In this episode, Alison speaks to Nicki Matthews, who is a Senior Architect in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and a former conservation officer. Nicki speaks passionately about the need to enable, repurpose and unlock the potential of our vacant built heritage and building stock in town centres. Nicki talks about the heritage-led revitalisation strategy of Dublin’s Aungier Street, and the emerging National Policy on Architecture. The two discuss European policies that could be exemplars for town centre management and renewal in Ireland, and Nicki highlights the setting up of the inter-departmental town centre first working group, the importance of collaboration and working in a holistic way with multidisciplinary teams at all levels to achieve joined up thinking and planning.  

This podcast is supported by the Heritage Council.