Thursday April 3rd, 2025, 19:00
Davis Theatre, Arts Block, TCD College Green Dublin 2
Tickets on Eventbrite
A panel discussion focused on Ireland’s Ecovillage Cloughjordan, and the challenges of building intentional resilient communities.
The AAI are thrilled to announce a special panel event in collaboration with Cloughjordan Ecovillage and the Trinity College Dublin School of Social Work and Social Policy, as part of our Housing Solutions series.
This event will focus on lessons around building resilient communities, the commons, and the challenges of plateauing of these types of projects and keeping the energy alive.
The format will include an introductory presentation on Cloughjordan, an overview of its built environment and issues faced by the community, and a focus on the social and future framework of the Ecovillage. The presentations will be followed by a curated panel discussion.
Speakers will include Peadar Kirby, Professor Emeritus, University of Limerick, Sally Starbuck, Director of Gaïa Ecotecture, and Dr. Kasia Wodniak, Teaching Fellow in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, TCD.
Peadar Kirby is Professor Emeritus of International Politics and Public Policy in the University of Limerick and formerly a professor in the School of Law and Government in DCU. He has lived in Cloughjordan Ecovillage since 2009 where he is active in the educational programme of the ecovillage. His books include ‘The Political Economy of the Low Carbon Transition: Pathways beyond Techno-Optimism’, written with Tadhg O’Mahony (Palgrave, 2018) and ‘Karl Polanyi and the Contemporary Political Crisis: Transforming Market Society in the Era of Climate Change’ with a foreword by President Michael D. Higgins (Bloomsbury, 2021). His novel ‘Misean go Peñiscola’ won second prize in the 2024 Oireachtas Literary Competition. He is a member of the editorial board of Studies magazine and a frequent contributor.
Sally Starbuck is an experienced architect and Director of Gaïa ecotecture. She has practiced with Paul Leech realising high quality, award-winning, ecological buildings in the Ireland with associated research papers published. She acted as project architect for a five storey glulam & brettstapel office building.
Sally has up to date Professional Skills for nearly-Zero Energy Building, including strategic tools and detailed calculations of low-energy design strategies and Life Cycle Cost analysis: As a specialist in building design with natural ventilation, constructed with breathing materials for healthy vapour control including durability, fire, access/ security, safely maintainable to standard and innovative uses of traditional technologies. Her A-rated two new build semidetached independent-living units urban infill in a Conservation Area, ‘Two Seabirds’ was exhibited in the Sustainability category of the annual RIAI Awards and featured on RTE TV.
Sally has been a Director of the IEN, as a delegate of The ecoVillage Cloughjordan which demonstrates, over 24 years now, resilience to climate change adaptation: She designed three of the residential workplaces built there including a purpose-built studio, using hemplime. She has acted as Architect in the Community, for Create national development agency for collaborative arts and contributed to the RIAI’s ‘Town & Village Toolkit’ design guide. Chair of the RIAI’s Sustainability Taskforce for two years, she introducing criteria for
Sustainability Award, and previously served as a Trustee of the Association for Environment Conscious Building, AECB in the UK.
Sally has taught Theory & Design of Structures to student architects at IT Sligo (now ATU, Atlantic Technological University). As a guest lecturer for the University of Trieste to ‘global change’ Masters students of Life Sciences, staff and the Gorizia region Order of Architects, she tutored final year students of architecture and landscape architecture.
