Urban Design Study for Hazelwood Students
Hazelwood College’s Transition Year students recently completed a walking tour of Shannon, Ireland’s first planned town. The purpose of the tour was to study how Irish planner’s thoughts and ideals have evolved over the past sixty years. Students learned how urban planning and design changed from Shannon’s early days as a dormitory town to its current 21st century design. Students saw how housing changed from the original apartment based living of the early airport workers to the introduction of families and children in the 1960s, when the government tax breaks encouraged large industry, right through to the compact urban jungle of the Celtic Tiger era. The students also learned about how Shannon, lying almost 2 metres below sea-level, defends itself from the daily threat of flooding through a network of embankments, culverts and pumping stations.
