RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Dublin (over €3,000,000)

A project where both client and architect deserve the highest praise. The scale and form of the building, its creation of external and internal space, its very quality, make a statement that is political and social as well as architectural.

Architects Comment
The challenge presented by the complex briefing for this project centred on the creation of a coherent ‘place’ as a focus for community life – living, working, meeting, healing, learning, buying, selling, entertaining, ‘just passing through’, etc.. – on a wasteland site between the Darndale and Belcamp estates in a loose suburban environment. The project attempts to create and foster a micro-urban nucleus between the adjacent estates. Inspired by the traditional elements of the urban composition, the buildings create a micro-urban environmental of ‘street,’ ‘square’ and ‘monument’.

The ‘street’ element is initiated by presenting a sculpted plane to the existing link road, articulated by formal response to the functions behind the plan and completed by the ‘monument’ element and the pivoting gates to the ‘square’.

The ‘square’ element is achieved by arranging all buildings to form a micro-urban ‘common’, protected by the presence of the ‘monument’ and shared by the presence of trees, seeded in the year that the construction of the Darndale/Belcamp estate was begun. The ‘square’ is situated on the site by means of the established lines of footfall between the estates – visiting schools, church, meetings, shops, friends and family.

The ‘monument’ element is achieved by drawing on the cultural values promoted by the project and giving form to these by means of abstract representation - the 'giant order’ of the entrance portico representing the community and the individual, the ‘mother and child’ window, etc…

Client Comment
The architectural competition for a village centre on a site adjacent to the existing community facilities in Darndale grew from a long period of consultation with the residents of the estates and several state agencies. The briefing provided for a complex integration of many functions within a coherent development. The design proposed was selected for its clear concept of placing each element of the scheme around a square or piazza with each building having its own "front door" entrance, as well as making a strong boundary to the outside "street". The coherence of the buildings is carried through to the interiors by repeating the articulation of the whole; the pattern of street, square and monument is carried through internally and each element of accommodation is given an individual identity within the whole.

The development was completed in 2001 in spite of the entry into liquidation of the main contractor and the centre currently operates successfully as a focus of activity within the communities. It has established a pattern for further development which it is hoped will have planning permission later this year.

Tony Duggan