A round-up of this week's other stories in brief

Ireland's urban void at Architecture Triennale

The potential of Dublin's "urban void" is being explored by Ireland's entry for the first Lisbon International Architecture Triennale, which opens on May 31st at the Portuguese Pavilion (designed by Alvaro Siza for Expo 98) with a three-day conference on "The Heart of the City".

The Triennale sets out to be an architectural festival that will bring together professionals and the general public to debate questions that urban spaces face today, with a firm focus on the positive aspects of change and renewal through contemporary architecture.

Ireland's entry is an ambitious project curated by Peter Cody, of Boyd Cody Architects, and Peter Carroll, of A2 Architects. The exhibition will consist of a collective response from 11 multi-disciplinary practices to the "Urban Void" theme of what to do with abandoned spaces.

Line to Surface: Urban Void/ Extended City examines how Dublin is now being re-made while proposing a series of "small and large-scale interventions, stitched into the existing fabric, adjusting and redefining an expanding urban territory" - in other words, all the sprawl.

The Irish entry will include major projects such as Ballymun Regeneration and the masterplan of North Lotts in Docklands as well as small schemes such as a local community centre and garden plots, showing how a new connectivity and intensification might be forged.

"We have found an almost unconscious city," the two curators say.

"There is very little knowledge of the scale of change going on out there. What are the City of Dublin's boundaries?

"Where does the city begin and end? Is there a centre or centres? Where is Dunsink?"

Their aim is to "re-awaken a new examination of the city in its broader context," they say.

"We have come to realise that the project of the city is continuous. Through the process of decay, rarefaction and urban rapture the city is constantly being re-made, re-imagined from within."

Contributors to the Irish entry include A2, Boyd Cody, Ballymun Regeneration, Dermot Foley Landscape Architects, dePaor Architects, Dublin Docklands Development Authority, FKL, Grafton Architects, McGarry Ní Éanaigh, McCullough Mulvin and O'Donnell + Tuomey.

Ireland's participation in the Lisbon Triennale, which will run until July 31st, is being sponsored by Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council, the DDDA, the RIAI, Ballymun Regeneration and Tegral.

Urbanism Academy city-of-year shortlist

The shortlist for the Academy of Urbanism's European City of the Year and other major awards for towns, neighbourhoods, streets and places throughout Britain and Ireland are to be announced next Thursday (May 24th) at a nominations dinner in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.

Irish contenders include Armagh and Kilkenny (for the Great Town award), Temple Bar (Great Neighbourhood), O'Connell Street, Dublin, and Donegall Place/Royal Avenue, Belfast (Great Street), and Eyre Square, Galway, and Meeting House Square, Dublin (Great Place).The dinner, at which Senator David Norris is the guest speaker, will be preceded by a major conference in Dublin Castle on the academy's theme of "Space, place, Life".

Further details may be obtained from the RIAI, on 01 6761703 or info@academyofurbanism.org.uk

Cavan seeks visionary architect

Cavan County Council is looking for an Architect in Residence with big ideas to "re-imagine" public spaces in Cavan as part of an overall vision of its future as a "unique and sustainable" town with a balanced range of functions, facilities and amenities.

The "Cavan Re-imagined" project has been devised by the council's Arts Office in consultation with its planning department, town engineer and the Arts Council, and the intention is that the residency will culminate in an exhibition of ideas, rather than a physical construct.

Whoever gets the job will research the existing use of civic space and generate "imaginative and innovative responses" to its possible future design. It will give him or her "an opportunity to demonstrate the full creative potential of architecture as an art form".

The deadline is June 1st. Further information may be obtained from Rhonda Tidy, Arts Co-ordinator, Cavan County Council, phone 049 4378548 or email rhonda@cavancoco.ie