Reviving a Remote, Rural Area
Transforming a rural, remote region into an active, vibrant community with a redefined role in today’s globalized economy.
Client
Kerry County Council
Design Team
The Institute without Boundaries (IwB)
Project Type
User Research, HCD, Strategy, Prototype Design & Testing
The Challenge:
The Iveragh Peninsula is a region in County Kerry, located at the most south-western point in Ireland. It’s a challenging region for building infrastructure and agricultural practices. Currently, the peninsula is facing the departure of its youth population, with younger generations seeking opportunities in other countries. This youth out-migration has led to key industries such as farming being at risk, as there is no one to take over family farms. The extreme seasonality of tourism in the region means that residents find themselves in a precarious work situation, with many businesses closing in the off-season, forcing residents to look for other work or to sign up for social assistance.
The Outcome:
Over the course of one year, the IwB team facilitated multiple charrettes, co-design session and interviews with the residents of Iveragh. This collaborative research uncovered the key insights that drove the design of an integrated design strategy which focused on establishing economic, environmental and social growth in the region.
The Approach:
The IwB Team used a number of different tools and methods to reach over 300 residents and stakeholders throughout the year. Due to geographic reasons, we worked remotely ‘in the field’ and connected through Skype, phone and email as much as possible. For two weeks in November 2015, we went to Iveragh and were based out of Caherciveen where we had the opportunity to experience the land and people of Iveragh.
Project Methodology
Co-design Sessions
While in Iveragh, we invited local residents and stakeholders to take part in the design process by giving their ideas and their feedback, comments and concerns.
In-Depth Interviews
We spoke to many people throughout the research process in person, by phone and over Skype. They each had their own story to tell, providing a number of perspectives to take into consideration when designing for the region.
Charrettes
Charrettes were organized at key moments throughout the year that involved residents, stakeholders, and design students from around the world. A charrette is a collaborative workshop where a condensed process of brainstorming, discussion, and expert consultation sees interdisciplinary teams create a broad range of ideas, solutions, and designs around a central theme and eventually focus in on a single concept.
Interactive Research Toolkits
As we prepared for field research, we created a number of toolkits to effectively engage residents and stakeholders. These toolkits reflect different target audiences and were created to acquire specific insights about the region and their experiences.
Questionnaires
A series of questionnaires were developed to gain an in-depth understanding of the current services and systems in the Iveragh region such as healthcare, public transportation, farming, education and entrepreneurship.
Designing a Network of Solutions
Throughout the year, we worked on developing innovative and economically feasible design solutions, ultimately producing five project proposals (as illustrated in the diagram directly above). The proposals maximize existing opportunities and create new endeavours for residents, as well as strengthen existing industries such as tourism and farming, while helping to develop emerging industries such as research and technology. The proposals aim to stimulate regional connections, link to the rest of the country and the world, and encourage greater economic diversity. Together, they illustrate a holistic and integrated approach to creating long-term, sustainable economic growth in Iveragh.
Together, these project proposals are unified in principle, programming and opportunities and their pursuit of the establishment of strong economic value, job creation for residents and enhancement of existing local industries. The project proposals can be developed individually or in tandem over time in accordance with the priorities and resource opportunities available to the local stakeholders.
Since 2016, when the projects were initially proposed, the Kerry County Council has implemented two projects (Weave and Innovation Iveragh) with more projects to be implemented in the near future.
