Rob Cross is an Digital-twin specialist, architectural technologist, and AI & BIM/GIS expert | BIM and digital design technology specialist, who is building a public, data-led project focused on vacancy and dereliction in Ireland as part of the wider housing and town-centre crisis. He is also the author of the The Colour of Ireland books — The Colour of Ireland: County by County 1860–1960 (Black & White Publishing, 2023) and its follow-up volume — which restore and colourise historic photographs into a photographic celebration of Irish life across all 32 counties.

• BSc Arch Tech and Dip Arch Tech (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and Limerick Institute of Technology)
• BRE: BIM ISO 19650: Delivering Information Management

📧 Email: [email protected]

💼 LinkedIn: rob-cross-32793b25

🐦 X: @RobCross247

📸 Instagram: @robcross247

🌐 derelictsites.com

What Rob Cross is doing

• Building derelictsites.com and a public demo platform that turns fragmented statutory derelict site registers into a structured, map-based system that is easier to browse, filter, and understand.
• Aggregating and standardising data (including address and Eircode quality) so locations can be mapped and analysed more reliably, and so councils, practitioners, and the public can see patterns and gaps.
• Producing practical “decision support” outputs such as summaries, maps, and metrics like “time on register”, valuations, and levy-related figures, with the aim of making dereliction more transparent and actionable.

Heritage and conservation work

• Championing conservation-led restoration and adaptive reuse of historic and protected buildings, making the case for sympathetic repair and reuse over demolition and new build.
• Researching and documenting at-risk heritage, drawing on the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) to highlight vacant and derelict protected structures.
• Bringing Irish history to life through the The Colour of Ireland books, painstakingly restoring and colourising historic photographs of the people, places, and buildings of all 32 counties.

How this connects to the Irish housing crisis

Rob frames long-term vacancy and dereliction as a direct contributor to housing shortage and homelessness, highlighting cases where valuable buildings sit unused for decades while emergency accommodation numbers rise.

Policy and implementation focus

• Stronger enforcement and accountability around derelict and vacant property, including attention to vacant above-shop units.
• Better coordination across public bodies and datasets, with an emphasis on addressing institutional “silos”.
• Using mechanisms like CPO and bringing underused property back into circulation with structures that support affordability, such as cost-rental or leasehold approaches.

Useful links, grants and information

Architectural Heritage: Protected Structures at Risk:

© Rob Cross 2026

About Me / Contact