Taking place on Saturday, 21 November, ECAP will bring together leading European and Irish contributors from a variety of sectors including community development, culture, activism and architecture to discuss publicly how architecture can improve people’s everyday lives. The conference will feature two keynote speakers, Wivina Demeester-De Meyer and An Fonteyne.
Wivina Demeester-De Meyer, former Belgian senior Minister will discuss her experience leading a coordinated approach to architecture and policy in Flanders during the mid-1990s. Her work encouraged the government to create high-quality spaces and well-designed buildings for communities and future generations to come. In the mid-1970s, Demeester-De Meyer had developed a residential care centre for people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairment; it was this experience that shaped her perspective on the potential of enduring design.
Belgian architect An Fonteyne will share the fascinating story of designing and delivering KANAL, one of Europe's most ambitious cultural projects. Working with her colleagues at Atelier KANAL Architects, Fonteyne has helped create ‘an extension of the city ’, shaping a former industrial building in Brussels into an expansive public space. After six years of construction work and much political change, KANAL will open at the end of November 2026. It will be free to enter and use by everyone at any time.
The keynote presentations will be followed by interactive and inclusive conversations from a distinguished group of contributors, including Robert Watt, Sinéad O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Canavan, Mary McCarthy, Fionnuala May, Patricia King, Oana Bogdan, Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell.
With the generous support of the Department of Social Protection and Bus Éireann, ECAP Dublin will take place from 10.00 to 18.00 on 21 November 2026 in Dublin’s Áras Mhic Dhiarmada – the landmark mid-twentieth-century central Dublin bus station and Government department headquarters which asserted Ireland’s entry into international architectural modernism.
This ECAP conference is open to the public via pre-registration; please email ecap2026@opw.ie.
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