Portfolio: Landscape Architecture and Urban Design

Bart O’Doherty

Portfolio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design

Bart O’Doherty Curriculum Vitae Address: 2 Islington Avenue, Dun Laoghaire,

County Dublin, Ireland.

Telephone:

+353 86 199 4767 (Ireland)

Irish graduate of Landscape Architecture (B.Sc. hons.) at University College Dublin, Ireland, and of Urban Design (M.Sc.hons.) at Queen’s University, United Kingdom.

A Practicing Landscape Architect and Urban Designer at Mitchell + Associates.

Particular interests in sustainable urban densification, landscape management and public amenity provision on urban coastal regions.

I am currently based in Dublin City, Ireland, with an interest in international travel to expand both my professional and personal experiences.

Online profiles of experience, work and education: (digital version: click on link or logo for direct link)

Professional Network (LinkedIn profile): linkedin.com/in/bartodoherty

Creative database (Behance network): behance.net/bartodoherty

Portfolio and resource storage (Issuu): issuu.com/bartodoherty

Date of Birth: 29th April 1988 (age 25) Nationality: Irish Email: bartodoherty@gmail.com bart.odoherty@mitchellassoc.net

Education:

Work: 2012 - :

M.Sc. Urban Design

Landscape Architect, Urban Designer Mitchell + Associates, Dublin

Master of Science, 2011 - 2012

School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom

Analysis, strategy and design assistant with one of Ireland’s foremost landscape architecture and urban design firms.

Semester 2 completed: 1.1 distinction (honours); Awarded Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Student of the Year 2012;

B.Sc. Landscape Architecture I

Stage 4 completed: 2.1 honours; Thesis Award from external judges at final student exhibition (May 2011);

Leaving Certificate

7 Honours Subjects: 495 CAO points, 2001 - 2007

St. Andrew’s College, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland Elected Head Boy of year of +160 students; Awarded Student of the Year 2007;

Included in these are campus regeneration schemes, urban streetscape strategies, school and college improvement works, parklands, sustainable drainage schemes and urban design strategies for town planning works.

January – May 2013:

Bachelor of Science, 2007 - 2011

College of Engineering & Architecture University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland

Involved in a broad range of design projects from concept stages, planning, tender issue and construction through to completion.

Junior Tutor: graphics, design and presentation School of Landscape Architecture, University College Dublin Introducing and developing the skills of students of Landscape Architecture across a range of software and design computer packages, including CAD and Adobe suite.

February – May 2012:

Panel of Illustrators, Bloom 2012, Phoenix Park, Dublin City Media-ready illustrations and graphic solutions for design schemes in international design competition; June 2010:

Avoca Plant Nurseries, Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow Expanding knowledge of plant nursery stock and the horticultural industry; Summer 2006:

Architectural Design Assistant (work experience) CMB Architects, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 CAD applications (AutoCAD, VectorWorks) and Adobe PhotoShop; March 2005:

Architecural Model Making (work experience) Hugh Cahill Architectural Model-Making Studio, Dublin Introduction to design basics, computing and hands-on model construction for clients;

Proficient in CAD software, hand-drawn and computer graphics, publishing, word processing and digital presentation.

References Brian McGuinne

Dr. Karen Foley

Institution: Mitchell + Associates

Landscape Architecture, Urban Design Phibsborough,

Dublin 7, Ireland

Institution:

Director of Landscape Architecture

“

Website:

www.mitchell.ie

Bart O’Doherty was employed by Mitchell + Associates as a landscape architect and urban designer between October 2012 and September 2013, working from our Dublin office.

Bart reported to the Managing Director, the Director of Landscape Architecture and to the Project Leader and he worked closely with the other landscape architects and architects in our company and was capable of bringing added value to these situations.

His responsibilities included landscape architectural and urban design, detailed design, production of presentation drawings, production of layout plans and details, preparation of specifications and tender documentation, liaison with architects and other members of the design teams, and assisting in contract administration and site inspections.

Bart worked on a range of projects such as third level campus development, housing and town centre regeneration, commercial and office development, healthcare, schools, public realm masterplans and mixed-use developments*.

We found Bart to be a very gifted designer, hardworking, conscientious with excellent presentation drawing skills. At all times his dedication to work was of the highest standard, putting his work commitments to the fore.

Bart is very personable and pleasant to work with and is enthusiastic about all aspects of landscape architecture and urban design. He quickly became an invaluable member of the team and proved himself to be a very useful resource in the office and always produced high quality work in a timely fashion.

Should you wish to discuss further any of the above issues we would be happy to provide you with further information.

Head of Landscape Architecture

“

Website:

UCD School of Architecture University College Dublin Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland www.ucd.ie

I have known Bart O’Doherty for six years. From 2007 to 2011 he was an undergraduate student on the B.Arch.Sc. (Landscape Architecture) degree programme here at University College Dublin (UCD).

While he was an undergraduate, he was president of the Student Landscape Architectural Society. He graduated with a 2.1 degree in summer 2011 and was the top student in his year. We subsequently kept in touch during his Master’s degree at Queen’s University Belfast and also when he returned to Dublin to take up a position with Mitchell and Associates. While working in Dublin, Bart returned to UCD to act as a part-time teaching assistant in the Landscape Architecture Studio.

I would consider Bart to be in the top 10% of landscape architecture students who have graduated from UCD. He has excellent design and graphic skills, and proved to be a very engaged and popular design tutor when teaching in studio.

Portfolio Curriculum Vitae

02

References

04

The South Wall

06

Local Area Plan & Masterplan

22

University Campus

24

Dublin City Step

32

Spatial Reconciliation

36

Rural House Design

42

Town Centre Planning Strategy

48

Urban Regeneration Strategy

52

Cathedral Quarter

54

Newtownsmith

58

Urban Design Framework Plan

64

Planting Design Scheme

68

Photographic Study & Exhibition

70

Notebook

72

Photographic Study

73

Bart O’Doherty: Resume

Professional and academic

Dublin City

Baldoyle, County Dublin

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)

Energy Installation Proposal, Dublin City Centre

North Belfast, Northern Ireland

County Antrim, Northern Ireland

Randalstown, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8

Belfast City, Northern Ireland

Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin

Drogheda Heritage Quarter, County Louth

Smurfit Kappa Estate, Dublin 4

European Forum of Exchange, Namedy, Germany

Craft & Design Project

Dun Laoghaire Baths, County Dublin

6

The South Wall Dublin City Status: Institution: Type: Level:

M.Sc. Urban Design Thesis Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Urban Design - analysis, concept development, proposal and detailing Post-graduate

Date:

Summer 2012

An examination of the coastal reconnection of Dublin City to Dublin Bay along a River Liffey corridor towards the Poolbeg Peninsula, approaching particular planning and design details around the peninsula's mixed-use zoning and landscape management.

Poolbeg Peninsula, Dublin City

7

Poolbeg Peninsula, Dublin City Increased growth and expansion rates of the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) exhibit a trend in urban development that strains resources, services, materials and transport methods, and counteracts the spatial intentions of the National Development Plan (2000) and the National Spatial Strategy (2002). Dublin’s existing condition of urban sprawl is recognised by the European Environment Agency (2006) as one of Europe’s least sustainable approaches to urban development.

Until the economic downturn of 2008, peripheral growth dramatically exceeded that of Dublin’s city centre, encouraging private dwellings, industrial, commercial and large business zones to move to the relatively suburban margins of the GDA.

As a result, much of Dublin’s recent urban expansion is seen to have targeted Ireland’s agricultural lands – a spatially limited and commercially important resource – and has also caused the city to lose connection with Dublin Bay and the River Liffey – the origins of the original Dubh Linn settlement.

This Individual Design Project aims to examine how Dublin City centre presents an opportunity for consolidating much urban development within the existing Metropolitan Footprint. In doing so, it will also examine how to re-establish the connection between Dublin City and the Irish Sea along existing urban axes, with an aim to improve the city’s public realm and amenity space network.

Poolbeg Station Dublin City 207.8m

Nelson’s Pillar Dublin City 36.9m

1808 - 1809

Liberty Hall Titanic Belfast Belfast City 38m

2008 - 2012

An analysis of structure height across Ireland

Dublin City 59.4m

1961 - 1965

Wellington Monument Dublin City 63m

The Elysian

Obel Tower

Cork City 81m

Belfast City 85m

2008

2006 - 2011

Samson and Goliath Belfast City 106m

Spire of Dublin Dublin City 121.2m

2002 - 2003

1971 - 1976

Arklow Bank wind farm

currently inactive generating towers

County Wicklow 128m 2002 - 2004

1969 - 1974

1817 - 1861 - Europe’s largest obelisk 0

100m

scale 1:5000

8

Regional analysis M50 Motorway Arterial routes Rail network Tram network Port Tunnel Regional hub

FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL DUB

DUB

PORT

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL

PORT

SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

DCC Jurisdiction County boundary Council boundary SDRA

DUN LAOGHAIRE-RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL

Swords

Blanchardstown Lucan Celbridge

Tallaght

0

1:250000

City Council Urban advance Sprawl pattern Loss of coastal connection

10km

Sandyford

+50m +100m +150m +200m +250m +300m +350m +400m +450m

A regional analysis of the GDA illustrates its growth patterns, landscape constraints and its movement systems (above: 1-4). With recent focus on peripheral and suburban development, it is the aim of this project to examine the development potential of the Poolbeg area in the city centre (above): it poses iteself as a large and under-utilised area of coastal land, with potential to reconnect the development of the city with the mouth of the River Liffey and Dublin Bay.

Below, a spatial analysis of the gradual reclamation of Dublin Bay over time is illustrated (Medieval to today). The majority of today’s industrialised coast is the result of engineering works to keep the River Liffey mouth from silting heavily.

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Medieval Dublin

1708 - 1785

1786 - 1866

1867 - 1897

1930 - 1946

5km

1:200000

1986 - 2012

Urban analysis Population change, Dublin, 2006 - 2011

Decrease +0 - 5% +5 - 10% +10 - 15% >15%

A notable change from city centre to peripheral and suburban living.

source: Census 2011, CSO

Phoenix Park Bull Island

Green space Across Dublin City there is no central or cohesive green network of public spaces. Few areas encourage public transport or congregation along the central axis of the River Liffey.

Irishtown Nature Park

Green space City block form

Road network A congested network has developed, prioritising private transport methods along many of the city’s arterial routes.

Few routes within this network prioritise access towards or along the coast; rather, they focus radially inland and towards suburban regions to the west.

Primary Secondary Tertiary Lanes + paths

Public transport A currently fragmented system that does not comprehensively provide connections between the inner city and the coast.

Population density

BELFAST

2,447

LIVERPOOL

3,889

VIENNA

4,002

DUBLIN

4,588

STOCKHOLM

4,600

NICE

4,795

LONDON

5,206

MADRID

5,390

COPENHAGEN

LISBON

6,458

6,300

BRUSSELS

7,025

NAPLES

8,200

BILBAO

8,688

BARCELONA

15,991

PARIS

20,909

Dublin’s low density of development , relative to cities of a similar status across Europe.

Bus corridor Dublin rail Regional rail Dublin Tram

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Poolbeg Peninsula The lighthouse at the end of the Great South Wall marks a point over 3 kilometres from shore: a beacon in an otherwise relatively empty bay.

Road hierarchy, Architectural protection and Land Ownership are analysed below, so as to gain an understanding of access, heritage and land uses across this mixed-use region.

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1km

1:25000 EAST LINK

N

M

O

O

RE

RO

A

D

ROAD

A

BE

AC

H

RO

AD

Poolbeg Station Towers Pigeon House Half Moon Swimming Club House

Protected Structure Conservation Area Road structure

Dublin City Council Dublin Port Company ESB Fabrizia NAMA

BUILT HERITAGE

YORK

SE

10

11

Historic and photographic analysis An examination of the site’s history illustrates the multi-functional role that this dynamic peninsula has played during the formation of Dublin as a coastal capital city.

The haphazard development of the peninsula as a result of large-scale dredging of the River Liffey was hailed as one of Europe’s greatest coastal engineering feats - allowing greater industrial access directly into the heart of a growing city.

Its exploitation as a military stronghold during British rule adds a layer of social history unique to its context in Dublin. Through the last century Poolbeg became heavily industrialised, changing the land once more into a utility hub for the greater Dublin region.

Today Poolbeg Peninsula is a mix of land uses, exhibiting a varied and dynamic palimpsest of historic, cultural and social layers.

1.

18th Century, maritime Dublin

Historic Maps Archive, DCC

2.

19th Century, military barracks

Historic Maps Archive, DCC

3.

20th Century, industrial Dublin

DCC Heritage Office

4.

21st Century, derelict peninsula photograph by David Soanes

5.

Re-imagining the Great South Wall as a cyclefriendly route from Dublin city centre.

photomontage by Bart O’Doherty

1

2

3

4

5

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Concept Development Dublin City turns to its centre, and to the River Liffey once more, in an effort to retain a higher-density urban core. Together with an improved public realm framework plan along the Liffey axis, Dublin must focus on retaining its celebrated architectural heritage whilst also creating a greater density in those sites within the canals that pose valid potential.

With connections along both the north and south quays, an east-west axis graduates through the city centre.

Urban consolidation that focuses the city’s perspective back to the river side aims to create a Greater Dublin axis that runs through the city centre, creating a cohesive link between spaces, places and attractions through Dublin.

Due to the mixed heritage of Dublin Bay, the concept of different routes around the peninsula began to appear as a viable option to develop. They would become interlinked elements along the varied and dynamic coastal landscape:

PRIORITISED URBAN GROWTH

Dublin City, therefore, is conceptually reconsidered along an urban axis that runs east and west, with the River Liffey quays forming a dominant thoroughfare.

Sketch development of axis concept

LIMITED PERIPHERAL DEVELOPMENT

Rethinking Poolbeg around three key routes

DUBLIN CITY CENTRE

SEAN MOORE PARK

PIGEON HOUSE CENTRE

IRISHTOWN NATURE PARK

THE SOUTH WALL

“

It is recognised that there is a need to provide greater access to the bay, both for the people of Dublin and for visitors to the city, and to encourage them to take advantage of this superb natural amenity, while respecting the unique environment.

DCC S2S proposal outline digital download available at www.dublincity.ie

A central axis through Dublin City The chimney stacks at Poolbeg’s Pigeon House complex are conceptually re-imagined as a new vantage point over Dublin City, offering a perspective that visually and spatially relates Dublin’s cityscape and seascape. A dynamic vista that extends for tens of kilometres around the Greater Dublin Region and up into the Dublin Mountains this new platform would become part of the new exhibition pavilions at the Pigeon House Plaza and complex.

“

“

“

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The diversity of natural resources - rivers, the bay, parks and the mountains are assets that are perceived the be under-utilised and promoted. There is a sense that the city is disengaged from her natural amenities.

Creative Dublin Alliance pg. 19, “Who Do We Want To Be?”, 2011

14

Peninsula Master Plan 1:10000 1/2 Sutton

Guinness Gravity Bar (St. James’s Gate)

Poolbeg Chimney Stacks

Raheny

Bull Island Nature Reserve

Phoenix Park City Centre

South Wall

Irishtown Nature Park Booterstown Marsh Nature Reserve

Clontarf Poolbeg Peninsula

Clondalkin

Irish Glass Bottle Site Sandymount

Walkinstown

Blackrock

Sandycove

Loughlinstown

PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK EXTENSION

PUBLIC CYCLE + PEDESTRIAN NETWORK

An improved bus corridor system provides for ease of vehicle access into and along the primary thoroughfares of the Poolbeg Peninsula.

Designed across the entire peninsula is a system of cycle routes, pedestrian pathways and amenity areas that link with the greater urban axis of Dublin City.

This provides the city with a continued public realm framework that feeds into the Poolbeg region along three different routes:

Additionally, a long-term and phased introduction of a tram extension from the Point Depot to Poolbeg would connect existing Luas (red line) systems with the city centre and further west into Dublin City. This Luas Poolbeg Extension project would become phased into the entire peninsula development.

The South Wall Heritage trail The Poolbeg Landscape Network The Dublin Bay Way

Poolbeg Extension

UTILITY SPACE Existing port facilities must be maintained to ensure the continued success of Dublin’s industrial trade.

Recognised as one of Ireland’s most significant economic, trade and tourism gateways, the functions of Dublin Port are intrinsic elements of the peninsula and region as a whole.

Load-On, Load-Off Port (LOLO)

INTENSIFIED INDUSTRY SPACE Due to the dynamic composition of land uses, Poolbeg must provide for industrial and utility expansion in both a feasable and sustainable pattern.

The consideration of surrounding systems is crucial in ensuring maximum benefit for those industries that occupy this new industrial complex.

Feasable connections and transport options ensure that a sustainable development of industry, amenity, utility and landscape is achieved across the peninsula.

WASTE-TO-ENERGY

PIGEON HOUSE STATION

Dublin’s commitments to waste reduction and cleaner energy generation means that the Greater Dublin Region needs to begin changing how it processes waste.

Dublin’s rich industrial heritage at Poolbeg becomes a new cultural attraction along the greater urban corridor through Dublin City.

Of the four options recognised for a new thermal incinerator (Walkinstown, Poolbeg, Clondalkin and Loughlinstown), Poolbeg offers advantages due to its proximity to water, to the national grid, to waste water treatment and to transport connections.

74%

59% 26%

2012

landfill

25%

16%

This transformation of the derelict Pigeon House Station into a series of exhibition pavilions and interactive displays, describing the region’s heritage and the history of electricity generation, brings together local interest groups with state-of-the-art interactive technologies and educational resources for visitors to the area.

recycled / recovered thermal treatment

2025

Public performance space

Pigeon House Plaza

NEW PUBLIC CONNECTIONS Two new connections across the River Liffey and the Grand Canal aim to encourage movement into and around the Poolbeg site.

A new pedestrian bridge (blue) will finish the urban corridor that will exist along the River Liffey, connecting city centre with the coast through a framework of public realm intervention.

An extension to the existing East Link Bridge allows the existing Luas tram network (red) to work its way along Pigeon House Road and into the peninsula.

DDDA Bernard McNamara

Lansdowne Road Stadium

RINGSEND PARK AND STADIUM

Existing sports and leisure facilities at Ringsend and Irishtown are popular within surrounding communities. Access to them, however, is limited and often hidden, meaning that those who pass through the area remain unaware of them.

An improved pedestrian and cycle network begins to connect those existing facilities with a new public realm system along the coast towards the Pigeon House and South Wall. With connections to new Luas stops, it aims to encourage local public transport usage, and connect to parklands that form the beginning of the region’s Poolbeg Landscape Network pedestrian and cycle system.

Derek Quinlan

26%

41%

Becbay Ltd

33%

IRISH GLASS BOTTLE SITE

Purchased by Becbay Ltd. - a consortium of property developers and Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) in 2006 for €431 million, and valued in 2012 at just under €45 million (C&AG), the current IGB site is owned by NAMA - a governmental response to the financial crisis and associated property collapse.

500m

value of IGB land €0 2006

2012

This large and flat site becomes a mixed-used commercial + residential core, creating a vital link between Irishtown and the peninsula through a mixed-use village centre.

MIXED-USE CORE A contemporary urban development of mixed-use office space, retail space and living space remains in keeping with the DCC Development Plan 2011-2017: “to seek social, economic and physical development and/or rejuvenation of an area with mixed use, of which Z6 [employment & enterprise] would be the predominent use”.

ECOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION CENTRE Along with Dublin Bay’s North Bull Island Interpretive Centre (DCC) and Booterstown Marsh Bird Sanctuary (An Taisce), This new Ecological Centre will offer educational, research and interpretive resources for discovering more about the varied habitats of the peninsula region.

The restricted grasslands for brent geese and the Nature Park (right) become associated resources for the centre.

IRISHTOWN NATURE PARK

BIRD SANCTUARY

Offering a diverse range of walking and cycle trails, Irishtown Nature Park is Poolbeg Peninsula’s greatest environmental and ecological asset, and is also the area’s most popular landscape attraction.

Through the Winter, light-bellied Brent geese arrive to Dublin Bay from Arctic Canada (via Iceland).

As part of a new greater Dublin Bay coastal biodiversity framework, the Nature Park plays a crucial role in maintaining Dublin’s wide variety of coastal habitats for many birds, hedgerow animals, insects and plantlife. As such, it is a key point along the Poolbeg Landscape Network.

This 2-hectare reserve, maintained and managed

by DCC, remains a popular feeding habitat for the geese. Public access is not possible, though a new system of pathways allows for greater observation without disturbance.

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2/2

BIODIVERSITY INITIATIVES Encouraging the protection and sustainance of birdlife across the peninsula, this area of land is to become a bird- and plant-life sanctuary, within which the ESB silo will remain.

Plant habitats are encouraged to grow through ground treatment and protection orders.

COASTAL LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT Dublin’s diverse coastline is a rare feature for any capital city to have. Its maintainance and safeguarding is necessary to ensure its continued success as an active and protected biodiversity system.

As part of a greater network of coastal management, a public access way through and along the Poolbeg Landscape Network is developed, ensuring the safety of the coastal landscape and those environmental systems that continue to thrive along it.

BEACH ACCESS The peninsula’s beach areas were formed by the longterm dredging of the Liffey mouth (early 18th century) as an attempt to maintain a clear transport channel into the city quays.

Natural tidal and river flows, along with land engineering and reclamation works, have resulted in sandy beaches across areas of the city’s coast.

Access to existing beach areas is improved through surface renewal; signposts and wayfinding systems give visitors local information on orientation, water conditions and local flora.

THE SOUTH WALL

GREATER URBAN CYCLE NETWORK

Finished in the early 18th Century, the Dublin City Assembly built the original South Wall (then “The Piles”) of oak timbers, and was strengthened with granite stone by the late 18th Century. It has continued development over a phased period since then, resulting with both intentional and unplanned results.

A proposed expansion of Dublin City Council’s existing bicycle rental scheme sees the network of bikes rise from 55 to 300 stations across the city up to 2016 (DCC, 2011).

Dublin’s South Wall is now a public walkway, with many small fishing and observation areas along it, as well as a swimming club. Surfacing is improved here for bicycle and pedestrian use (main image, pg. 5), with improved information panels about the bay, its history and its continuing development.

END OF THE LINE Terminating the Liffey axis of Dublin, the South Bull lighthouse marks a point over 10 kilometres from the Phoenix Park, linking a series of public realm projects along its urban course. It aims to link the core of Dublin City with the coastline.

With an improved and prioritised cycle and pedestrian network across the Poolbeg Peninsula, DublinBikes poses itself as an ideal medium to improve public realm connections between the city and the coast.

New bicycle stations, as well as simple surface upgrades and signposting, bring one of the world’s most successful urban bike schemes to the Dublin coastline. @Poolbeg

The peninsula’s coastal walkway and cycle network - the Dublin Bay Way links the amenity space and science park at the Pigeon House with the end of the South Bull wall along a wide route, offering an engaging and diverse environment that contrasts with both the Landscape Network and the Heritage Trail.

0

Master Plan scale 1:10000

300m

URBAN PUBLIC REALM Improved access and surface condition at particular nodes and areas of special interest.

Bird reserve

PRIVATE REALM AND LIVING SPACE The provision of private outdoor space for those areas that are zoned for residential and commercial uses.

PRIVATE UTILITY SPACE Existing industrial land zoning, as outlined in City Council, Dublin Port and DDDA Master Plan schemes.

PUBLIC PARKLANDS AND GREENS Public green corridors and parklands that aim to create a cohesive green network across the peninsula.

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AREA Existing and newly-prioritised areas for habitat preservation and augmentation along the coastal landscape.

PIGEON HOUSE PLATFORM: 200m.

Re-establishing Dublin City’s connection with the bay and the Irish Sea, whilst also maintaining a strong urban core, is a continuing theme of this design proposal.

A 200-metre-high viewing platform is developed into the decommisioned yet standing Poolbeg chimney stacks, creating a visual link between the city and the sea at an iconic point on Dublin’s skyline.

At one end of the city stands the Guinness Storehouse SkyBar, at the other the Pigeon House Platform.

MASTER SITE PLAN As an overview of intended interventions across Poolbeg, the Master Site Plan aims to illustrate a design method that will inform future developments and guide growth across the peninsula. It is both an overview of general ideas, and a tool to inform further detailing in its urban design.

LAND USE ZONING The dynamic and mixed-use nature of Poolbeg creates a pattern of many land uses that are within immediate proximity to one another, offering a number of social, industrial and environmental benefits for the region as a whole. The balance of many of the peninsula’s different priorities and uses is crucial to developing a functional and usable place for all of those who will be using it.

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Coastal landscape management plan Poolbeg’s diverse coastal habitats provide Dublin City and Region with an opportunity to become a thriving capital city with a rich coastal ecology system. Its management and safeguarding, however, is vital in achieving this long-term goal for the area.

A network of greenways provides access for both us and the rich variety of flora and fauna of the area, along a network of developing coastal hedgerows.

Rock armour lines much of the coast, and this has intentionally been retained as a measure to limit access in certain densely planted areas, as well as to retain the sandy drainage channels that are exposed at low tide.

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topographical study (sectional perspective), using land data from contemporary digital mapping surveys.

1km

1:25000

Tern colonies reside through parts of the year on an industrial island mooring, and as such the site is protected from demolition. A new grasslands is encouraged to develop directly south of it, giving Poolbeg’s north fringe a biodiverse pocket of life, and an area of interset directly off shore from the Pigeon House complex development.

A newly-allocated bird reserve area is placed on land that currently surround a large ESB silo tank. Landscape screening also contributes to the environmental aesthetic of this part of the peninsula.

A conceptual framework of coastal management is designed to feed into existing inland green spaces at Ringsend and Irishtown, creating planted corridors that pierce different areas of the site.

Beaches formed at Poolbeg over one hundred years ago due to silting of the Bay. These beaches form part of a greater coastal dune system that is as habitat-rich as North Bull Island’s grassy dunes. Access must remain along established paths in vulnerable areas.

The edge condition of Irishtown Nature Park is of a rock-armour foreshore, providing a weather-proof barrier against stormy conditions. This will remain, although there will be stone walkway extensions that penetrate out into the sand at low tide, creating a low-impact intervention that is as dynamic and changing as the tide that covers and reveals it.

Study of integration between structure and landscape: from block planning to the complementing of built form and context. Concept development (isometric study, below), and [bottom] south elevation of structure.

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1:500

20m

Above: isometric studies of form Below: Elevation study of built environment in landscape

City to coast 0

1:200000

5km

Continuing the primary urban Existing scheme corridor through Dublin City, Existing expansion connecting the centre of the Proposed expansion Coastal focus capital with the coast, poses many difficult challenges. Using existing infrastructure projects that are proven successes in public transport and public realm in Dublin City centre, a coastal reconnection strategy is configured (left).

Existing tram and bicycle corridors are extended towards the coast through the heart of Poolbeg Peninsula, developing a phased network of routes that aim to connect particular sites of interest.

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As expressed in the region’s Draft Transport Strategy (2011-2030) the new Luas line is strategically planned to follow a route across the peninsula, as well as to service existing and proposed residential and mixeduse nodes at Ringsend and Poolbeg Village (see sectional perspective below).

1km

1:25000

Ringsend

Pigeon House Plaza

Bike parking facilities are strategically placed at nodes of converging activities.

Poolbeg Village

Irishtown Nature Park

Entrance points onto the peninsula are located at existing coastal bicycle and pedestrian routes.

Crossover points between Luas and bicycle networks are strategically located at public interest points and Luas stops.

The option of travelling all the way out into the centre of Dublin Bay by bicycle is posed by the surface improvements along the Dublin Bay Way cycle lanes.

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Pigeon House A large expanse of hard landscaping is proposed over the existing waste water treatment overow tanks to become an open plaza, as accomplished 200m.

4m.

high tide level : 0m

0m.

with great success at Riverbank State Park (NYC, 1993) and Sherbourne Park (Toronto, PFS Landscape Architects). This acts as a central space between the new Pigeon House Centre (right), office space to the south and improved commercial/industrial office space to the west.

The Pigeon House Complex is a celebration of Poolbeg’s maritime, military and industrial heritage through the centuries. From viking arrivals to the creation of Dublin Harbour, from British occupation of the site to 1976 when the ESB power generation station was decommissioned.

central axis

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0

100m

1:5000

Waste-to-Energy strategy 1. Early sketch development

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2. Height study - sectional elevation 3. Aerial perspective - spatial study

Designed by Danish firm Friis & Moltke Architects, the existing Waste-to-Energy plant proposal aims to minimise visual impact through the use of tilted facades and rounded corners, yet also to maintain a strong visual identity and a dynamic expression.

100m.

4. Exploded diagramatic perspective SNCR

5. Sectional form study

BOILER

CONTROL ROOM

TURBINE

WASTE BUNKER

2

SILENCER

FLUEG. COOL

SCRUBBER

FABRIC FILTER

CRANE 50 T

TURBINE COMPARTMENT

Existing proposal

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1

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With a structural height of 52 metres (and a chimney stack height of 100m), however, the visual impact of the design is quite significant.

It is examined here how some of the structure can be ‘pushed’ underground to house the majority of utility space within the facility’s shell.

SNCR

BOILER

CONTROL ROOM

TURBINE

SILENCER

FLUEG. COOL

CRANE 50 T

TURBINE COMPARTMENT

SCRUBBER

FABRIC FILTER

WASTE BUNKER

step 1

ROOFTOP ACCESS & SUDS The design of the sloped roof allows for the transformation of the incinerator into a green roof system, providing a node of interest along the public network of walkways, and an enhancement to the biodiversity corridors that thrive across the southern coast of the peninsula.

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The tilted facade concept of the original proposal remains; these are further accentuated so as to exploit the south-facing aspect of the site. This also begins to connect the surrounding landscape with the structure.

Utility space is decreased in size in light of the IMWA’s 2010 paper on the necessary capacities of the facility.

HOUSING FOR INDUSTRIAL FACILITY

Circulation into and around the plant facility is based on a cyclical system, aimed at reducing any congestion at entrance or exit onto public roads.

FABRIC FILTER

4

TURBINE

step 2

SILENCER

FLUEG. COOL

CRANE 50 T

TURBINE COMPARTMENT

WASTE BUNKER

Reflecting the ramped system of vehicular access in the initial proposal, the design solution (below) looks at ramps that allow vehicular access underground instead.

The chimney stack is strategically located away from the south-facing aspect,optimising the sloped roof space for public access and green space, as well as providing both passive and active solar benefits to the facility.

TECHNICAL COMPONENTS OF THERMAL TREATMENT FACILITY The interior details of the plant are reduced from the stated 600,000 tonne capacity to a substantially smaller size, based on market research conducted by SLR Consulting on behalf of the Irish Waste Management Association. Control facilities and silos remain, though a reconfiguration of the facility allows the chimney stack to be located away from the public domain.

BOILER

CONTROL ROOM

SNCR

BOILER FABRIC FILTER

CRANE 50 T

TURBINE COMPARTMENT WASTE BUNKER

5

TURBINE

FLUEG. COOL

SILENCER

INTEGRATED UNDERGROUND ROAD SYSTEM

SNCR

CONTROL ROOM

SCRUBBER

In keeping with the initial single-structure design concept for the facility (see right), a general utility space for the thermal plant is housed within an enclosure.

SCRUBBER

3

The integration of a sloped green space on top of the facility begins to incorporate two dynamic elements of the peninsula: public greenways and industrial space.

The form is a mould of interlinked parabolaids, creating a constantly curving surface, allowing for drainage.

Design solution

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The South Wall The River Liffey corridor offers Dublin City its finest opportunity to develop a cohesive urban structure of public place and space.

Particular areas along both the north and south quays of the river are already strong examples of what can be achieved, however this can be expanded upon to truly achieve a re-connection between Dublin City and Dublin Bay once more.

The integration of higher density planning, pedestrian and cycle prioritisation, and sustainable design on both local and regional scales will begin to achieve a balanced capital city for Dublin.

PHOENIX PARK

1

2

3

DUBLIN CITY

Dublin Bay COASTAL RECONNECTION

The Great South Wall - looking towards Dublin City

1.

DublinBikes along the Liffey quays - a successful public bicycle scheme

2.

Public space development - Seating, bicycle lanes and a green canopy

3.

“

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Dublin City is re-established along an axis that follows the River Liffey through its urban centre and out into Dublin Bay. This urban corridor is a celebration of the city’s heritage and successes, with a cohesive framework of public realm projects, strategic retail zones and public infrastructure projects linking off if it.

This axis progresses out towards Dublin Bay, where a regenerated Poolbeg Peninsula offers a dynamic mix of environmental assets, cultural attractions, public walkways and improved cycle corridors, whilst retaining its existing functions as a region utility hub for the County.

This greater framework gives the River Liffey and Dublin Bay a renewed purpose to the city, offering a legible, structured, vitalic and wholely unique perspective on Ireland’s capital and gateway city.

Poolbeg Peninsula, Dublin City

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Local Area Plan (LAP) & Masterplan Baldoyle, County Dublin Status: Institution: Type: Team: Level:

Local Area Plan, Masterplan Mitchell + Associates Urban Design Mick McDonagh, Patrick Clear, Design consultancy - Multi-disciplinary design

Date:

Winter 2012

As part of a continuing spatial strategy of settlement and zoning across Fingal in north County Dublin, Mitchell + Associates offered a crucial consultancy and design role in the development of a Local Area Plan at Baldoyle.

Central to this urban design scheme was the development of a Master Site Plan for the greater area, from which a series of detailed studies and analytical projects developed, ranging from housing to parklands, from sustainable drainage schemes to wider transport networks.

Below, left: Site context - north of Dublin City centre, along Ireland’s east coast.

Below, centre: Masterplan graphic development.

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An identification of constraints and opportunities, both local and regional, inform design options and eventually formed the final product for publication.

Scale, density, character, circulation and context were among the many varied considerations and constraints that informed the final plan. Working from previous architectural studies conducted in 2004, it was observed how much change the site had undergone in less than a decade - illustrating the dynamic nature of an urban area under increasing settlement strains.

BALDOYLE - STAPOLIN

The Draft Local Area Plan is available through Fingal County Council and online - including scan code for direct download.

Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall Fingal County Council

Draft Local Area Plan February 2013

BALDOYLE-STAPOLIN DRAFT LOCAL AREA PL AN 5.8.1 Green Routes (Boulevards) - Stapolin Avenue and Ireland’s Eye Avenue The Green Routes are the two avenues, the width of which is broader than the primary routes, accommodating a central zone which is used as a linear, planted public open space with pedestrian and cycle routes connecting the major public open spaces. The central ‘green’ zone allows for casual passive use, assists in sustainable drainage and acts as linear green lungs through the development. Where these routes cross other routes, pedestrians and cyclists on the central reservations should have priority. In line with the overall aim of the LAP to discourage car dependence parts of the Boulevards have no vehicular access. For the remainder, vehicle movement is in segregated lanes either side of a central pedestrian route and cycleway.

Development along these routes will be in the form of medium scale residential buildings. Selective and sparing marking of corners at major intersections, through the use of distinctive buildings, will create punctuation nodes which will serve to make the network navigable and logical (Figure 5.28 and also Section 4D, Figure 4D.2).

Figure 5.6 Section through Ireland’s Eye Avenue

Building face to face distance (Route width) General traffic lanes Median strip

Guide

Figure 5.7 Junction details of Stapolin Avenue & Red Arches Road

39 – 47 metres 4 metre wide one-way carriageway either side of the green corridor 10- 16 metre wide green tree-lined corridor incorporating bio-swale elements

Footpath

2.5 metres wide

Footpath Edge: Boundary Treatment

Building line 2.5m behind footpath Boundary hedging behind dwarf wall or other aesthetically appropriate treatment along entire corridor length

Materials

Roads – tarmac; Footpaths 300 x 300 paving slabs

Traffic-calming measures

Speed tables or other as agreed at selected junctions

Car parking

Parallel parking or chevron parking where space allows

Tree planting

Minimum every 10 metres within the parking zone

Building Typology

Residential

Building Height

Generally 3 storeys with possible 4 storey elements at punctuation nodes

Ireland’s

Eye Avenue

Road

olin

Aven

ue

Red Arches

Stap

Below: Schematic section of housing unit towards the Dublin Area Rapid Transit train line (DART) - a study of mixed zoning and transport infrastructure in close proximity.

SECTION 5 Parameter

Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall Fingal County Council

P lan n i n g & Str ateg i c Infrastructure Department

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University Campus Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) Status: Institutions: Type: Team: Level:

International Design Competition University College Dublin, Technical University Berlin Landscape Architecture, Urban Design Colm O’Sullivan, Chris Hayes, Shane McCarthy Under-graduate

Date:

October 2010 - January 2011

Undertaken as part of a three-month studio module, this programme was conducted as part of the International Schinkel Competition (2010/11), focussing particularly on the discipline of Landscape Architecture. Submitted in January 2011, it was the result of a fourperson design team effort.

The Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin - TU Berlin) is located across numerous sites in the city, although its core campus spans one of the city’s primary arterial routes: Straße des 17. Juni (below). The University accomodates over 25,000 students, with over 50 subject courses being taught. Much of this campus sits on one bank of the Landwehr Canal.

The brief for the project was to propose a campus enhancement and improvement scheme through the medium of landscape architecture: our team proposed a system of unifying hard and soft elements that spanned the busy road interchanges across the campus area, creating a hierarchy of spaces and routes that prioritise student movement and public access to those transport hubs and natural amenities in the site’s immediate context.

The project was an encouraging exercise in regional planning, campus landscape architecture, strict deadlines, intense team work in a multi-disciplinary field, and international contact between client and team.

Regional context

Berlin City Population: 3,520,061 (2012)

Berlin

Density: 3,900 / km² Elevation: 34m.

Düsseldorf

River Settlement: River Spree Largest parkland: Großer Tiergarten Climate: Temperate oceanic

0

1:20000

100m

Munich

25

26

Site analysis 0

1km

1:25000

1940

1953

1989

2001

Historic mapping studies indicate a fragmented condition across the site and its immediate context (above). In war-time Berlin, the block structure was dense and compact, whereas the post-war condition indicates large-scale destruction (1953). Towards the end of the twentieth century, however, much of the urban density was rebuilt, though in a mixed grain of large blocks and small structures. This is the existing condition of TU Berlin campus today (above, far right).

Further mapping studies are illustrated below (1, 2, 3, 5). During the design team’s site visit it was seen how transport lanes - cars, bicycles, pedestrians, buses were divided by excessive parking areas along the Straße des 17. Juni (image 4, below).

3

1

2

4

5

1.

Berlin Stadtplan, 1926 Berlin maps archives

2.

TU Berlin 1946

Berlin maps archives

3.

Pedestrian & roadway division

Hauptgebaude, TU Berlin, 2011

4.

Luftbildplan 1953

Berlin maps archives

5.

Luftbildplan 1943

photomontage by Bart O’Doherty

Concept development Access through and across the university campus was difficult, due in part to the prioritisation of private transport road users over those who desired to walk or cycle in the area (see image, bottom). Public transport nodes were not feasibly orientated towards the thousands of students who used the bus and rail services daily in the area.

With these existing site characteristics in mind, it was established how to create a cohesive system of links and spaces across campus, which developed from a generally abstract form (below, 1), towards a spatially true form (Concept development 3). Focus across the campus is given to new library facilities, the canal bank walk area and the numerous transport nodes that are located around the campus perimeter.

Concept development 1

Concept development 2

Concept development 3

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0

1:2500

Master Site Plan

100m

Campus Master Plan 1:2500

The resulting Master Site Plan for the campus was produced originally at 1:500, over a page that measured 2000mm x 1500mm. To the left is a reproduction of part at 1:2500, showing the general urban form across campus: how the road issue is overcome using pedestrian crossings that ‘stitch’ the two sides of campus back together across this busy urban divide.

A similar approach is taken at key areas within the campus, where a ‘stitching’ mechanism is adopted (above) to create a merging zone between two areas that are currently disconnected.

Central to the design’s intervention is to bring a renewed focus to the Landwehr Canal bank, described through a new walkway (below) that takes the pedestrian through dense planting and out towards the water’s edge, creating a diverse experience along the routes as they progress through the campus.

Photomontage: Colm O’Sullivan

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Technische Universität Berlin Throughout the project’s development and completion, a campus model was created (far right).

Though time-consuming in its development, this proved a worthy tool to trial and test spatial design concepts: it was central to developing key nodes around the campus network, such as the library area and the canal walkway.

The spatial relationship between the campus and the canal is further examined through elevation (below): illustrating important proportions between public space and natural amenity in the campus area.

This design project was a worthy investment of time and effort from the whole team involved, and remains as vital experience in competing at an international level within a landscape architecture competition. The experience of deadline-driven team-work in an environment that demands a heavy workload has remained crucial to further projects completed in both an academic and professional context.

Below: A diverse range of thresholds is evident across many of the campus perimeters, where pedestrian friendly space is mixed with industrial and heavily commercialised areas. The design proposal aims to exploit these features to the benefit of both the university and those who pass through it along the greater urban corridor of the city.

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Above: A scale model was developed within studio, allowing the design team to gain a greater spatial understanding of the campus layout and structure, and campus scale in relation to its context.

Below: Elevation [1:250] of campus edge condition beside the Landwehr Canal that runs through Berlin. An effort is made to reconnect the university with the water’s edge once more, as it appears to have neglected this unique and beautiful urban feature.

0

1:250

10m

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Dublin City Step Energy Installation Proposal, Dublin City centre Status: Institution: Type: Team:

Design competition [concept design stage] Dublin City Council, Ace Energy, Codema Landscape architecture Chris Hayes, Paddy Clear

Date:

November 2012 - January 2013

This concept design competition, held

by Dublin City Council (DCC) in late 2012, was part of a design initiative held

by Pivot Dublin, Ace Energy, DCC and Codema Dublin. As leader of the design team, I was to organise and co-ordinate the project submssion sheets under strict competition deadlines.

Although our team was from a background in landscape architecture, we each had specialist areas in sustainable and green infrastructure, urban design and planning. It was completed and submitted over a short period, and aimed to outline a design idea that could then be taken forward into detailing at the next stage of competition. Site visits and team meetings were conducted throughout.

Below: Development of our concept - creating a visual dialogue across Dublin City through both pedestrian activity and existing infrastructure.

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Above: Project Blinkenlights (Germany) - a spectacular light show bluebox.blinkenarea.org

Dublin City Step aims to harness pedestrian energy that is generated along existing corridors in the city centre - corridors that exhibit trends in heavy pedestrian footfall and activity (left). From this piezoelectric energy generated through passive pedestrian activity, a demonstration of this energy through a contemporary public lighting installation will deliver a message across the city centre, abstracting the available data of its supply of (and demand for) energy through a series of “equaliser” visualisations using colours and movement to capture the attention and imagination of those who see it.

Liberty Hall - one of the Dublin skyline’s tallest and most recognisable features - presents an opportunity to exhibit the eventual data, using a system of lowdemand window lighting features across its gridded panels of glass, an idea inspired by Germany’s Project Blinkenlights (2001, above).

0

1:1000

50m

Elevation: Paddy Clear

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Dublin City Step

section pavement installation @ 1:20

90mm

Above: Sectional diagram @ 1:50 illustrating scale of installation on ground.

Harnessing the passive energy generation of those who walk across O’Connell Bridge presents a difficult and ambitious challenge. Using a clustered grid of piezoelectric ground panels across the existing bitmac surface, the kinetic energy of the footfall is stored across a greater grid of electricity (or into an isolated battery system), and extracted at a time that requires it: when the equaliser light-show is exhibited at the end of every month.

The pressing action generates only a small amount of energy that can be stored, but through careful calculation it was examined how enough can be generated across the site to generate an autonomous and spectacular light show.

Due to the busy nature of activity across the bridge at peak times, a proposed widening of its pedestrian corridor begins to extend the busy commercial axis across the River Liffey that connects O’Connell Street in the north towards Grafton Street in the south. In this regard, the space immediately becomes a strategic part of a wider urban design initiative along the Liffey quays and O’Connell Street - creating a continuity of design and hierarchy for pedestrian movement through the city.

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With the energy generated by those who travel across O’Connell Bridge daily, this project harnesses that kinetic footfall and translates it into a spectacular display of energy on a monthly basis, exhibiting an abstraction of data that has been recorded into the entire Step system. This approach harnesses the Liffey corridor that runs between the bridge and the tower, creating a cohesion and purpose to a revitalised urban axis.

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Spatial Reconciliation North Belfast, Northern Ireland Status: Institution: Type: Team: Level:

Inter-disciplinary design module Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Urban Design part group work: Gary Magee, Lyndsey Boyd, Kenny McPartland, Lauren Conaghan Post-graduate (QUB)

Date:

March - May 2012

As part of a multi-disciplinary module at Queen’s University, this research and design project was developed through spatial data collection and analysis, community meetings and interim presentations to colleagues, professionals and local community representatives.

It contributed to the first stage of a three-year programme funded

by Peace III, granted through local authorities and Queen’s University.

Right: North inner city Belfast, seen in the context of the wider urban settlement of the city (1:150,000).

North Belfast:

5 x 5km: see aerial photograph opposite.

Below: Cupar Way in north-east Belfast is just one of many areas that remains spatially and socially divided through “Peace walls” - an interface mechanism that aims to separate communities in conflict.

0

1:150000

10km

Urban context

Located on the northern border of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It represents 30% of the population of the island of Ireland.

Northern Ireland Population: 1,810,863 (2011) Density: 181 / km² Area: 13,843km²

Derry

Belfast Armagh

Belfast City Population: 281,000 (2011) Density: 2,415 / km² Elevation: ~5m.

River Settlement: River Lagan Climate: Temperate 0

1:10000

50m

37

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Approach and methodology Belfast has, in recent terms, suffered from heavy socio-economic stagnation resulting in high social deprivation levels across the wider region of the capital’s northern suburbs. The patchwork nature of these highly segregated communities in North Belfast has ultimately contributed to its socio-economic decline, creating a distorted land market and providing duplication of everyday amenities.

Moreover, recent urban regeneration projects in the city have subsequently by-passed the area, serving to further fragment and marginalise North Belfast and its populace. Such urban regeneration projects have served to further accentuate the division of North Belfast from the remainder of the city, a process which began in the 1970s through the creation of the M2 motorway and consequently the Westlink.

Within North Belfast, however, recent crosscommunity initiatives have utilised key public facilities to act as a mediator, establishing greater interaction between the predominant Catholic and Protestant communities.

The overarching vision of this project is to utilise public facilities to further reduce contestation in North Belfast and to contribute to the regeneration of an area which has long been subject to socio-economic deprivation.

Data from the Northern Ireland Statistics Research Agency (NISRA) was analysed to ensure a comprehensive appraisal of the study area had been conducted. Such quantitative data was used to supplement qualitative data obtained through community group interviews, desk-top analysis and literature reviews.

This project (reduced to a summarised version for portfolio publication) is the first stage of a three year programme funded by PEACE III, contributing to their research project ‘Planning for Spatial Reconciliation’.

This project, therefore, endeavours to provide research findings, cultivating in a preliminary concept proposal for North Belfast. It is envisaged that this will serve as a foundation for continued research and design into 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Analysis 1

3

4

2

Protestant population 1. spatial data mapping NISRA, 2011

Multiple Deprivation Index 2. spatial data mapping NISRA, 2011

Facility and amenity 3 mapping Group exercise

North Belfast ward 4. boundaries Belfast City Council, 2011

parklands and gree spaces

retail core

Large areas of north Belfast remains spatially and socially fragmented: divisive walls that were erected in an effort to seperate neighbourhoods act as barriers to the greater development and progress of a city that has otherwise managed to come a long way from its dark past.

Existing community facilities and spaces are examined through mapping and site visits, and layered analysis is conducted to gain a thorough insight into current urban structure.

Above: Aerial photograph over Belfast City, towards the north.

leisure and sports

layered mapping scheme

Left: Layering the numerous levels of information on North Belfast’s existing public facilites over settlement, transportation and urban development information.

Below: Three arterial routes - the Shore Road, the Antrim Road and the Crumlin Road - act as both transitional space and divisive barrier through many neighbourhoods, which are categorised by religion (far left, top), and social deprivation level (far left, bottom).

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1:50000

500m

39

40

Design proposal Through analysis and in-depth community consultation on topics surrounding public facility provision and parkland availability in North Belfast, it was found that Girdwood preesnted an opportunity to create the foundations for a communal leisure facility in the region. Aimed at integrating many of the fragmented sites in the locality, the plan for Girdwood aims to integrate connection routes through the many areas that currently pose a cul-desac (or dead end) environment. Residents of these social interfaces have been by-passed by recent economic developments towards the centre of the city and in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

The Crumlin Road Gaol has played a pivotal role in the history of Belfast and The Troubles, and it remains an object steeped with memories. It is for this reason that the development of a museum in the gaol could

0

1:200000

5km

Above: Existing condition of the Girdwood site.

Right: The same perspective aerial view of Girdwood with a general design proposal, involving greater access routes, improved facilities and spaces to go to - not just pass through.

cause a great deal of controversy and risk inducing bitter memories. For these reasons it is proposed that the Crumlin Road Gaol could be utilised as an area for business groups, community groups and a local government body (PRONI, for example, almost claimed the property in 2009, but were offered a new development site in Titanic Quarter, which they later opted for).

The concept proposal aims to strategically shape a series of activity areas, routes and permeable spaces, creating new spatial connections within and around existing communities. It is essential that the site is accessible to all communities in close proximity to the site; this has been achieved by developing access points to the site from pivotal points at Crumlin Road, Clifton Park Avenue and the Antrim Road.

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Opportunities are presented by the lengths of wastelands, abandonned grasslands and empty spaces next to existing wall boundaries. Within the greater strategic response to Girdwood, a scheme is devised that consists of a path network, which mimicks the many lines that had once marked community division.

Now these lines can be developed into spaces of community interaction and amenity provision.

Simple paving areas create a high-quality public realm that offer new routes through Girdwood and out into the surround urban landscape. The removal of boundaries and barriers begins to create a new permeable landscape that feeds into city.

During their implementation, the Peace Paths scheme encourages the phased removal of social boundaries, the walls then begin the replicate these (left).

Above: Digitally re-worked perspective to visualise new pedestrian corridors through North Belfast (for community group presentation).

Left: Concept diagram development to illustrate phased removal of barriers between communities.

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Rural Housing Design County Antrim, Northern Ireland Status: Institution: Type: Level:

Individual research and design project Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Planning and design Post-graduate

Date:

April 2012

As part of a post-graduate design module on Rural Development in Northern Ireland, this project aims to illustrate those policies and design issues that were part of an initial desktop research stage. Much of this research was based on Planning Policy Statement 21 (PPS 21): Sustainable Development in the Countryside.

“

Sustainable Development in the Countryside

June 2010

Above (left): Planning Policy Statement 21 (DoE NI, 2010) Above (right): Building on Tradition - Guidance on PPS21 DoE NI, 2010) Below: Panorama of development site, County Antrim.

“

Numerous site visits were conducted to the site, which sits on the north fringe of Randalstown village in County Antrim.

These visits, which consisted of local consultation, photo documentation, sketch analysis and landscape assessment, were then translated into a design scheme that would adhere to those relevent planning and development regulations, providing a sustainable solution to a site that was found to be in a state of severe disrepair and neglect.

Planning Policy Statement 21

The preservation and enhancement of the historic environment is about understanding original aspects of the building.

Building on Tradition (3.2.0) (Supplementary Planning Guidance for PPS21) Department of the Environment, 2011

Regional context Located on the north shore of Lough Neagh, the River Main Valley is in the south-west of rural County Antrim and located along the corridor that connects Northern Ireland’s two largest cities: Belfast and Derry.

PPS21 aims to address planning legislation for development in the countryside. Introduced by the Department of the Environment in June 2010, PPS21 remains a critical part of Northern Irish planning policy, looking to improve the sustainability of rural development across ‘all areas of Northern Ireland’s countryside’ (DoE, 2010: 3).

Supplementary planning advice is offered by the Northern Irish Department of Environment through ‘Building in Tradition’ (left): seeking to address “current trends in relation to poor standards of design that if left unchanged will gradually erode what is valued and considered special about [the Northern Irish] environment”.

The site of study is examined as part of the greater River Main Valley Landscape Character Area (see below, centre), as prescribed by the Northern Irish Environmental Agency (NIEA, 2007).

Left: Building on Tradition, DoE, NI Below: Regional ite analysis and appraisal diagrams

KELLS

RIVER MAIN VALLEY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER AREA RANDALSTOWN

Lough Neagh

*Landscape Character Area designation, conducted by NIEA, November 2006

ANTRIM

1%

the amount of woodland cover in the River Main Valley*

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44

Analysis and appraisal

1840

1910

1950

2012

74

%

of land cover in the River Main Valley is classified as Grasslands.

*Landscape Character Area designation, conducted by NIEA, November 2006

Above: Historic mapping studies examine the progressive clustered housing settlement at the primary junction of study (Source: OSNI) Below: Ordnance Survey 6� (2nd Edition), 1831 - 1904 (Source: OSNI) Field and hedgerow division across site.

boundary hedges (see existing planting) “improved pasture� grasslands electricity pylon in centre of field The site of study is surrounded almost entirely by native species planting, containing a long stretch of pasture grasslands that gently slopes upwards towards the south (see topography of site, right).

All built settlement on site is located towards the north-west of the site, which is also the main point of entry into the site.

Some timber and wire fencing is found along the south-west boundary; besides this, all edges of the site are planted with mature species. One birch tree is found towards the centre of the site, as too is a timber electricity pylon.

0

1:1000

50m

cow shed, currently in use agricultural silo, currently in use gate entrance to field (1) corner house structures, currently abandonned gate entrance to field (2) 0

1:2000

100m

Master Plan Development Right: A series of progressive sketch concept plans, demonstrating the site’s orientation with regard to sunlight, topography and existing settlement.

91 %

percent of grasslands in River Main Valley that is classified as ‘improved pasture’* *of the 74% grassland cover in the landscape profile (NIEA, 2007) 68% is accounted as ‘improved pasture’.

The landscape of the River Main Valley is characterised by its vast stretches of agricultural grasslands, which are divided and subdivided into plots by the linear stretches of hedgerows.

0

1:1000

50m

Both of these elements play crucial cultural and envrionmental roles in the greater landscape; their retention and protection in this project are a fundamental part of incorporating the development into its greater landscape.

Above: An examination of landscape topography developed into a scheme of linear planting to strengthen the edge condition of the land, whilst also maintaining a strong southern aspect - exploiting sunlight and regional landscape views to best effect.

Agricultural and living spaces are retained and in many areas strengthened, creating a more defined and cohesive cluster settlement in the north-west area of the site.

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Structure Design

Above: Historic mapping studies examine the progressive clustered housing settlement at the primary junction of study (Source: OSNI) Below: Ordnance Survey 6” (2nd Edition), 1831 - 1904 (Source: OSNI) Field and hedgerow division across site.

In establishing a design idea for the redevelopment of the buildings on site, orientation, planting, prevailing wind and visual connection to the landscape were just a number of key considerations in deciding how to best create a living and working environment (see diagramatic development, right [1], [2], [3]).

Current legislation (PPS21) encourages the re-use of existing buildings on site. Besides the preservation of Northern Ireland’s architectural heritage, this also allows development costs to remain relatively low, as materials are existing, and sourced close to the site.

0

1:400

20m

“

“

46

Re-using existing buildings, particularly where these are of local historic importance, is consistent with policy CTY3 - Replacement Dwellings, and central to CTY4 - Reuse and Conversion.*

*Building on Tradition (Supplementary Planning Guidance for PPS21) Department of the Environment, 2011

“

“

Site appraisal

The form of the farmstead is dictated by the scale and type of farming practiced, local climate and topography, as well as building materials available locally.*

*Building on Tradition, pg .34 “Farm Groupings” [2.7.1] (Supplementary Planning Guidance for PPS21) Department of the Environment, 2011

Final detailing drawings illustrate the proposal’s more complete finish. The entire complex of buildings aims to cater for both a working agricultural environment as well as a living space for the occupants.

Prioritisation is made towards using existing an building layout, and the modification of this towards the existing assets of the surrounding landscape (sunlight, topography, screen planting).

This project was an exercise in working in an unfamiliar environment outside of the more recognised discipline of Design. It was an encouraging design development process that placed emphasis on less familiar features (agricultural production, hedgerow maintenance), and brought about the challenge of large-scale rural site analysis as well as a detailed design develoment.

Left: Developing a three-dimensional digital model of the site and design proposals, highlighting relativity to access ways, road and agricultural facilities on the farm land.

Below: South elevation [facing north] of new housing proposal.

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Town Centre Planning Strategy Randalstown, County Antrim, Northern Ireland Status: Institution: Type: Team: Level:

Team research and design project Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Research, planning and design Pauline Morgan, Lauren Conaghan Post-graduate

Date:

March 2012

An examination of town development in Northern Ireland, taking Randalstown as study and design subject. This project, based both on a team and individual submission, was aimed at an initial analysis and spatial assessment of Randalstown (both from a regional and local perspective), and a general design strategy for the town centre.

Through many site visits, a concise analysis of existing condition drew together an initial presentation to University representatives (early March 2012). Beyond this, a further detailed proposal was presented to Antrim Borough Council representatives, local stakeholders and other interested parties. It aimed to provide a wholistic approach to town planning and stakeholder involvement through urban design initiatives at both a team and individual level.

Randalstown

Belfast

Above: Randalstown, located on the north shore of Lough Neagh, County Antrim.

Below: Arriving into Randalstown, admiring the River Main.

Regional context

1829

1857

Site analysis plans (left) examine how the structure of the town was developed around the natural features of the area: the dramatic contours of the landscape, dense forest areas and the River Main. The growth of Randalstown was based around an industrial core that exploited the river as an energy supply.

The dense patches of dark in the nineteenth century plans represent clusters of industrial activity where Randalstown once produced famous linens. Today, these industrial areas lie derelict on the banks of the river, and much of the town development has grown further away from this natural artery through the town centre (see 2012 plan, left).

1873

Today, the town centre is a complex series of access roads and difficult junctions that provide little orientation or attraction for the area. The town centre has become a corridor for road traffic rather than a destination for locals or tourists.

1894

1901

There were few active areas within the town centre: one poorly constructed playground was hidden behind a recently developed block, and pedestrian pathways appeared to lead only towards the peripheral estates of the town. There were few areas to cycle or even park a bicycle. These all informed a design development scheme for the town centre.

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1 Town centre active street frontage 1.

Observed nodes and connections 2.

Conservation area designation (+40 individual 3. structures highlighted as protected)

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Town centre strategy

Above: Town centre zoning strategy for Randalstown.

Below: Much design work was conducted through eye-level adaptations of observations taken on site visit to the town centre and its surrounds.

Town centre strategy A relatively simple reconfiguration of the town centre area aims to prioritise pedestrian footfall across an area that currently exists as an expanse of hardsurface parking (see opposite page). This parking system is removed from the centre and relocated at more strategic commercial areas, where people would require parking to do shopping.

A network of pedestrian avenues are proposed, with a system of paving and way-finiding to orientate visitors and locals through the revitalised town centre.

Finally, a network of natural amenity pathways are integrated with the River Main, the existing footbridge and the surrounding forest areas. These new routes (see below) are integrated with the town centre cycle prioritisation network.

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Urban Regeneration Strategy Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8 Status: Institution: Type: Level:

Semester one research & design (M.Sc) Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Research, urban design, photography Post-graduate

Date:

December 2011

In an urban region that is celebrated for its industrial heritage, many neighbourhood areas around Guinness’s St. James’s Gate suffer from limited access, poor public space, few amenities and limited transport availability. Bridgefoot Street is the focus of this design strategy, aiming to provide a solution to an area that is avoided and neglected by a city that operates entirely around it rather than through it.

Figure ground plan

Above: Figure ground, building use and land use zoning (existing).

Below: Topographical study of site (existing condition).

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Active residential (street level)

Derelict space

Retail & Community (street level)

Industrial / commercial storage

Inactive/derelict (ground floor)

semi-private / private land

Industrial / office (ground floor)

enclosed community amenity space

Private storage / parking facility

public amenity space

Urban regeneration strategy Far left: Developing a spatial strategy for the site began to utilise an abstract approach of block form and void.

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Pedestrian movement is encouraged through the site from the Liffey quays, allowing a greater permeability into and around the site. The strategy aims to maximise existing features of local heritage, such as the conical brick chimney to the south-west, which becomes a central feature in the proposed Chimney Park. Pedestrian and cycle corridors link the quays to Thomas Street, providing a dynamic link between these two busy urban axes.

200m

An improved transport strategy for the area examines the proposed DublinBikes and DART line expansions - each of which focus on the Bridgefoot site as an option for development. These regional transport systems are explored below [1:1000], where the proposed DART Underground station connects with Bridgefoot Street along a regenerated urban plaza.

Semi-private / private land semi-private community space

South of this is the bicycle priority zone, including the DublinBikes expansion area. These interventions aim to make Bridgefoot Street a place to go rather than a place to avoid or simply pass through.

Private commercial / residential Private industrial National College of Art & Design 0

1:1000

Surroundling land use proposal 1.

Master Site Plan of interventions [1:5000] 2.

Detailed area Site Plan [1:1000] 3.

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Cathedral Quarter Belfast City, Northern Ireland Status: Institution: Type: Team: Level:

Semester one research & design (M.Sc) Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Urban design Gary Mackin, Johnathan Major, Emma Conwell, John Bronte Post-graduate

Date:

November 2011

A multi-disciplinary student group study on the potential for regenerating an urban quarter in the north inner city of Belfast (right). Cathedral Quarter is examined and visioned as the capital city’s cultural quarter - a thriving hub of cultural activities, nodes of entertainment, a social and economic hub for the greater Belfast region.

Particular issues surrounding access, structure, public space provision and building condition are approached; a resulting proposal for the area sees the Dunbar Link by-pass not as a barrier into the region, but a pedestrian space that spans the existing void and re-connects the Quarter to the Lagan River.

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Cathedral Quarter

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Urban analysis Through a series of regional urban analysis exercises, the area’s strengths and weakness begin to highlight themselves across each plan. Aside from the site’s immediate proximity to the city centre, there remains a lack of widely used access roads towards the site: the city has managed to develop a series of regional arterial routes that squeeze the site, bringing heavy traffic while pushing away much potential footfall.

Local institutions such as University of Ulster’s primary campus structure and some attractive retail and social areas (pubs, small shops) are the area’s biggest pulls - therefore these are highlighted as areas for exploiting further development around.

Furthermore, transport links are limited: though a rail line runs close to the site, there remains few station access routes to and from the area. Many derelict sites have become temporary parking zones, bringing down local land values.

St. Anne’s Cathedral is one of the area’s finest examples of the area’s once celebrated built heritage; the public spaces that surrounds it, however, is poorly maintained and does not provide for public congregation. This was another particular focus for the design group.

Below (from far left): Figure Ground Plan of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter; Building height analysis plan; Protected structures analysis plan; Ground floor use analysis plan; Protected structures analysis plan.

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Abstracting structure

A conceptual reconfiguration of access routes into and around the site was developed, aiming to maximise the regional strengths of the river front, the active city centre areas, the transport links and the public spaces.

This ring concept (right) aims to communicate to local stakeholders and interest groups the priorities for Belfast’s Cathdral Quarter: access into and around the area, providing a network that establishes both a vital connection to the city centre and a local route network around each of the sites within the Quarter.

Right: Concept development diagrams; Below: Applying concept and Figure Ground Plan across the site.

Below, right: Developing a re-zoning strategy for the Cathedral Quarter.

Strategy Links into the site of study from the east edge proved a difficult area of study for the group: the Dunbar Link road poses a massive barrier between the small and traditional access routes into Cathedral Quarter and the larger regional road networks that pass through the city. A sketch proposal was developed that allows pedestrian routes to permeate the site at strategic points that are located near areas of interest on the ring diagram (see opposite page).

This design aims to “push� many of the services that currently exist at eye level to an underground level, including Dunbar Link roadways which currently divide the area into inaccessible pedestrian zones.

Priority is therefore given to a public space network (see plan, bottom left).

Below: Concept crossing area at Dunbar Link; Bottom: Concept access routes within Cathedral Quarter; Bottom, left: Green spaces and acccess routes plan.

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Newtownsmith Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin Status: Institution: Type: Level:

B. Sc. design thesis University College Dublin, Ireland Landscape Architecture Under-graduate

Date:

February - May 2011

A coastal landscape proposal that developed from a research document submission on the historic development of public amenity spaces across Dublin Bay. Located to the south of Dublin City on Ireland’s east coast, Scotsman’s Bay stretches between the Forty Foot Swimming Place and Dun Laoghaire East Pier - Ireland’s most popular pedestrian route. Along it are some of the region’s most celebrated areas, buildings and amenities. Scotsman’s Bay, however, remains a spatially fragmented and under-utilised space.

This design scheme evolved from the concept of linking public space and landscape through the influences of music and rhythm: the structure of improvised music reflects the mixeduse structure of the Newtownsmith coast; this also influences the use of the coast as a performance area throughout much of the Spring and Summer, particularly during Dun Laoghaire’s Festival of World Cultures in late Summer. The design scheme aims to work at regional, local and detailed scales, and is a concept design proposal influenced by the love of music: jazz in particular.

Analysis and concept development A concept strategy is drawn up using a “stitching” mechanism between the inland developments, the coastal amenity areas and the seascape of Scotsman’s Bay. These are developed into a series of rhythms that progress along the coast, providing a musical device that creates a spatial cohesion between site and context.

As one progresses south from the Dun Laoghaire East Pier towards Sandycove Harbour, the pattern of rhythms - each a slightly individualised design dictates a sincopated pattern beneath the foot.

Below: Linear elements begin to “pull” seperate areas of the bay together, providing a low-impact intervention that offers a unique and recognisable feature across the region.

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Master Site Plan A series of proposed interventions along the coast of the bay are outlined in the Master Site Plan (below).

Both baths sites create strong beginning and ending points for the journey along the coast, where public bathing spaces and improved pedestrian corridors are combined with small retail areas that extend the commercial areas of Dun Laoghaire out along its celebrated coast. Towards its centre, the Master Site Plan proposes a tilted performace space, maximising both views of the bay as well as sunlight and drainage.

Though there is an intentional effort to bring a unique design to particular details of the plan, there remains a continuity of material and form across the site with what is seen today in the local town centre (right). A cohesion is achieved between site intervention and urban context.

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coastal amenity provision Existing surface conditions along much of Scotsman’s Bay do not provide for pedestrians to walk at sea level (left); surfaces are damaged and slippery - a dangerous environment for anyone hoping to go to the “seaside” in this area. Proposed re-surfacing studies examined how the coastal form has adopted many environmental assets such as microhabitats for birds and shellfish. Any major reform of coastal condition, therefore, must make adequate consideration for these environmental conditions, and not reshape the coast too dramatically.

Top: Existing lower promenade at Newtownsmith.

Left: Concept diagram of sloping performance space.

Bottom: Schematic section of performance space, allowing access from sides and back of area, and catering for large volumes of visitors.

Performance, music, drama and outdoor theatre are considered as part of the central feature for this design proposal, where a tilted slope of green is surrounded by steps that lead both up and down into the space. It is adaptable to stage performance (below), and is otherwise a south-east facing slope that alleviates the drainage issues of the existing grass area.

At its most central point, the stepped perimeter flattens out to allow wheelchair and buggy access.

It is a concept proposal to adapt the Newtownsmith Green into a regional attraction for outdoor concerts and performance.

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Planting details

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Due to maritime conditions of the area, many plants that are fully exposed can become vulnerable to the strong winds, heavy rain and high saliinity of the bay area.

Planting beds are placed along primary pedestrian routes (planting form is discussed - see page opposite). Particular tree pits are designed and outlined (right) so as to maximise available depth below ground in the area, and to outline root-barrier protection and irrigation. Continuing a planting scheme of Tilia and Acer species out from The People’s Park creates a visual and environmental cohesion between public spaces along the coast.

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Plant form 1

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Olea europaea 1. hardy olive tree

Lonicera nitida 2. “lemon beauty”

Hippophae rhamnoides 3.

Sea Buckthorn - foliage

Hippophae rhamnoides 4.

Sea Buckthorn - berry growth

Quercus ilex 5.

everygreen and hardy (castal) oak

Carex oshimensis 6.

“evergold” during the Summer

Olearea traversii 7. strong foliage

Cortaderia selloana 8. “gold band”

Luzua sylvatica 9. hoho tatra

Miscanthus sinensis 10. “morning light”

Carex oshimensis 11.

“evergold” during the Winter

Above: A palette of suggested planting is advised by a study of general form, combined with an appreciation of regional and maritime conditions; Left (below): Plant form study, aiming to create a soft landscape edge that is also a durable seating element.

Long planters are proposed along parts of the site to give accent to the length of the journey through it. There is also a playful suggestion towards the challenge of walking along the walls all the way from one end of Newtownsmith Green to the Forty Foot bathing place.

Within the planters are low and bushy grasses, providing year-round colour and form.

The positioning of planted areas aims to focus the viewer’s sight up from ground level to eye level.

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Drogheda Heritage Quarter, County Louth Status: Institution: Type: Team: Level:

Framework Plan (Draft publication) Mitchell + Associates Urban Design Feargus McGarvey, Louth Local Authorities Design consultancy

Date:

March - May 2013 D

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Urban Design Framework Plan

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c de ra ium mercatu

A Framework Strategy for Drogheda’s Heritage Quarter was developed in tandem with Shaffrey Associates Architects, Stephen Little Associates and Margaret Gowan. It aims to provide the three local authorities with a cohesive approach to retaining and developing upon the area’s celebrated architectural heritage, successful public spaces and unique streets within the town centre (see Heritage Area, right).

The final Draft Framework Plan is currently available for download online.

Map 6.5 Primary Urban Spatial Sequences

Map 6.3 Character Areas (ref Map 5.8 for full size map)

(ref pgs 10-13 full size maps)

Left: Location Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland; Right: Framework Plan Document extracts and samples from the design team;

Map 6.6 Views and Vistas

Map 6.4 ACA’s and Protected Structures

(ref Map 5.9 for full size map)

(ref Map 5.2 for full size map)

Below: Urban Design Framework Plan, published and available online:

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6.5.1 Scale Guidance for Drogheda’s Heritage Quarter In determining the appropriate scale of new development, or extensions to existing buildings, in the Heritage Quarter, the following considerations will apply: 1. Consideration of Character Areas (Maps 5.8 and 6.3): How does proposed development address, enhance and reinforce the prevailing character area in which it is located? Of particular note is the objective to maintain the distinctive height contrast between the areas Within the Walls - Town Centre and the adjacent Settled Residential Areas. By doing so, the line of the Medieval Walls can be appreciated and understood, thus supporting the objectives and policies of the Town Walls Conservation Plan.

2. Architectural Conservation Areas and Protected Structures (Maps 5.2 and 6.4): The Town Development Plan and the DAHG Guidelines on Protection of Architectural Heritage set out objectives to protect the character of protected structures and ACA’s. Development within these areas must take into consideration impact on these contexts.

3. Primary Urban Spatial Sequences (Map 6.5): These have already been identied in Chapter 2 as being of national importance due to their urban quality. The spatial quality can be disrupted by development being too large and too small in scale. Therefore new development should conform to the existing prevailing scale along these streets.

4. Views and Vistas (Maps 5.9 and 6.6): New development shall have regard to the strategic

Diagram 6.2 This diagram shows how localised increases in scale might be accommodated within the backlands areas, behind the primary urban spatial sequences. Note how development facilitates improved public realm/permeability

views and vistas identied in aforementioned maps.

Views to and from landmarks which relate to the strategic views should not be blocked or negatively affected by new development. Development should not adversely alter the character of strategic vistas.

5 Topography: Sections 6.7, 6.8 and 6.9 show the existing cross section, south-north, through three sample locations within the Heritage Quarter. These are provided by way of example only, and are useful in illustrating in an abstract manner, the topography of Drogheda and existing building scale and prole.

These cross sections can be used to assess the potential impacts - positive and negative - of new

development proposals, as shown in sections 6.9 and 6.10. These sections use the design scenarios which are described in section 6.7 of the Framework Plan. They show how larger scale development might be accommodated without adversely affecting the prevailing qualities and character this Framework Plan aims to protect and enhance. This approach, to insert development proposals into the larger urban cross section, can provide a useful planning tool to assess impact and should be a requirement for all new development in the Heritage Quarter. A longer term objective, however, should be to create a 3-D digital model of the Heritage Quarter which would then be used to assess proposals more accurately.

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Regional context

As part of the Framework Plan team, our role was primarily based around green space and street scape analysis, focusing on a general model and design standards to adhere to, across different areas of the town (see area illustrated above).

As our role was as Urban Landscape consultant to the Plan, and not as primary author, the final document contains a multi-disciplined approach to the design framework, contributed to by a number of professionals across many areas of design and study.

Drogheda Town, County Louth Population: 30,393 (2011 census) Elevation: 1 - 23m.

River Settlement: River Boyne Heritage Quarter boundary

Climate: Temperate

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Urban space analysis Right: Green Space analysis plan (Pg. 29 Urban Framework Plan) Bottom: The Bullring Junction (Pg. 79 Urban Framework Plan)

Urban space analysis Two key urban nodes are the focus for design attention across the Framework Plan: The Bullring Junction and St. Peter’s Square. Each offer different functions to the Heritage Quarter in terms of transport, access routes, amenity provision and commercial activity. These areas are examined through concept sketches, photo-montages and analytical plans.

Below: St. Peter’s Square plan, working sketch proposal

by Feargus McGarvey Bottom: St. Peter’s Square (Pg. 78 Urban Framework Plan)

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Planting Design Scheme Smurfit Kappa Estate, Dublin 4 Status: Institution: Type: Level:

Tender sumbission package Mitchell + Associates Planting design and specification Design consultancy

Date:

Summer 2013

The primary aim for this tender package was to propose a design that was to incorporate an existing planting scheme that had matured with a relatively younger planting scheme. As such, numerous constraints and challenges were encountered in combining a wide palette of plant species across the 25,000m² site.

The project offered important lessons in existing site context, site management, species selection, team co-ordination and strict deadlines.

Opposite page: Extracts from both site preparation and planting pages (Area B), with the full planting schedule above.

Below: 1:3000 Context Plan of site: Prepared for three site sheets (A, B and C), each originally at 1:200 at A1

Below: Final drawings package, produced across numerous page spaces in AutoCAD.

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1

2

1. Sheet extract

Preparation Plan B

2. Tender Stage preparations Preparation Plan B

3. Sheet extract

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Planting Plan B

4. Tender Stage Planting Plan Preparation Plan B

Right: Full Site Planting Schedule

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Photographic Study & Exhibition European Forum of Exchange, Namedy, Germany Status: Institution: Type: Level:

International student exchange and exhibition University College Dublin Photography Under-graduate

Date:

April 2009

As part of an international exchange of Creative Arts, Design and Science students, this event took place over ten days in three locations across western Germany: Namedy, Trier and Andernach. It was the third in an ongoing series of research groups that began in 2007; these have continued up until today. More is available at: www.cross-border-network.eu The theme for this event was Intercultural Places, and as such my photographic series examined the motion between place and time across Europe for each of the participants in the exchange.

Towards the end of the study and work period there was an exhibition of works, lengthy discussions and a symposium to re-establish the event in the context of the wider Cross Border studies and International Network of History and Arts.

Left: Event poster and branding for the European Forum for Exchange; veranstaltungstechnik

FĂ–RDERKREIS BURG NAMEDY e.V. KULTURSTIFTUNG SPARKASSE TRIER

Far left: Location Namedy Town, Germany.

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Above: We travelled by train across regions of central Europe that were unfamiliar and new to us; Right: A playful and literal study of travel and motion.

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Notebook Craft & design project Status: Type:

Project and gift Craft, graphic design

Date:

December 2012

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Personal project based around the design and construction of a simple paper notebook, decorated and protected with a reinforced fabric cover.

Detailed with pressure glue binding and a navy silk book mark, the hand-cut pages are of varying weights and qualities, giving each leaf a unique design. A series of construction graphics is presented (right) to provide both an individual brand to the notebook and also as an informative and methodical charette of its concept and construction.

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Photographic study Dun Laoghaire Baths, County Dublin Status: Institution: Type: Level:

Design study University College Dublin, Ireland Photography Under-graduate

Date:

January - February 2010

Undertaken as a project of both an academic requirement and a personal interest, this photographic series presents a derelict seaside baths facility that had once been one of Dublin’s most celebrated resorts.

It remains unused today, and has been the topic of local debate surrounding its worth, its cultural significance and its future. Entry is forbidden (almost); there are few signs of recent activity within the site.

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Portfolio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design