A key part of the Open Heart City project was a consultation process with a range of stakeholders and the local community, leading to the production of a Vision Document by CoLab which was then subject to further public presentations and workshop input. Crucially, the consultation process incorporated the views of survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene institutions and those people affected by related abuses in Ireland’s recent history of forced family separation. Many of those who joined in our consultations have contributed to previous discussions on the issue of memorialisation

Open Heart City brought the discipline of architecture into collaboration with the expertise of many other academic disciplines in order to harness innovative ways of thinking, diverse methods of working and a variety of forms of communication which can unlock and bring new life to this complex urban place. Our project provided a template for how architectural practice might work in concert with other disciplines, drawing on their insights and methods to achieve broader, deeper, more robust ways of operating in the contemporary city.

Due to the pandemic all consultations were by necessity held online, with eight consultations in total from September 2020 to January 2021 hosted by Katherine O’Donnell. We invited survivors and all those affected by institutional, adoption and other ‘care’-related abuses to contribute their feedback, comments, suggestions and thoughts to the CoLab architects’ ongoing architectural designs for the former Magdalene Laundry site on Sean McDermott Street. Many members of the community surrounding the site in Dublin 1, along with local and national politicians, artists and community organisers, academics, archivists, heritage and museum personnel, also attended and contributed to these online consultations. The completion of the first round of consultations was followed by the publishing of an online survey and was accompanied by a recorded presentation of the work to date that sought to gather feedback on proposals as well as a list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

In October 2021 CoLab hosted an exhibition at Sean McDermott Street as part of Open House Dublin, in which the rooms of the Crinan Youth Project (formerly the nuns‘ quarters) were reconfigured to display the work of both CoLab and the architecture studios from UCD and Queens from the previous year. The exhibition included guided tours in which the members of CoLab sought to engage with visitors around the topic of the site, its past and possible futures. CoLab designed a “wandering Nomad” pavilion, inspired by the large baby prams, traditionally repurposed by women street traders from the local area, funding for which was secured from the Arts Council of Ireland. The Nomad pavilion was also presented at the event and was used to carry out further local consultations in the Dublin Adult Learning Centre on Merrion Square and at the Rutland National School in late 2021. The Interim Vision Document was published at the end of 2021.

The ideas and criticisms of all of these consultations informed the designs suggested by CoLab which included:

• Community housing for older people (particularly for older people already living in the area who might want to leave larger flats);
• An exhibition and public meeting space for a national centre of truth-telling and education on the abuses of the forced family separation system (perhaps a satellite campus of the National Museum of Ireland);
• A dedicated national archive to curate all of the millions of pages of currently suppressed files gathered under a range of Government enquiries or still in the privately held archives of religious congregations, so that affected people can receive their own information and the history of 20thC. Ireland might include and centre those experiences;
• A community college and centre dedicated to early years education;
• A quiet space for contemplation as well as outdoor spaces for community enjoyment.

As part of St Brigid’s Festival in Dublin in early February 2022 CoLab installed the exhibition in the Chapel at Sean McDermott Street allowing people access to this space for the first time in many years. Following on from this event in March 2022 the Irish Government announced the creation of The National Centre for Research and Remembrance https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/campaigns/national-centre-for-research-and-remembrance/ on the site of a former Magdalene laundry on Seán McDermott Street. In June 2022 DCC agree to transfer ownership of the site to the OPW in order to enable the creation of the National Centre for Remembrance. The Government launched a consultation into the National Centre for research and Remembrance from August – September 2023.

In response to feedback on the work carried out on Sean McDermot Street, CoLab and members of the Open Heart City Collective commenced Rún: Ireland’s (In)visible Buildings Project in early 2023.  Rún is a digital mapping project that records the vast network of residential institutions of social care across the entire island of Ireland throughout the 20thC. An exhibition of the work in progress on the (In) visible Buildings Project was displayed in October 2023 as part of Open House Dublin.