I would like to thank the kind people I crossed paths with who put a roof over my head when I was caught in Dublin’s housing crisis.
“For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can’t come to know by hearsay.” — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge
Port Housing?
Residential estates around the site To reach the site, one would traverse through a transition of engineered port infrastructure to a paranoma of seaside nature or vice versa. Sandymount, Irishtown and Ringsend are low rise residential areas bordering the site. Dublin City Council has published a statement addressing their plans for the site, flood risk assessment and public transport strategy etc. The Fabrizia site is considered a medium flood risk zone and hence it is necessary to raise the first residential floor by at least 4.5m. The ‘Natural Environment’ section of the DDDA report on Context for Poolbeg, (2.39 – 2.42) notes that “despite its industrial character, the Poolbeg peninsula encompasses beach and foreshore areas of scrub and rough grassland as well as the Irishtown Nature Park, and Sandymount Strand.” Migratory birds, notably Brent Geese and Artic Tern, uses grasslands and brownfields around the site for roosting and grazing. Proposed topography levels for floor mitigation (Data from Dublin City Council)
Perimeter block
Void
Core Ground floor shops
Unit types Reduce and arrange
Corner unit Type A Studio (smaller) Studio Duplex
Green space
Communal space
Corridor
Shared gardens
Iteration 1 with brick cladding along corridor
The stepped terraces are community gardens where residents can collectively plant and garden and reap the fruits of their labour
Iteration 2 without brick cladding
Self sufficient port housing where residents can grow their own food. There is inspiration from the knowledge and momentum of the city and nature is always within reach