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Cork City Council has announced the official opening of KinShip EcoLab will take place at 1-2pm on 31st May 2024.
It is an outdoor hub for ecological creative and educational activities, public workshops, gatherings and events by local groups and organisations which focus on biodiversity, waste flows, eco-practices and climate action.
All are welcome to attend the event and find out how to avail of the KinShip EcoLab. It will be presided over by Cork City Council’s Deputy Lord Mayor. The opening will celebrate the recent completion of this new community space in the unique site of Tramore Valley Park, a remediated landfill site.
The walls of the KinShip EcoLab have been constructed entirely using hand building techniques by Seán Ó’Múiri at Fuinneamh Workshop Architects with Kieran Ruane of Civil and Structural Engineering Advisors Ltd making it Ireland’s first and only rammed earth public building. According to Seán, "the process of 'compacting earth' albeit above ground, resonates with the recent history of site use as a landfill, in creating a compacted landscape".
The roof has been thatched in reed by Master Thatcher John Barron, complementing the bogland environment by which it stands. Both John and Seán will speak about the sustainable processes they utilised in bringing to life this design inspired by both Irish thatched cottages and democratic spaces for assembly in Greece known as ‘Agoras’. The event will be opened and closed with music by the talented Cork-based Uilleann Piper, Eoin O Riabhaigh and Fiddler, Johnny McCarthy.
Cork City Council's Creative Ireland Coordinator and Arts Officer Michelle Carew said: "It is not just an intriguing new building in a stunning natural landscape, it is a creative laboratory, a meeting point and a shelter. Its open sides facilitate the close connection that artists Marilyn Lennon and Sean Taylor, the KinShip Project founders, have fostered and developed since 2021 supported by Cork City Council and Creative Ireland."
The EcoLab is located by Carroll's Bog on the pedestrian path located on the east of the park.
