Should the standard of housing in Ireland reassure us or be a cause for grave concern? Against the 'luxury lifestyle' backdrop of Celtic Tiger Ireland, did we really build the right sort of homes and communities?

And what about a future, less affluent Ireland? What challenges face us in this changing climate? Bringing together leading architects, planners, politicians, sociologists, writers, artists, designers and developers, this unique book looks at where we have come from, and offers some ideas on where we might be going.

As, right across the country, villages expand to the size of towns, housing estates spread into the hinterlands, and one-off housing fills the spaces in between, questions about how we live, how we should be living, and how we would like to live have never been more urgent.

Based on a conference organised by the National Sculpture Factory in Cork in May of 2007, des/IRE is a thought-provoking, creative, and vital response to one of contemporary Ireland's most serious issues.