establish synergies and disparities in the existing relationship between landscape and planning. It investigates detailed evidence of the presence and manifestations of landscape in key processes of day-to-day planning practice in Ireland, from individual planning appeals and ‘special’ cases, to the major strategic instruments that inform the making of landscape policies within development plans. This is set within wider theoretical and policy contexts where the compatibility of landscape and planning is subjected to critical scrutiny and then explored through these practical case studies. Driving this research is the intention to make a case for the planning domain to be an ideal ‘home’ for landscape – in all its deep, multidimensional meaning – and for enhancing landscape arguments and objectives in the face of conflict, competing values and power-plays in the real world. Emerging out of this research is a set of recommendations for how, at a national level, new approaches for decision making for and about landscape can be more effective and meaningful.

Dutch influence in the urban landscape of Cork City pre-1800: Fact or myth?

The early years of the eighteenth century Irish port town, Cork saw an expansion of its city limits, an era of reconstruction both within and beyond the walls of its Medieval townscape and a reclamation of its marshlands to the east and west. New people, new ideas and the beginnings of new wealth infused the post Elizabethan character of the recently siege battered city. It also brought a desire for something different, something new, an opportunity to redefine the ambience and visual perception of the urban landscape and thereby make a statement about its intended cultural and social orientations. It brought an opportunity to re-imagine and model a new, continental style of place and surrounding environment.