Niall Kirkwood (professor of landscape architecture and technology) recently inaugurated a joint research initiative, “Urban Ireland: The City of Belfast as a Laboratory of Change,” with Jim Berry (professor of urban planning and property development) at the University of Ulster School of the Built Environment in Belfast, Northern Ireland. To commemorate the project launch, Kirkwood gave a keynote lecture this month at the University.
The research will address fundamental questions that affect planning and design outcomes: what do designers, policy-makers and other experts look at when they talk about quality of life in cities? What coalitions need to be formed among academics, business, policy makers and citizens in order to meet future demands, and where are the pressure points on quality of life in cities?