Dublin Landings

In conjunction with the construction of 4 blocks, a masterplan consisting of the treatment of public street, a section of Mayor St Upper, along the northern boundary of the site, Castleforbes Road to the east, an extension Northwards of the New City Street, bisecting a new significant space, configured as a local plaza and the realization of 2 residential courtyards.

Client
Oxley Holdings Ltd

Location
Dublin Docklands

Size
10,000 m2

Status
Phase I completed September 2018, remaining phases completing 2020

This square is conceived as a social space where there are many opportunities for residents to interact, arrange communal events or escape to a planted niche to read a book or spend time on social media.

In the hierarchy of spaces in this docklands quarter, we see this square as functioning in providing what can be said to be the pleasures of local informal contact, the journey en-route to the shops, informal contact between neighbours or work colleagues on a bench, or making a daily errand or break more enjoyable

Main Contractor
Walls

Architect
RKD

Structural Engineer
OCSC

The planting is predominantly ornamental grasses, categorised as either “tall upright” or “ loose and wispy” and with good wildlife values in the seed heads in winter.

The street consists of a series of edge planters, with varying sized pine trees guyed under the surface to the planter walls. These are then planted with lower materials, large native granite menhirs and rock to create a high degree of stylized natural elements along the street. Also, a change in paving treatment, emphasizing node and threshold, designed seating and trees, one in particular of landmark proportion, compliment the café spill out and provide the suite of essential elements that confer the notion of encouraging people to register and use the resource if passing by, to slow down and linger longer.

 

The plaza works as a key component of the masterplan’s urban strategy, occurring at the confluence of a number of pedestrian streets, it operates as a pause in a sequence of movement

An important development is the new square or plaza, located in the central nexus of the scheme and forming a modest, pedestrian priority space, with seating, lighting centered around a very large tree, and with the benefit of a café overlooking and elaborated building entrances, all generating pedestrian flow.

 

Bernard Seymour /
Managing Director
Bernard@bslarch.com

Arnaud Alatissiere /
Associate Landscape Architect
Arnaud@bslarch.com

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