Designing Dublin: Learning to Learn is…

A Learning initiative
Mixing volunteers with City Council staff
Applying design processes and tools
Action-packed and solution-driven
Rigorous and iterative
About leadership and entrepreneurship
Real and transparent
Engaging citizens in conversation and participation
Using Dublin as a living laboratory

Designing Dublin: Learning to Learn is a Design Twentyfirst Century project, supported by the Creative Dublin Alliance in partnership with Dublin City Council.

Between September and November 2009, Design Twentyfirst Century ran the first Designing Dublin: Learning to Learn project, entitled ‘Finding the Hidden Potential of Place’ in Clongriffin, located in Dublin’s North Fringe.

Over the course of the twelve weeks the team followed a project path that involved research, ideation, project identification and prototyping with the residents of Clongriffin.

The project outcomes were…

500 people contributed to defining the project
17 people joined the team
1700 ideas were produced
18 concepts were sketched
5 projects were developed
300 residents engaged in the projects
20 residents became project champions
1 developer engaged in the projects
1 team member started a new business
1 team member re-energized a start-up business through the new skills
1 team member started a PhD in citizenship engagement and social spaces
1 team member returned to the private sector and applied her skills to her projects
3 team members returned to the public sector and challenged the system
5 team members formed a learning laboratory
1 collaborator started a new business
1 business network was established

To learn more about how the team worked and the project outcomes, watch our video and visit the Designing Dublin blog www.designingdublin.com

To learn more about Design Twentyfirst Century explore our website!

Your working project = Love the City

After the success of the first project, ‘Finding the Hidden Potential of Place’, Designing Dublin: Learning to Learn (DD:LL) were asked by Dublin City Council to undertake a second project on Dublin’s City Centre.

Between March and May of 2010, some team members from the first DD:LL project, undertook the discovery phase of the City Centre project.

The only parameter that the team was given was the knowledge that the number of people using the City Centre has declined in recent years. DD:LL was tasked with finding ways to make the City Centre a more vibrant, appealing and transparent place for a wider and more diverse range of visitors, dwellers, shoppers, urban enthusiasts, etc.

For thirteen weeks the team studied the City Centre. They became familiar with it’s complexities, diversity, challenges, and possibilities. They remembered the City Centre character, appeal, urban space and became familiar with existing and new initiatives that offer opportunities for small and large change; as well as the generosity and curiosity of the people who wander in and out of the City Centre.

They concluded that the only way to undertake the massive task of re-invigorating the City Centre, is to start by inspiring people to become re-aware of the City Centre’s offerings while providing people with urban experiences that are care-free, delightful, safe and about discovery.

This is why the project is called Love the City.

Download the Love the City book.
(There are eleven sections.)

00 Opening Section
01 Imaging City
02 Understanding City
03 Reviewing City
04 Ideating City
05 Listening Group
06 Ten Challenges
06a People City
07 Project Matching
08 Mapping City
09 Love the City

What part of Love the City will you work on?

The Love the City team will partake in three project stages:

A. Grow awareness of the city.
Collaborate with citizens and City Centre stakeholders
Design a set of strategies to draw people into the city
Use a mapping tool to define the project working area

B. Improve the destination experience.
Work with local citizens to understand the project working area
Analyze and ideate solutions for the project area
Test and prototype the developed ideas

C. Make the city sticky.
Develop methodologies and parameters to replicate the Love the City model
Identify strategies that will continue to draw people to the City Centre

As part of the six-month project, the team will experience new thinking, meet international thinkers, develop a communication platform, be involved in public events, make a book, have direct contact with citizens and City Centre stakeholders and overall have the opportunity to learn while making Dublin a more prosperous, delightful, inspiring and attractive place.

Application deadlines

We would love to receive an application from you.
Deadlines are as follows…

August 13, 2010 – Submission deadline.
All applications submitted after this date will not be considered.

August 17, 2010 – Pre-selection of candidates.
An email letting you know if you have made it to the interview round will be sent to the pre-selected candidates.

August 23 to 26, 2010 – Interview dates.
Please note that pre-selected candidates will be asked to join a full day interview between August 23rd and 26th. All pre-selected candidates who cannot attend a full day interview will not be considered.

August 30, 2010 – Invitation to join the team.
A call will be made to the selected team members.

September 13, 2010 – Love the City begins.

Love the City will run between September 13, 2010 and March 31, 2011. It will require full-time commitment from the selected team members.

The team will take a break mid-way through Love the City, between December 15, 2010 and January 7, 2011.

Application qualifications

Applicants must hold a third level diploma or degree. In special circumstances, equivalent experience may be considered.

There is neither a cost nor a financial benefit involved in participating.

Applicants must be fluent in English.

Application requirements

To apply to the Love the City project, applicants must submit via post the following items:

1. Completed application form.
The application form can be filled out digitally via Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign. It can also be handwritten.
Download the application form.

2. Personal expression of creativity.
Show us how you are creative by submitting a small object or image (remember your package has to arrive via post), along with a one page explanation of how the object or image is a reflection of your creativity. For example, do you like to build and fly kites, pull radios apart and put them back together, orchestrate musicals, follow twitter feeds, conduct outdoor experiment, write political scripts, etc?

3. Letter of intent.
Let us know in the letter why you want to be part of Love the City, what you personally want to achieve by being involved, what qualities you will share with your team members. Also, name and describe the two biggest challenges that you believe Dublin’s City Center is currently facing.
(Maximum of two pages.)

4. Reference letters.
Submit two letters of reference.

Submissions should be sent to the following address:

Love the City
Designing Dublin: Learning to Learn
Design Twentyfirst Century
14 St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2

Applications must be received by August 13, 2010.
Submitted applications will not be returned to sender.

If you have any questions please send us an email to info@design21c.com