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Heritage buildings often stand as a reminder of power structures. In urban streetscapes, they can represent particular values and views of the world such as colonial conquest, hegemonic power relations, or social hierarchies. The changing use of some heritage buildings, however, alongside the changing remit of libraries in Ireland, may offer scope for radical acts of inclusion for diverse populations. One such building is considered here, the Waterford Central City Library, originally a Carnegie library, which is situated at the social and cultural centre of the city. This chapter reflects on the changing use of space in iconic buildings, the changing remit of public libraries in Ireland, and the potential of city centre buildings to be diverse spaces which facilitate inclusive community building.

Beyond the idea of the city as ‘an abstract terrain for business operations’ (Greenfield, 2013), this chapter analyses alternative constructions and research processes for engaging with ideas of smart cities and digital spatiality, drawing upon the author's arts-based research making virtual reality installations. The chapter describes workshops in which participants have navigated virtual and analogue city spaces, discussing their own ideas of smartness and the mapping of cities. These workshops took place off and online, collaboratively framing intelligences beyond the extractivist logic of surveillance and the Internet of things. In the making of this work, questions of what we mean by smartness and futurity were materialised. The chapter expands on these projects and questions, asking what kinds of design prevents social equality (Ansari, 2020; Irani, 2015), who is left out of these constructs and why? The author draws upon this work in relation to Waterford, examining how the specific historical and contemporary contexts and topography of the city informs a situated approach to technologies of representation. Rivers, from the Thames to the ‘artificial’ Huangpu, the Suir and John's River in Waterford, in their contingency and ontological instability, run through the chapter as a situating, post-human presence.

Researchers and practitioners working within transdisciplinary research projects face specific challenges when addressing representation of evidence-based concepts across complex occurrences, particularly when delivering a visitor experience design and documentary film encompassing an extensive cultural and natural heritage timeline period. In this chapter, these challenges are explored from the contrasting points of view of the view of the principal investigator and design lead and the filmmaker and researcher within an ongoing transdisciplinary research project Portalis, which is funded by the ERDF through The Ireland Wales Cooperation Programme.

The Portalis visitor experience design promotes and supports citizen science-based climate action behavioural change within six distinct Irish and Welsh cross-border coastal communities. It explores whether there are any parallels with how we can adapt to climate change now, with a focus on the resilience and innovation evidenced within Waterford's earliest settlements during and after South East Ireland's earlier climate change periods. The design research and the filmic documentation of archaeological and geological surveys is employed to map the story of these early post-glacial settlements 10,000 years ago along the Waterford Estuary. Interwoven through this mapping is a demonstration of how those living along the Estuary are preserving their maritime heritage through citizen science led engagement and community initiatives.

Adding a deep resonance to the research project, singular to Waterford, a new vision is called for; an acknowledgement of Waterford City and its Estuary as an area of unique conservation and growth and a recognition of this much travelled waterway as a designated and protected cultural landscape. A successful transdisciplinary approach creates a rich and accessible resource towards recognising the Estuary's cultural and marine heritage in city planning for the future. In so doing, it broaches the so-called rural-urban divide, adds to the global community of practice and allows for reflection on how urban planning can learn from our past in this context.

This chapter explores the evolution of smart city thinking in order to have a clear understanding of what is involved in effectively and sustainably implementing a Smart City 4.0 strategy. The chapter illustrates that the concept of smart cities has evolved from the technology driven implementations to Cities as Open Innovation Platforms. These open and participatory platforms facilitate the interaction and collaboration of the city's citizens, government, industry, entrepreneurs, academia, creatives and the social sector so that they can harness their collective intelligence for innovation, experimentation and implementation of solutions that creates real transformational value for the betterment of the city's and its stakeholders. The author also identifies the key dimensions on which a smart city 4.0 concept must be built upon but highlights that depending on the composition of its stakeholder ecosystem, the City will prioritise different dimensions and so each smart city is unique. The chapter builds upon the experience of implementing a Smart City 4.0 project in Waterford, Ireland. Details of the smart city initiatives implemented are illustrates with examples.