Bí URBAN – A Studio for Social Creativity

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

Nestled in the heart of Stoneybatter, Bi Urban is a unique creative studio, founded by artist, environmentalist and healthcare design consultant Kaethe Burt-O’Dea. Kaethe has been involved in a range of projects related design for community and health over the last 10 years which  have won numerous awards including the DIT Community Fellowship award (2010, 2012, 2013) and Riba Award (2012).

Most recently her work was recognised by Diageo when she won the Arthur Guinness Projects Award for the Lifeline project, a ‘living laboratory’ exploring the collaborative development of urban environments with community health and public engagement as a central tenet. In 2016 she established Bi URBAN, a studio for social creativity, prominently positioned on the main street of Stoneybatter to act as a hub for the development of this project.

Bi URBAN represents the next stage of an ambitious 10-year-strategy to build the Lifeline, a nature corridor that will connect the Botanic Gardens with the Liffey, creating a ribbon of biodiversity and fertile ground for social innovation, green enterprise and nature-based solutions. Over the last decade Kaethe has been working in partnership with Dublin Institute of Technology Students Learning with Communities Programme using community-based research to study how increased access to nature can impact on community health and well-being in cities. Bí URBAN gives this research a home and public shopfront on the main street in Stoneybatter.