PORTFOLIO
DAVID O’BRIEN, B.ARCH 0864052695 dave.obrien@live.ie
5TH YR: THESIS
THE CONFLICT OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE
DERRYARKIN FORESTRY CENTRE, NATIONAL DEBT FORGIVENESS PROGRAMME
This project seeks to critique the development of a willful community in an isolated context. The bog historically has combined myth with machine; it is part romantic Ireland of druids and ceremony and part invaluable natural resource. This project seeks to continue the story of the bog in such a manner, creating a narrative through which our recent national relationship with land value, wealth and debt can be critiqued, and through which the bog can continue to be a productive national resource. This backdrop is a device through which the creation of a voluntary community can be studied and the conflict of the individual and the collective in communal spaces can be explored. The architectural investigation into the creation of communal spaces, the manner in which they function and the design for balance between individual behaviour and collective needs is given the freedom to be grounded in Derryarkin Bog as a result of the provocative device that is a Programme for National Debt Acceleration.
Architecture exists in the relationship between Man and his constructed environment, arising naturally out of ones everyday experience. Anywhere there is construction, economy, agriculture, there exists architecture, mediating between man and nature. Recent history has seen architecture refined to a self referential discipline; as such architecture is judged purely as an object of architecture, i.e. as an aesthetic article. While this may seem perfectly reasonable, it fails to take into consideration the fact that architecture is a complex system that must be evaluated on a number of criteria that includes aesthetics, but that aesthetics is framed within a broad complex of ethical concerns, that also includes sociological, political, infrastructural and sustainable
Architecture is not an object; it exists in the relationship between object and subject as the event that creates objective and subjective experiences. To only analyse the objective elements of architecture is to miss out on a large portion of it’s value and importance.
The provision of spaces for intimate interaction as well as communal activity allow both spaces to compliment each other, allowing for spaces of collective bonding as well as individual expression. The balance of these spaces, and the manner in which the individuals take ownership of them depending on their inhabitation, allows for an architecture that is more democratic and engenders more citizenship than otherwise. This project seeks to be a case study in how people relate to public space, publicness and belonging to a collective. The variety in spatial experiences and in scales of inhabitation is intended to be a critique of the over simplification of our understanding of the value of public space and it’s design in the recent past.
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Site Maps
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Axonometric of Piles
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Building Plans
Green Contours Blue Water Course Black Train Line Yellow Selected Site Dotted View to Croghan Hill
This project seeks to place the individual in the context of a voluntary community in Derryarkin Bog. The location of the buildings and their orientation is designed to create a sense of immersion in the boglands as an environment. It is located along the existing rail network, with the complex overlooking large areas of stripped bog towards Croghan Hill. The buildings themselves are designed to offer variety in the manner in which they can be inhabited. When spaces are provided that allow for a sense of ownership to be engendered in an individual, this has the effect of also instilling a sense of responsibility and pride. Through the interweaving of spaces for the inhabitation by the individual, by the few, and by the many, this project forms a community with a natural sense of democracy and interconnectedness. The role of the individual is respected, while framing that as a participatory role within the collective.
This project evolved through many iterations to more convincingly arrive at a position which best expressed the role of the individual and the collective within the scheme. Tectonically, the timber structure consists of many additive pieces of standard timber sections, built in a simple and efficient manner.This reflects the role which an indicidual occupies in collectives. The simplicity of construction also ensures a simplicity of means, so this building is to be made out of modest, local materials used in an intelligent manner to create something which is expressive of the values which necessitated it’s existence: modesty,
pride, and compassion. The isolated nature of the boglands is an ideal location in which to investigate the architectural needs of the individual and the collective in a communal architecture, and the lessons learned can be easily applied to villages, towns, and cities all over Ireland. The recognition of the tension between the individual and the collective, and allowing these tensions to become design generators, has developed a communal architecture that engenders responsibility, compassion and pride in it’s users.
This project sought to confront a number of issues surrounding community, sustainability and the creation of public spaces, by providing a layer of spaces designed to respond to the multiplicities of communities existing in this part of Dublin. Moving from the very public and open front to the more private changing rooms and showers would provide a sense of connectedness with the diverse communities that is filtered through the building to give spaces purely for one of these communities at the end. Doing so allows for the building to engage with the site, and provide a community space for members from all over Dublin and its environs. In this building, through the creation of a public face distilling to a Community Service, a sense of responsibility would be instilled in the individuals using the service, meaning they would not be passive ‘eyes on the street’ but active citizens. This conflict between the individual and the collective leads to a greater definition of the publicness of the place and a greater sense of community within it.
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4 This project dealt with the conflict created when 17 people sleep in a room 8m x 5m for 4 nights. The hostel room is nominally ‘designed’ for 12 people, so matresses were put on the ground and personal space was removed. The project sought to create various strata of ownership with regrad to the spaces, to more comfortable deal with such compressed and unusual temporary living patterns
1. Workshop and Demos 2. Bike Shop 3. Changing and Showers 4. Storage
5TH YR: RESEARCH PROJECT 1
5TH YR: RESEARCH PROJECT 2
RE:CYCLE
THE WHITE TULIP, ROOM 102
GLENDINNING LANE, DUBLIN
A HOSTEL ROOM FOR 17 PEOPLE
View from Balcony
Axonometric
Axonometric
View towards Window
4TH YR
THE BIRDGE: APARTMENTS, SHOPPING AND TRANSPORT BROOMBRIDGE, CO. DUBLIN
The site present an unused pocket of green land adjacent to both a train line and a canal, situated to the south of Dublin Industrial Estate and North of Cabra. The siteas it currently exists forms a barrier between the area to the south and the canal, and divides the Industrial Estate from Broombridge Business Centre, which is an extension of the Estate south of the canal. With the Luas Line BXD’s Maintenance facilities proposed to be housed here, my initial reaction was to attempt to integrate the Luas, the Businesses present, the community and the canal through the creation of a transport hub, the introduction of retail to the site and the inhabitation of the site by residents, which would also help to blur the line between the Business Centre and the adjacent neighbourhood,
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2nd, 4th and 6th Storey Plans
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1 2 1 2
13 2nd Storey Plan
1st, 3rd and 5th Storey Plans
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1st Storey Plan
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1. Apartment Type A 2. Apartment Type B 3. Apartment Type C 4. Apartment Type D 5. General Storage 6. Recycling Area 7. Common Games Room 8. Common Television Area 9. Creche 10. Common Reading Room 11. Building Management Area 12. Supermarket Storage 13. Boxing Club 14. CIE/LUAS Offices 15. Post Office 16. Supermarket 17. Public meeting rooms for CIE/LUAS 18. Cafe 19. Ticketing Booth 20. Residential Car Parking 21. Plant Room 22. Public Park & Ride 23. Train Platforms 24. LUAS Platforms 25. LUAS Maintenance Facility
Sedum Roof: Sedum Planting in Growing Layer on Drainage Layer on Root Barrier on Damp Proof Membrane on Marine Grade Ply on 100mm x 220mm Timber Beams at 300mm cc on 200mm x 300mm Glulam Beams with 200mm Kingspan Kooltherm K8 Board on 2 x 12.5mm plasterboard to stop 75mm before the end of the Glulam beam Anodized Aluminium on Timber Upstand Red Cedar Batons, 80mm x 60mm @ 100mm cc with missing members as per drawings on Anodized Aluminium runners Anodized Aluminium Window Frames with Double Glazing
Red Cedar Handrail 240mm deep @ 1100mm FFL on 2 x 80mm x 60mm Red Cedar Batons
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Ground Floor Plan
Reclaimed Douglas Fir Floor Boards on 2 layers of 100mm x 220mm Timber Beams at 300mm cc offset by 150mm horizontally and vertically on 200mm x 300mm Glulam Beams with 200mm Kingspan Kooltherm K8 Board and 1 layer of Mass Loading Vinyl Flexible on 2 x 12.5mm plasterboard to stop 75mm before the end of the Glulam beam Fall on Balcony of 150mm to edge of Glulam structure beneath treated Fir boards to fall to weep holes
PAUL O’CALLAGHAN ARCHITECTS
RYAN HOUSE
2007, DRAWINGS COPYRIGHT OF POCArchitects, SHOWN WITH PERMISSION A typical suburban house was reorganised to create an extra bedroom downstairs and a new family space in a rear extension. The roof form of the extension was curved to catch the sun as it moved through the day. A double sided fireplace creates a barbecue area on the new patio for entertaining. A bespoke built in shelving system allows for a variety of storage and sitting solutions either side of the extension.
PAUL O’CALLAGHAN ARCHITECTS
ARCHERSTOWN HOUSE
2005, DRAWINGS COPYRIGHT OF POCArchitects, SHOWN WITH PERMISSION A number of protected structures in the County Laois countryside are refurbished with a contemporary intervention and connected by a simple sleeping block. The additions were carefully considered in terms of materiality, weight and proportion to ensure that the existing structures retain their visual importance and that the property takes advantage of the spectacular views over the countryside.
NELSON:ONEILL ARCHITECTS
DUNDRUM MEDICAL
2008, DRAWINGS COPYRIGHT OF NONA, SHOWN WITH PERMISSION A small protected workers cottage on Dunrum’s main street is extended to the rear to provide consultancy rooms for 5 consultants. The narrow plot and planning restrictions meant that the design of the staircase and tectonic resolution needed to be carefully designed to maximise the usable space for both the patients and medical professionals.
NELSON:ONEILL ARCHITECTS
DUNDRUM MEDICAL
2008, DRAWINGS COPYRIGHT OF NONA, SHOWN WITH PERMISSION
DAVID O’BRIEN
JACOBS HOUSE 2009
A reorganisation of the downstairs of a family home that has become underutilised upon the departure of the clients adult children. Converting the garage to a study and opening the kitchen into the dining room gives them more room for entertaining, while giving them a dedicated space for working from home, which currently gets done on the dining room table. Reorganising the utility room also moves the door to the back wall as opposed to the narrow side-passage.