Crafts Market Co-Design Project

What is the Crafts Market Co-Design Project?

The WCQ Crafts Market Co-Design project aims to bring together the diverse local community of Waterford’s Cultural Quarter to collaboratively envision and design a flexible ‘pop-up’ weekend crafts market.

This project is part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Reimagine Programme – with key local partners including the Waterford City & County Council, WIT School of Architecture and their students, the Waterford Area Partnership and a commissioned co-design and architecture team.

It is envisioned that the crafts market would pop-up to take place on a small section of O’Connell Street that is currently pedestrianised at the weekends, to further encourage activity in the area that celebrates the Cultural Quarter’s rich diversity and supports local shops and businesses.

Community engagement experts Connect the Dots and architect and designer Rae Moore, of Atelier Rae Studio, have been commissioned to lead the co-design process on this project. WIT Architecture students are deeply involved through their research of market design precedents and the development of concept designs and prototypes in communication with the community’s insights and ideas gathered throughout the process.

In Autumn 2021, the project team:

Met 1v1 with a variety of local business, culture and community stakeholders;
Launched a community survey that gathered over 70 responses;
Worked with WIT Architecture students, who developed several market design ideas based on community input; &
Hosted a tent at Winterval to gather input on market stall design ideas developed by WIT architecture students.

Storm Barra and the latest Covid surge delayed plans for other co-designing in 2021. However, the final market stall prototypes created by WIT Architecture students were photographed and are showcased on WCQ Market Stall Prototypes

We are looking for your feedback on the students’ proposals. You can tell us what you think via the survey in the link below:

https://form.jotform.com/213404157733350

In March 2022, we are planning an online community workshop to help us move the project from a set of design ideas and concepts to reality – and we need your input!

March Event Description

The WCQ Crafts Market Co-Design Project’s Community Workshop will be held over Zoom on the 21st of March, from 18:30 to 20:00.

The workshop will include a brief section of presentations on the context for the project, market design ideas and the input that we’ve heard from the community so far.

The majority of the event will then be spent in collaborative small group discussions, with the goal of settling on a shared vision for the market and working through how the market should look, work, feel and develop in reality.

You can register for the online workshop through the link below:

https://form.jotform.com/220583067232350

If you have any questions or suggestions, please email hello@connectthedots.ie. We look forward to hearing from you.

WIT Architecture – Student Market Prototype Studies

The photography and images of the students work is reflective of a successful partnership with the WIT Dept. of Architecture. The Fourth years produced 4 proposals for a market stall and built these prototypes towards the end of 2021.

We are looking for your feedback on the students’ proposals. You can tell us what you think via the survey in the link below:

https://form.jotform.com/213404157733350

All photography and proposals are credited to WIT Dept. of Architecture.

The tutors involved were:

Dr Sharon O Brien
Richard Kenny
Maire Henry

The Fourth Year Students involved in the project were:

Ciaran O’Dowd	Group 1
Andre Adam	Group 1
Mark McGinley	Group 1
David Geoghegan	Group 1
Luke Kinchella	Group 1
Curvin Lewis	Group 1
Manon Gagnoux (Nancy)	Group 1
Louis Devane	Group 2
Emily Laffan	Group 2
Alena Staats	Group 2
Shane Finnegan	Group 2
Jack Murphy	Group 2
Elizaveta Fomicheva (Milan)	Group 2
Marina Vilicic	Group 2
William Burke	Group 3
Matthew Kamassa	Group 3
Oshin Lucas	Group 3
Natalia Sadrina	Group 3
Kevin Mayindu	Group 3
Holiniaina Andriamasy (Nancy)	Group 3
Heloise Roy (Nancy)	Group 3
Joe Kelly	Group 4
Neil Quinn	Group 4
Alan Fitzgerald	Group 4
Sarah Brazil	Group 4
Arham Sherif	Group 4
Louis Cattiaux (Nancy)	Group 4