Helle Søholt set up Gehl Architects with Jan Gehl in 2000. Jan has written a number of books on urban design and had had an academic life before setting up practice at the age of 64. "In the last eight years he has been able to make this into an operational philosophy and not just way of thinking," says Helle, who has worked on a number of projects with John Prevc of Make who is closely involved in the Dublin scheme.

Pedestrian areas such as Temple Bar and Grafton Street show how Dublin is becoming more community minded, says Søholt. "Dublin is moving towards a more urban living situation and Temple Bar and Grafton Street have become linked to the whole discussion about heightening the quality of living in the city."

And those who commission buildings are becoming more aware of the need to provide good public spaces, she says. "Clients now realise that if they provide a good urban environment there are huge benefits for development both in architectural and social terms and also from an economic perspective, so I think you could almost talk about 'urban capital' where clients want to create a place that has an identity and certain life which people will be attracted to."

Although her partner Jan Gehl wrote his first book Life Between Buildings: Using Public Spaces in the 1970s it has taken a while for people to accept that designing the space around buildings is important. "There has been a tendency in many cities in the West to have one development strategy and that has been architecture with a big A. That strategy has not worked in all places because if you only think in terms of big-strategy architecture you miss out on a lot of environmental and human aspects of the city. That is why a lot of developers and cities are now realising that they can not only have architecture as a strategy.

"A lot of designs are too sleek and too clean in their expression. They are too object oriented and don't actually provide for liveability and human activity. That is what we would like to develop in the markets project.

"The area has an identity and cultural history and the location couldn't be better, being behind the Liffey and close to Henry Street.

"It has great potential if it can be developed as a cultural node that links back to the market idea but introduces a wonderful living area, community and work opportunities. I do think we can develop something quite unique here."