Intensifying Broombridge - Productive Suburban Land

Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban LandBrendan Feeney

Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land

We are part of the whole – we are not just

the whole. Our being here is really the most

transitory aspects of the planet. It is trees, it is

climate, it is the earth, the water, the rocks and

the landscape which is real. When we fail to

see ourselves belonging to and as part of that

we become unreal. It is so much easier just

to demolish and destroy it all, because it is in

the nature of man to go ahead and demolish

it, whereas, as far as I am concerned, it is our

duty to act as custodians for one of the most

remarkable landscapes.

Glenn Murcutt, Touch this Earth Lightly


CONTENTS

BEGINNINGS

Introduction

Thinking

A School of Thought

Project 1 : Linen Hall Annex, DIT

Critique

Project 2 : The Urban Organic Yard

Testing Ground: Selecting a suitable site

Understanding Broombridge

Investigation of Architecture & Groundwork

Programme

Critique

POSITION PAPER


THESIS

Prologue

Concept

Programme & Design

Critique 1

Developing the structure through making

Occupying the Scheme

Critique 2

Programming the landscape

Critique 3

Final Presentation

Conclusion

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

BEGINNINGS


INTRODUCTION

Under Tomorrow’s Sky was an exhibition that explored the possibilities of a

fictional future city.

Young (2012) states that ‘It is a city of extraordinary technology but at

first glance appears indistinguishable from nature. It is an artificial reef

that grows and decays and grows again as the city becomes a cyclic

ecosystem.’

Of the many images of this city of tomorrow, ‘Tomorrow’s World’ is the

most evocative. A new city of immersion is presented to the viewer, a fresh

urbanity where land and building environments cross-pollinate and the

edges are blurred between the natural landscape and the organic man-

made forms. Both a dense human population and a native topography and

vegetation are evident in this incredible land of the future. A visceral idea

of harmonic symbiosis is accomplished.


THINKING

THINKING THROUGH MAKING

In an early attempt to clarify the architectural position of

the thesis, an image based presentation was produced

without successfully clarifying a concise and collected

stance. It was felt that the strength of the oral presentation

should be represented in model form in so that new

thoughts and ideas might reveal themselves in the

process.

The models pictured are the end result of this study.

A second presentation was drafted up to focus upon

the educational aspiration of this thesis and to question

the qualities that define the realm of education within the

context of this thesis.

Already ideas were emerging about the landscape,

topography and engagement with local environment.

It was felt at this point in the process that education

occurred through two primary human instincts: those of

skill imitation and user-specific adaption.

This practice can also be understood as learning from and

reacting to the active environment around us.

interwoven topography and building the landscape as a natural framework for

guided learningcross-pollination of routes, ideas and people

opening and defining spatial edges situation as abstract foundation condensing the focus

the unknown horizon environment filtration creating space throun occupation


SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

imitation of man

adaptation to a specific situation

rethinking assembly rules

architecture adopting nature

Ecstacity by Nigel Coates - ‘A healthy city, or a city you want to be in, is always changing; it’s an organism’

Above:

Mountains Outside Mountains

Inside -by Johan van der Keuken

Framing, connecting and

understanding landscape

through human behaviour

‘We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment.’

John Dewey

Modelling the ideas of what it is that defines education, some traits of

active learning and transfer emerged much more apparent and coherent

than others. Two core fundamental elements of learning were strongly

identified through this process – those of imitation and adaptation.

It is argued here that the initial stage of all early learning is through the

process of imitation – copying the movements and methods of others. To

learn the basics of walking, talking, reading and writing is to learn how to

imitate. Early childhood is spent repeating and replicating words, sounds,

letters and movements in order to acquire these primary skills; the building

blocks of communication and a means to further learning.

In time, as acquired techniques are mastered and applied, an individual

begins to evaluate and question these methods within the context of their

needs and environment. This can sometimes result in altering aspects of

a method and adapting the approach to best suit their requirements. This

allows for the growth, development and possible abandonment of the

practices that have gone before.

These dual aspects of learning are most evident in any curriculum applied

in the natural environment. Engaging with and learning from others and

our surroundings is the foundation of man’s schooling and the cornerstone

from which all further learning emerges.

The education framework that defines this thesis is based on the idea that

through engagement with our land and neighbours, we can collectively

teach and learn from one another, improve our wellbeing via connection

with the environment and through shaping and maintaining the land we

can reap the rewards of self actualisation and fulfilment.

PROJECT 1

LINEN HALL ANNEX, DIT


Concept

Following the initial school of thought process, the proposed annex

was conceived of as a new platform to engage with a man-made

landscape in the dense urban environment of the city.

The new structure was conceived of as bridging device, a new

element that would bring together the natural and the built

environments. This new unifying element was intended to fuse

both the identities of the School of Architecture and the School of

Construction within the existing building and merge both into a

single identity that hinged around the annex.

The project was envisioned as a new circulatory spine that would

feed into various social and terraced landscapes on each of the

floors. The structure was devised as a series of tiered verandas that

could produce and supply food to the restaurant and cafés within

both the Linen Hall and the Bolton Street buildings of DIT.

Site Plan NTS

Cap

el S

t

Bolto

n S

t


Site Location

Early 3D of Courtyard and Annex


Ground Floor_not to scale

First Floor_not to scale

Second Floor_not to scale

Third Floor_not to scale


Section a-a_not to scale

Annex Circulation SpineProposed Door Handle Detail_not to scale


Final 3D of Proposed Courtyard and Annex

Proposed Roof Allotments


Photos of model demonstrating the internal circulation core and terraced internal social zones

and external landscaped zones


Thesis:

a creation of an artificial landscape, bringing a natural environment into the

consciousness of the inner city, integrating building and topography and

growing food at source.

Antithesis:

- Is there enough for the apple trees in the courtyard? The stairs are nice

but not a testing point for your idea.

- You seem to want to make a new typology. Be careful as guerrilla

gardening can get dismissed as greening without a strong architecture.

- After the wall fell in Berlin, lots of squatted land became farms and places

of education. This happened in unused places of the city, where land was

not in commercial demand.

- Green city projects seem flabby because they ignore pressures inherent

in the city. There are two ideas in the project but they are disconnected.

- The architecture doesn’t back up the idea of the allotments on the roof.

The circulation should allow the two routes to happen – the students and

gardeners. You shouldn’t have to go inside to get to the allotments. The

architecture should support both environments.

Synthesis:

The focus shifts to one concerned with investigating the ground and

education outside the commercial demands of the urban city core.

How can the ground be maniplated archtecturally?

The critique left many questions to be answered about how architecture

can challenge the land strategy of the modern day city. How can a

building adopt an attitude to the ground, what form can this take and what

location is suitable for such a building within the urban grid?3D Render of Annex

CRITIQUE

PROJECT 2

THE URBAN ORGANIC YARD


SITE #1

Bolands Mill, Grand Canal Dock

This site is a self contained urban block within the south inner city. Note the

internal street pattern and proximity to the Grand Canal.

This site has access to open outdoor space, vacant large buildings and

the water.

From the uppermost floors of the store buildings, views to the Wicklow

Mountains over the city and views to the water below create a sense of

connection with nature and the world at large.

The city can be thus observed and engaged with through the site.

TESTING GROUND: SELECTING A SUITABLE SITE

The Linen Hall design had determined a strong interest in landscape within

the city.

Conflicting ideas regarding the natural landscape of the rural countryside

versus the hard landscape of the urban yard are clearly reflected in the

search for a suitable site for further exploration.

Two sites of very different natures were chosen within Dublin for a closer

investigation.

Site Plan_not to scale

Bird’s Eye View of Site

View of Wicklow Moutains to the South

Site Location


SITE #2

Broombridge - Liffey Junction, Cabra

This site is a wedge of undeveloped land in the northern suburbs of

Dublin. Enclosed by industrial and residential estates, it has been all but

forgotten by the city and its inhabitants.

This location boasts 15 acres of open land and has direct access to a train

station, the Royal Canal and an existing pedestrian and cycle path.

The primary restraints within the site are the estates that define its edge.

However, there is direct access to the suburbs that define the north of the

city and an opportunity for further connection to the city at larger through

the existing infrastructure that penetrates the site.

Here, the remants of a rural topography and unoccupied territory provides

an exciting opportunity for rethinking landscape within the city and its

suburbs.

After much consideration, it was decided that the Broombridge Site

provided a much richer opportunity for reconsidering the role of landscape

within the city.

It is argued that as it sits outside the land hungry demands of the urban

core, this uninterrupted land can become a testing ground for the city of

the future.

Site Location

Aerial Photo of Site (site = green)


UNDERSTANDING BROOMBRIDGEBroombridge is a suburban interchange, bordered to the north by Dublin

Industrial Estate and to the south by the residential developments of the

1940s. The site is divided in two by the Royal Canal that runs through the

land. This canal connects the land to the inner city’s docklands and the

mouth of the River Liffey.

There has been no previous occupation on the Broombridge site save for a

dismantled railway platform. It is primarilly a green field site that is locked

between suburban estates and forgotten by the city.

A train line also passes along the northern edge of the site and provides

another connection to Connolly Station and Dublin’s city centre.

Broombridge is a veritable wildscape that exists outside the

consciousness of the city and its suburban hinterland.

Parks & Gardens in close proximity to Broombridge

Green Spaces & Urban Clusters in proximity of Broombridge

Broombridge Rail Platform

Site Grain


Map of Building Uses


Map of Vacant (grey) & Food Related (green) Buildings

Indoor market that currently takes place in the Dublin Industiral Estate to the north of the site


Weekend Uses in the Dublin Industrial Estate

Church services, the food market and

driving classes dominant the estate

during this time


Topographical Map of Broombridge

Images demonstrating the various topographies of the area


Redevelopment of Unimetal Site_ Dominique Perrault

The objective of this project was to identify the assets and potentialities

of the site and from this, to define what the future might hold. There was

no desire for a new layout or a new town but rather a ‘savage desire to

connect and reconnect nature and architecture’.

The project attempts to give the varied locations within the site a defined

identity and to establish an interplay between them and the surrounding

town.

Near the river, a planted avenue is placed alongside the town, a man-

made natural boundary between the built and unbuilt. The valley the

plateau and the ridge

The flat plateau holds traces of former factory facilities and these are used

as guides that help set up an interweave between countryside and the

urbanisation of the town.

At head of the valley, an old road that partially crossed the site is

connected back to the town, reconnecting neighbourhoods at either end.

Perrault’s methods here thread lightly through the site. He wishes to do

that which is only essential. To gently re-establish identities and mark out a

framework for the future.

INVESTIGATION OF ARCHITECTURE & GROUNDWORK


Above: The concept drawing depicting the earth

breaking up and becoming the built programme.

Left: plan and section of the Baths shows the

project sitting into the land

Right: The narrow shafts of light reinforce the idea

of being submerged deep into the land.

Below: The facade that projects out of the site

frames the views of the area and connects views

back to the local landscape and references.

The Baths at Val_ Peter Zumthor

‘Mountain, stone, water, building in stone, building into the mountain,

building out of the mountain…’

Zumthor has created a powerful connection between site and environment,

land and building with the baths at Val. Partially sunken into the hillside,

this spa complex is built of monolithic layered stone, sourced from a

nearby quarry.

Entering the baths is akin to entering the earth: visitors leave a cave-like

reception and proceed down a dark hallway into the bowels of the earth.

Everything about this structure emphasises its half buried nature – the

tactile stone walls, the reverberating acoustics bouncing off water and

stone and the deep, narrow light openings that allow thin shafts of light to

penetrate the bathing spaces below.

The darkest spaces of all are those nearest the earth, the place where

building and land merge into one.

This project constantly reinforces the idea of building into the land, out of

the land and using the land.


Above & Left: The successive planting stages will create a varied density

of trees at different stages of maturity; marking time and change in the city

Bordeaux’s Right Bank_Michel Desvigne

The right bank of the Garonne River is hollowing out as the old industries of

the area are closing up and relocating away from the centre of Bordeaux.

Large tracts of vacant land are posing a real threat to the vitality of the city

core and Desvigne is proposing a radical solution: a new city centre park.

Bordeaux has few parks within the city walls so this proposal was

welcomed by the city. A three stage successive planting programme has

been drawn up based on the time it takes the city to buy back the various

lots along the river bank. A forest of varied density and growth and will

appear over time on the water’s edge.

This new landscape determines shapes of future building islands without

setting down the contours in an absurdly strict manner. Building up the

forest in stages, this land will bear the mark of time and change in the city.

The landscape projects are a permanent construction site, allowing for

change and acknowledging it.

‘A stand of young trees is already the image of a possible future’

Above: The park plan provides a framework for future building patterns in the quarter


Above: The processional route leading to the main burial area

Igualada Cemetery_Enric Miralles

Built into an old quarry site, the Igualada Cemetery challenges the

traditional notions of a burial place. From the entrance gate, visitors

descend a winding processional route down into the earth, down to the

main burial area at the opposite end of the site.

The tiered concrete landscape unfolds into the natural landscape beyond

and the gabion walls and embedded railroad ties echo the rough terrain of

the surrounding hills.

This sunken earthwork’s palette of earthy materials (concrete, stone and

wood) blends the scheme into the land as though it were a natural part of

the environment. Deep and silent, this burial site is a quite sanctuary of

reflection, memories and connection.

The use of local materials and the manipulation of the existing topography

all come together to anchor this project firmly in its location. It feels as

though this space has always existed here. This is a project that sits

seamlessly in its context.


Model Exploration of Architecture & Groundwork Archery Range, Barcelona_Enric Miralles

This structure services the surface along its front, its placement and shape

defined by the earthen embankment into which it sits.

The structure emerges from the embankment and sinks back into the land

further along its length. Its back wall acts as a retainer, holding back the

land from the flat surface into which the building faces.

The folding roof creates an almost linear edge in plan but from the ground

this space reads as an undulating roof, a series of rhythmic spaces that

move and morph along the border of the site. It is an exciting and dynamic

strip of sheds and shelters.

To fully explore the qualities of these roofs, I decided to create some model

replicas of the structure in an attempt to learn more about their form and

structural possibilities.

Conceptual models exploring possible roof arrangementsSite Plan


Archery roof sinking into embankment

Folding Roof

Conceptual model exploring possible arrangements of a series of roofs on an embankment in BroombridgeRoof Structural Detail

Model exploring two different roof structural compositions


PROGRAMME

Following the investigation into architecture and the ground, it felt

appropriate that any proposed programme for Broombridge should reflect

this desire for contact with the ground.

In bringing together the idea of groundworks and a landscape related

brief, the author aspired to explore the possibility of open land in the

suburbs and an architecture that could bridge landscape and city in a new

and stimulating form.

It was thus decided that the most suitable brief was an organic outdoor

education centre.

This centre was to offer the opportunity for physical activity and

engagement with the immediate surrounds through exercises such as

climbing, kayaking, cycling, hiking, skiing, zip lining, outdoor survival skills,

surfing, free diving, swimming, first aid, water skiing, etc

A second element of the brief was harvesting of the land for food

and providing locally sourced and produced fruit and vegetables for

the community. On site facilities such as ‘Grow Your Own’ classes, a

community vegetable project, organic cookery school and market space

would encourage and stimulate physical interaction with the ground and

her produce.

Reflecting the earlier ethos discussed as part of the author’s school of

thought, these programmatic activities were drawn up to provide an

opportunity for a hands-on manipulation of the landscape and an active

engagement with the immediate surrounds.

Initial Brief_Stage One

Library

Public Yard/Market Space

Seminar Space

3 x Classrooms/ Workshops

Café

Exhibition/Rental Space

Harvest Shop

3 x Store Rooms

4 x Offices

2 x Conference Rooms

Reception

Final Brief_Stage Two

Indoor Activity Centre

Boat House

Bike Workshop

Hostel

Gardening Workshop

Cooking & Preserves

Workshop

Irish Soil & Geology

Exhibition

Media Room

DIY Gardening Exhibition

Space

Retail Unit

Reception

Café

concept model of an urban man made ground


1. Library

2. Seminar Space

3. Classroom Workshop

4. Barn Store

5. Café

6. Exhibition/Rental Space

7. Retail

8. Store

9. Office

10. Conference

11. Reception

Design Stage One

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Ground Floor Plan_not to scale

Structural 3D of Exhibition Space

Map Showing Access Routes to Building

Massing Model


Section BB

Section CC

Section AA

A

A

B

B

C

C


Ground Floor Plan

1. Activity Centre

2. Boat House

3. Bike Workshop

4. Hostel

5. Gardening Workshop

6. Cooking & Preserves Workshop

7. Irish Soil & Geology Exhibition

8. Media Room

9. DIY Gardening Showroom

10. Retail

11. Reception

12. CaféFront Elevation

Section a-a

Unlocking the unused land Crop Rows along railway edgeRehabilitating Vacant Plots

Design Stage Two

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

11

12


Land StrategyThe following pages present the ground strategy intended for design stage

two of this project. Planting the land and harvesting its produce was a key

component within the programme of the proposed building design.

The Produce & Related Strutures

1. Apple & Pear Orchard

With a North - South orientation these tress can achieve maximum sunlight

penetration. Once the trees are

fully mature after15 years they will bear an average of 120kg of fruit per

season.

*Trees shade the soil, providing a cooler surface which absorbs rainwater

more easily. Their leaf litter changes the chemical properties of the soil as

it provides nutrients that in turn enrich the land.

2. Grain and Fruit Barn

Harvested crops stored here are kept at a cool, temperate environment out

of direct sunlight.

3. Glasshouses

These spaces enable the rgowing season to start in Decemember and

protect seedling from the dangers of frost in the late Winter months. These

glasshouses also house the more exotic foods that require a warmer

climate

4. Walled Kitchen Garden

This garden provided the foods for the neighbouring cookery school. As

an existing walled property, it closely aligns an axis of NE-SW, which is the

optimum orientation for maximum heat retention in Ireland.

Conference Pear Ecklinville Cairn Russet Irish Peach Apple Kerry Pippin Lady’s Finger

5. Crop Rows

With an optimum orientation of East-West as required in Ireland, these crop

rows provide a modest food supply to be sold to the local market. This

in turn covers the maintenance costs incurred in growing and harvesting

the crops as the majority of the work completed is part of the school

cirriculum.

6. Allotments

This small number of plots are available to the oublic who do not have ac-

cess to a garden or who wish to grow vegetables outside of their property

grounds.

7. Existing Water Tank

Provides access to brown water for planting and cleaning needs within

close proximity to the structure.

Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page

Site Strategy_not to scale

35


CRITIQUEThesis:

The suburban landscape generates a programme that feeds and supports

itself, creating a user intensive occupation of the land and a raison d’être

for an open landscape within the area.

Antithesis:

- Why are there not more models?

- Points of threshold between the city and space

- Consider a critique of the proposed luas lines

- Great site with a lot of good work done

- Value the Industrial/Light Engineering tradition

- What is your intention architecturally with the buildings?

- The Garden City Movement is an important intellectual background - the

Garden City Utopian ideas are relevant

- The positioning of the buildings is critical – they occupy planting space

- Is there a contradiction in an urban yard and intensifying the suburban

ground?

- Perhaps the buildings can occupy and spread out and take ownership?

- All agreed to take the site on for the thesis project.

Synthesis:

Some quick decisions were made during the reviews as they were obvious

issues that could be addressed directly. The proposed luas terminal that

the council have planned for part of the site has not yet happened so this

should not be considered as a current limitation within the land.

The architectural intention of the design while still somewhere unclear,

already demonstrates a certain regard for the industrial context. This

needs further exploration in order to clarify how this language expresses

itself in my design. Spreading the buildings out across the site would help

take ownership of the landscape and is worth additional study.

There is still some confusion about the thesis position with regards to

an urban yard versus an intensive suburban ground. This project has

developed a stronger desire to purse the qualities of the suburban

landscape and so I feel at this point that this is the direction the thesis will

take.

POSITION PAPER


Introduction

‘It is a city of extraordinary technology but at first glance

appears indistinguishable from nature. It is an artificial

reef that grows and decays and grows again as the city

becomes a cyclic ecosystem. A city as a geological

formation of caves and grottos covered by a thick layer of

soil and slime, a biological soup of human and non-human

inhabitants. The city and us are one, a symbiotic life form.’

Liam Young of ‘Tomorrows Thoughts Today’ assembled a

think tank of scientists, technologists, futurists, illustrators,

science fiction authors and special effects artists to

collectively develop this imaginary place, the city of

Tomorrow. Across the course of the exhibition invited

guests work with the city as a stage set to develop

a collection of narratives, films and illustrations. The

exhibition invites you to wander through this near future

world and explore the possibilities and consequences of

today’s emerging biological and technological research.

The exhibition opened for Dutch design week on October

20th, 2012 and inviting images were posted online in the

months preceding the opening.

The image that defines this exhibition is the computer

generated illustration of the city at dusk. Here, the future

city is conceived of as both an organic and technological

construct, an artificial reality and yet one in sync with its

environment and landscape. The dense city rises vertically

among the rocky outcrops of its environs, responding

to the intensive demands on the ground below and yet

still accommodates the needs and inhabitants of this

extraordinary place.

There is a strong sense of transience in this city; the

organic constructions appear sufficient as shelters yet

exceedingly temporary, as though likely to become vacant

at any moment. And should the citizens vacate the city

overnight there is the impression that this place would

quickly wither and fade, disappearing back into the

surrounds from which it emerged.

There is a certain attitude toward the topography of the

land also. Gone is the present day approach cutting

into the ground, clearing the way for construction and

blasting out those rocky outcrops for a simpler and more

accessible cityscape. Respect for the geography of place

and a concept of touching lightly upon the ground that

hosts the city is robustly evident here.

The future city is one of intensive symbioses, respect and

a strong regard for the natural environment.

Right: Fig 1: Under Tomorrow’s Sky

Aim of the Research

This photograph (right) was presented as one of a series

of thoughts set out in September 2012 at the start of the

thesis journey. Lingering and evocative, it is its black and

white palette that every much defines a connection that

would have been obscured in a coloured image. Drawn

to this photo throughout the first semester, it was difficult

to fully express in words what meaning was attached to

it. The photograph followed alongside the initial stages of

design and investigation and slowly its meaning became

apparent.

The primary focus of the image is the framed mountain

beyond, removed and viewed from the snug bed of

the photographer. A relationship between the distant

landscape and the secure dwelling has been established.

The light inside directs the gaze onto the peaks and

valleys in the bed clothes, a micro landscape, shaped and

formed by the viewer in bed. A connection forms in the

mind. Mountains inside, mountains outside; the man-made

‘mountains’ mimic the landscape outside, but they are

produced solely by the movements of the occupier of the

bed.

There is another underlying theme in this image – the

notion of disconnection. The fact that the camera is

viewing the landscape through a frame outside of its own

suggests a separation and disengagement from the land

beyond the realm of man’s constructed reality.

This thesis therefore aims to investigate man’s adaptation

of landscape within the realm of greatest disconnection -

the city.

Above: Fig 2: Mountains Inside, Mountains Outside

Context of the Research

Born and raised in rural north-east Galway, issues of land

utility and productive treatment of the ground have always

been foremost in the mind of the author. Living between

two quarries for all of his childhood, there is a strong

appreciation that land is seen only as infinite commodity

by those who exploit her resources. Rural planning policies

or lack thereof, the trend toward ribbon housing and ad-

hoc celtic tiger ballooning of small rural villages all confirm

an attitude of disregard and planning ignorance when it

comes to issues of appropiate levels of intensive land use.

A strong desire to present an alternative view of land use,

production intensity and occupation density all combine to

drive this research forward.

Methodology

Evidence of these types of productive landscapes is

the main source by which this exploration is conducted.

Starting with the initial image of ‘Mountains Outside,

Mountain Inside’, being an expansion of the ideas of

landscape outlined in ‘Under Tomorrow’s Sky’, a further

exploration is made through investigation of other projects

and sites of a similar condition.

1. Nature Park, Sudgelande, Berlin

Fifty years of natural succession have converted a derelict

station at the centre of Berlin into an extremely diverse

pocket of natural landscape within the city. The nature

park Sudgelande is situated on part of a formerly much

larger freight railway yard that was built at the end of the

19th Century. After World War II the train service was

discontinued and the Sudgelande was chiefly abandoned.

On most of the site, natural succession began to take hold.

The political situation in Berlin after the war resulted in

the Sudgelande falling under the jurisdiction of East

Berlin authorities even though the rail yard was located in

West Berlin. The site was also surrounded by a guarded

fence and heavily used roads so that the land was

almost completely inaccessible to the local city dwellers.

Consequently, the site became completely disconnected

from the city which allowed for uninterrupted growth and

ecological development.

At the end of the 1970s, the site came to the attention of

the city once more when the authorities wanted to re-

establish a shunting station on the land. Pressure was put

on the government by local citizens’ groups who wanted

the site to become a nature park and an ecological

assessment was carried out on the area. Sudgelande was

shown to be one of the most valuable ecological areas in

the city because of its immense diversity of flora and

fauna. As a result of this, the idea of putting a shunting

station on the land was scrapped.

The nature park was not established for some time

however as again the history of Berlin had a role to play.

After the reunification of Germany, the German railway

company finally transferred ownership of the site to the

state in 1996 as ecological compensation. Ecological

compensation is a system in Germany whereby any

unavoidable negative effects developments have on the

environment must be offset by the implementation of

nature conservation and landscape management. The

park was finally opened in May 2000.

With regards to strategies and landscape management on

site, the nature park had to address two challenges from

the beginning: how to open the site without endangering

the rich flora and fauna present and how to decide if the

natural vegetation dynamic should be managed or not.

Results of two previous vegetation studies demonstrated

that in a 10 year period the percentage of woodland had

doubled. Ongoing succession would have resulted in the

compete reforestation of the site in a short period of time.

Therefore a decision was made to combine both natural

dynamics and controlled processes to ensure a rich

variety of vegetation remained on the land.

The following three principles were adopted as the guiding

framework for the park’s development:

1. The land was zoned into three space typologies:

clearings, groves (lightly forested) and woodlands.

2. A path system within the park was developed

based on the structure of the old rail yard and followed the

routes of some of the old train tracks.

3. Natural and cultural elements were persevered

were possible. This included such features as railway

signals, watercranes, the old turntable and a water tower.

This project demonstrates the possibilities of designing

wilderness and making it accessible to the public.

Contrasting nature with fabricated elements highlights

both nature and culture. Compared with other large

parks that turn their backs on the city, the Nature Park

Sudgelande is closely connected to the city, a natural

urban phenomenon.

Fig 3 – Sudgelande Nature Park

Below: Figs 4 & 5 – Sudgelande Nature Park.

Below: Fig 6 – Sudgelande Aerial Photo

2. Havanna, Cuba

With a population of 11.22 million inhabitants, 75% of

which live in cities, Cuba’s agriculture and foods supply

were heavily dependent on imports in the 1980’s. These

dependencies were such that the nation imported 100%

of its wheat, 90% of its beans and 57% of all calories

consumed. The collapse of the Eastern Europe block in

the early 1990s with which Cuba had conducted 80% of its

trade resulted in massive economic turmoil. At the same

time, the strengthening of the US economic, financial and

political sanctions combined with the aforementioned

collapse severely affected food supply within Cuba.

It is estimated that there was a 67% reduction of food

availability in 1994.

The major challenge was how to generate effective

mechanisms to meet food needs within the country. Many

governmental, trade and market reforms were put in place

and a National Alternative Agricultural Model (NAAM) was

put in effect in 1990. One important aspect of this model

was the replacement of high levels of imported agricultural

inputs with indigenously developed methods for pest

and disease control, soil fertility and other issues. Other

features of this model included the restructuring of the land

property of large state-owned farms into smaller units with

co-operative property and the introduction of a free market

for foodstuffs.

The crisis had generated the immediate individual

response of many groups and citizens to start growing

vegetables and in parallel encouragement was given by

the city government to other inhabitants and co-operatives

in urban areas to also become vegetable producers.

Exploitation of the open spaces within the urban frame

and available areas within productive, educational,

recreational and healthcare facilities were all used for the

production of food. Vegetables were even planted in the

front of the Ministry of Agriculture and in the backyard of

the state council building. A massive breeding of pigs in

these areas was illegally extended to central urban areas

including houses and flats.

An important feature in Cuba’s ability to rapidly respond

with an alternative model has been its success in

mobilising science and technology and the social

investment in education. Many of the new technologies

had been actively researched for a decade or so in

Cuba before the circumstances arose that made their

implementation necessary. There are strong links here

between research and organisations and consequently

a very short time delay between research innovation and

application of research results.

In Cuba today urban agriculture is seen as a way to

bring producers and consumers closer together in

order to achieve a steady supply of fresh, healthy, and

varied products directly from the production site to the

consumers. The advantage of the dense urban population

is that agriculture is intensively implemented to maximise

the productive potential of the land within each territory.

Diversification of crops and animals guarantees a phased

performance all year round.

Havana’s organic urban agriculture is extraordinarily

successful, such that fresh produce offered at the farm

gate is cheaper than that brought from the countryside into

city’s markets. While the focus of urban agriculture outside

of Havana has been the creation of jobs, in the city itself

its primary function is in the reduction in prices for food

related products. The most recent master plan for Havana

now covers urban agriculture as a permanent urban

function of the city. High school students even have the

option to study urban agriculture as part of their curriculum

if they so wish. Today urban agriculture is now a way of

life in Havana, it has become integrated into every facet of

urban life in the city.

Top R-L: Figs 7 & 8 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture

Bottom Left: Fig 9 – Vegetable Plots

Bottom Right: Fig 10 – Cultivating the Lan

Parc de la Villette - OMA Competition Entry

The Parc de la Villette site was the typical metropolitan

condition of Europe: a large tract of vacant land

sandwiched between the historical city and the individual

cells of suburbia. It was a cleared space of emptiness with

infinite potential. In the competition entry, the architects

were free to propose a whole new quarter, a fragment

of the new city of the future. Offered the opportunity

to imagine an ideal instalment of late 20th century life,

OMA’s proposed project is not for a definitive park but for

a method that - combining programmatic instability with

architectural specificity - would eventually generate a park.

OMA found it difficult to reconcile architecture and

landscape within the context of the city and this was

reflected in statements such as ‘The permanence of even

the most frivolous item of architecture and the instability

of the metropolis are incompatible.’ In this conflicted

sates, OMA reasoned that the city is always the winner

as architecture is reduced to the status of throwaway

structure.

OMA decided that La Villette could be more radical

by suppressing the three-dimensional aspect almost

completely and proposing pure program instead,

unencumbered by any containment. In this analogy, the

bands across the site were like the floors of a building,

each program different and autonomous, but modified and

affected through the proximity of all others. Their order was

somewhat insecure as the only stability offered was by the

natural elements such as the rows of trees and the round

forest; and the instability of these was ensured simply

through growth.

Their proposal comprised of five primary moves:

1. The programmatic elements are distributed in horizontal

bands across the site, allowing for a continuous identity

in its length and rapid change in experience across the

bands.

2. Some facilities - kiosks, playgrounds, barbecue spots,

etc are located mathematically according to different point

grids.

3. The addition of a “round forest” as an architectural

feature.

4. Connections

5. Superimpositions

What OMA finally suggested for the park was the intensive

use of the landscape: density without architecture, a

culture of “invisible” congestion.

Productive Landscape in the City

Productive landscape is defined as an ‘open urban

space planted and managed in such a way as to be

environmentally and economically productive, for example,

providing food from urban agriculture, pollution absorption,

the cooling effect of trees or increased biodiversity from

wildlife corridors.’ (Viljoen, 2005) It is important to note

here that the term ‘urban’ is used in this paper as an

umbrella term for the city in its entirety, including both the

urban centre and its suburban fringes.

Authors such as Borcke (2002) make a strong argument

for value of landscape in the city, an idea that the

presence of nature is not just to make places look greener

but also to influence the form of city development. There

is one fundamental ideal within the author’s work however

that jars with the focus of this paper. Borcke puts forward

the notion that the man-made city is added to the natural

environment and should respond to the land rather than

the other way around. She envisions the city and natural

landscape as an integrated system of green spaces and

development with an uninterrupted natural topography as

its base.

Borcke’s idea has over-simplified the relationship between

man, the city and the natural environment. As the city is a

man-made construct, it responds first to the needs of man

before the needs or sensitivities of the local topography.

The docklands of Dublin is a perfect example of this. Since

the 17th century the city has encroached ever more toward

the water’s edge using the land hungry technologies

of setting revetments and backfilling which allowed for

the reclaiming of land from both the Irish Sea and the

River Liffey (McCullough, 2007). The river bank today is

delineated by a series of man-made quays that define

the river’s edge, a clear demonstration of the commercial

needs of man superseding any concern for the once

natural topographical junction of land and water.

Indeed, in many cities, to simply adopt such a landscape

attitude would be impossible as all remnants of the past

topography and natural environs have all but vanished

completely. Besides, as more and more rural landscape is

cultivated by man and primarily used for the sole purpose

of supplying urban markets (Viljoen, 2005), the availability

of a truly natural and untouched environment rapidly

diminishes. In today’s reality, it is time to investigate the

value of an artificial naturalness – a managed landscape

Above: Figs 11, 12 & 13 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.

Fig 14 – ‘Landscape as Ground’ Diagram

that brings with it all the values and traits of the natural

terrain but within the conditions and demands of man.

For many people, landscape in the city is conceived

of as green spaces and parklands, beautiful and open

spaces but ultimately underused and unoccupied. This is

difficult to resolve and protect within the demands of the

land hungry city; the question often becomes one of open

space versus construction intensive occupation. Certainly

building on the land provides a greater return for man – the

open plot is now occupied and utilised far more rigorously

than it would have done as an often vacant ‘green’ space.

But there is an alternative and third option that is rarely

considered: that of landscape intensification.

Landscape intensification can be defined as the layering

of inter-dependent and co-existing plant and animal life

to maximise the land’s potential. This idea was clearly

demonstrated in OMA’s proposal for the Parc de la

Villette with its bands of activity and varied use across

the site in Paris. This layering can incorporate economic,

social, environmental and agricultural uses which would

encourage a concentrated and thorough use of the soil

and add value to the land that far outweighs the concept

of the empty green belt or parklands of the city as we

understand them today. It is also worth noting that a plot

can be intensified along both horizontal and vertical

planes. Horizontal intensification being the most common

option in the past and present, allows for the layering of

various uses across the land as described previously.

Vertical intensification on the other hand can be achieved

by the construction of a building or series of platforms

on-site, allowing more space for agricultural, vegetation or

social use.

Testing the Theory

The opportunity to explore the design of an intervention

for the newly formed Dublin School of Architecture and

Construction provided an occasion to explore the thoughts

and case studies previously covered in this paper. The

brief called for an installation that could provide a new

single identity for what is at present two physically divided

schools located in Linen Hall, a building owned and

occupied by Dublin Institute of Technology and located at

the end of Yarnhall Street.

The proposal put forward was an early attempt to explore

the possibility of productive landscape in the city centre

and also to address the physical division within the

building. The annex design that was submitted embodied

both of these ideas and aimed to instil a new raison d’être

for the Linen Hall building. The annex accommodated a

new central stair core with social spaces that were stacked

vertically upwards along the spine of this circulation core.

This relocation of existing services freed up space on the

ground floor of the existing building which allowed for the

creation of a communal gathering space with exhibition,

social and lecturing uses.

Externally, the stacked annex housed a tiered landscape

that ascended from the planted courtyard to the allotment

gardens on the flat roof of the existing school. This new

landscape was created with the intention of supplying

herbs and vegetables for the school canteen while the

roof allotments were to be shared with the residents of the

social housing block that sits adjacent to the grounds of

the Linen Hall. The annex was envisioned as a crossover

space between nearby residents, students and tutors;

a communal hub of investigation, communication and

cultivation.

After much discussion and reflection, it was agreed that

while this early intervention held promise for a productive

landscape within the city, this site was simply not suitable

to fully explore the extent and possibilities of this thesis.

Strong commercial demands within the urban centre of

Dublin meant that the city centre would no doubt prove

itself a difficult canvas on which to apply any significant

landscape moves. Furthermore, the scale at which

such a move would be made could not realistically be

accommodated within the already development intense

core of the city. Linen Hall’s proposed annex was viewed

more as an act of guerrilla gardening than a productive

landscape and therefore it was essential to explore the

extended city for a stronger staring point from which to test

the thesis subject.

Fig 15 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.Proposed Allotments on Roof of Existing Building

Section of Annex showing tiered planted terraces

Right: Image of proposed courtyard

Below: Internal 3D of new circulation core

Intensifying Suburbia

The move away from the Dublin’s urban core allowed for

a wider frame of thought and an opportunity to consider

the implications of landscape within the city’s suburbs.

Here, in the outer reaches of the city, the idea of city

living and value of the land become distorted through

the lens of what Le Corbusier termed ‘a sterile isolation

of the individual’ (Viljoen, 2005). The suburbs propagate

the great illusion of the individual home away from the

collective intensity of the city core. This focus on the

individual in the suburbs marks the dilution in city density

as low lying housing, industrial and business estates

scatter outward into the open hinterland of the city’s

fringes. This sprawl is the anti-thesis of the city, an act of

de-urbanisation and a dislocation from both the city and

the countryside. It is a place neither within nor outside the

dense urban realm.

In the coming decades, the city is likely to see population

surge and city sprawl can only grow so far before it

consumes the land that feeds it. There exists a symbiotic

balance between urban and agricultural land that needs

to be upheld for the survival of the city and its inhabitants.

This provides a strong argument now to intensify the land

use of suburbia, to introduce the density and variety of

the urban core and to demand more production and value

from the lands that we so willingly build upon and then

forget.

Choosing a site for further study proved quite a challenge

as the location had to provide opportunity for renewal

without the need of removing any existing development

or infrastructure within the immediate environs. Like the

urban agriculture model in Cuba, it was essential that any

landscape intervention would have to occur in an existing

open space in the city’s suburbs. Ultimately a site of 15

The Broombridge site is a suburban interchange, bordered

to the north by Dublin Industrial Estate and to the south

by the residential developments of the 1940s; it has a

condition reminiscent of the site for the Parc de la Villette

in Paris. Like the canals of La Villette, Broombridge

also has a canal that runs through the site and splits it

in two. This canal (the Royal Canal) connects the land

back to the inner city’s docklands. There has been no

previous occupation on the Broombridge site except for a

dismantled railway platform. It is a green field site that is

land locked between developments and forgotten by the

city in much the same manner as the Sudgelande site was

in Berlin. A train line also passes along the northern edge

of the site and provides another connection to Connolly

Station and Dublin’s city centre. Some small scale urban

agriculture occurs here already as locals have managed to

gain access to the fenced off land and are grazing a small

number of horses on the grasslands at present.

In comparing the earlier case studies discussed, a pattern

of comparable approaches and attitudes emerge. All

three typologies adopt an idea of thorough and extensive

land use, from the intensive urban agriculture of Havana,

to the managed forest densities of Sudgelande and

even the programmatically dense proposals for the Parc

de la Villette. It seems that a rigorous use of landscape

and programme produces richness within the city that

can be achieved beyond the realm of construction

and development. There is a collective idea of the

importance of the ground and the many functions and

uses it can sustain. Applying such an approach to the

land at Broombridge would no doubt produce an exciting

programme and an intensively used site beyond anything

that the suburb currently yields.

These case studies also share another key quality of

interest: an immediacy of connection within the city.

The Sudgelande Park with its wide ecological variety

is a veritable zoo of flora and fauna on the doorstep

of the centre of Berlin while the easy access to food

markets, open space and research in Havana ensured

the early success of urban agriculture in the city. OMA’s

proposals focused on the notion of varied programmes

that lay in close proximity to each other, encouraging

cross-pollination and multiplicity within the city park. All

three projects act as a guiding light for a programme at

Broombridge, a communal landscape that will enable new

opportunities, connections and the convenience of the

land in the suburbs.

deemed particularly suitable for such an investigation. This

site bordered the area of Broombridge in North Cabra, one

of the older suburban estates in the city (OS Map, 1944).

Broombridge Site

Site Location within the City

Photograph of Broombridge Sign on Train Platform

Reflection

As discussed by Flanagan (2012), in the times before

industrialisation the city walls defined the boundary

between urban and rural - the city remained directly

related to what it ingested and so man and earth had a

dependence on each other and an conscious awareness

of their symbiotic relationship. The city cannot survive

without the agricultural hinterland that supports and feeds

it.

Intensifying suburban land has an undeniable validity

today if the city is to re-evaluate its relationship with

the land. Rather than the endless development and

consumption of ground on the urban fringes, the city

must consider the possibilities of densifying its suburban

land use if the metropolis is to remain sustainable.

Intensifying the land can be achieved without the density

of architecture as confirmed by OMA in their proposition

for the Parc de la Villette. The earth and her soil is in finite

supply, yet this has been forgotten in the frenzied growth

of the recent past. An intense cultivation of the land is a

call for a collective consciousness and a balanced value

system with regards to the future co-dependency of city

and land.

As argued by Desvigne (2009), this attitude to the land

does not include a fascination with today’s prevailing

subject of sustainable development and it is not a

response to the general panic over the need to save the

planet. This paper is a focus on the reality of resources

within the city, its finite supply and how we can move

forward with respect and consideration for that which

sustains us.

This study wishes to pursue the importance of land

intensification and agricultural patterns in generating a

productive landscape for the future city. The negotiation

of architecture and landscape with regard to the conflict

between agriculture and suburban culture are important

questions to be addressed.

Sustainability and cultivation will be interrogated through

the lens of suburban disconnection and segregation with

respect to generating an architecture that can affirm the

potential of the land and the city.

Architecture is a product of man’s manipulations of his

environment; a frame through which he perceives and

understands the world at large. We have shaped and

constructed our man-made world, now we must strive to

sustain and maintain it.

Fig 16 – Allegory of Good Government.

Bibliography

Basdevant, M et al (2009) ‘Intermediate Natures - The Landscapes of

Michel Desvigne’ Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag AG

Flanagan, A. (2012) ‘The performing wall : Derryarkin linen mill’

Architecture Thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology

Jorgensen A, & Keenan, R (2012). Urban Wildscapes. Abingdon:

Routledge. P.152-159

OMA Architects (1982) Parc de la Villette, France, Paris, 1982.

Available at: http://oma.eu/projects/1982/parc-de-la-villette

McCullough, N (2007). Dublin An Urban History. 2nd ed. Dublin:

Anne Street Press. p41.

Viljoen, A (2005). Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

Burlington, Massachusetts: Architectural Press. p4-131 & p135-145

Further Reading

Chittenden, M, 2009, ‘Lettuce Reign Over You’, The Sunday Times, 14

June.

Available from http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/food/

article173199.ece Lettuce Reign Over You [14 June 2009]

Dewey, J (1916). Democracy and Education. Boston: IndyPublish

Glancey, J (1999). Nigel Coates : body buildings and city scapes.

London: Thames & Hudson

Hardingham, S & Rattenbury, K (2012). Supercrit #4 Bernard Tschumi

Parc de la Villette. Abingdon: Routledge

llich, I (1971). Deschooling Society. London: Marion Boyars

Publishers Ltd.

Nolan, B (2006) Phoenix Park: A History and Guidebook. Dublin: The

Liffey Press

Ranciere, J (1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in

Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford. Stanford University Press.

Thomas, R (2003).Sustainable Urban Design – An Environmental

Approach. Abingdon: Spon Press

Woods, L (1997). Radical Reconstruction. New York: Princeton

Architectural Press

Zabalbeascoa, A (1996). Igualada Cemetery – Enric Miralles and

Carme Pinos. London: Phaidon Press Ltd

Image Sources

Fig 1 - Under Tomorrow’s Sky. Available from: http://

undertomorrowssky.liamyoung.org/

Fig 2 – Mountains Outside, Mountains Inside. Available from: http://

www.anothermag.com/loves/view/12976/mountains_outside_

mountains_inside

Fig 3 – Sudgelande Nature Park. Available from: http://www.

panoramio.com/photo/2291004

Figs 4 & 5 – Sudgelande Nature Park. Available from: http://

landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.ie/2010/04/urban-wilderness-poetics-

of-industrial.html

Fig 6 – Sudgelande Aerial Photo. Available from: http://maps.bing.

com

Figs 7 & 8 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://

kingmaker65.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cultivosorganoponicos.jpg

Fig 9 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://

thegoldenspiral.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/cuba-urban-

agriculture2.jpg

Fig 10 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://inhabitat.

com/urban-farming-movement-sweeps-across-havana-cuba-

providing-50-of-fresh-food/havanaurbanfarm/

Figs 11, 12 & 13 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.

Available from: http://oma.eu/projects/1982/parc-de-la-villette

Fig 14 – Landscape as ground. Available from: Sustainable Urban

Design – An Environmental Approach. (p.33)

Fig 15 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette. Available

from: http://stationsurbanremote.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/parc-de-

la-villette/

Fig 16 – Allegory of Good Government. Available from: http://

espacelab.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/city-of-good-government/

THESIS

PROJECT 3

THESIS


PROLOGUE‘Architecture is bound to situation, the site of a building is more than a mere ingredient in its conception. It is its physical and metaphysical foundation.’

Steven Holl, Anchoring

‘‘Urban wildscape’ both as a term and landscape condition can potentially appropriate…any area, space, or building where the city’s normal forces of control have not shaped how we

perceive, use and occupy them.’

Dougal Sheridan, Urban Wildscapes


‘If on arriving at Trude I had not read the city’s name written in big letters,

I would have thought I was landing at the same airport from which I had

taken off. The suburbs they drove me through were no different from the

others, with the same little greenish and yellowish houses. Following the

same signs we swung around the same flower beds in the same squares.

The downtown streets displayed goods, packages, signs that had not

changed at all’

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

There is a sameness about suburbia that dulls the senses and disorientates the mind. They lack the variety of the rural countryside. The low

hills and hollows, the rush-filled swamp, the cluster of firs, the lonely oak tree in the meadow or the ringfort that sits guarded by the hawthorn

bushes. The smell of wild flowers, the varied textures of the grasses, the grainy touch of a tree bark; all of these things speak of a place, a

location, a belonging. The suburbs knows none of this.


CONCEPT

‘A building has one site. In this one situation, its intentions are

collected’ Steven Holl, Anchoring (1991)

We come to see the world around us in our own terms, through our

own interventions. Pattern, form and ideas are taken from our natural

environment and used to alter our reality. We have imitated and

adapted the world so much that what is real, untouched and natural is

no longer clear to us all.

Earlier design work has thrown up questions about the need to build-

ing on the land and how to appropriately occupy the ground. A new

approach is needed.

The built programme is conceived of as a new stratum that responds

to and respects the land that supports it. The concept is a floating

series of spaces, an occupied roof, a counter landscape.


The concept for the school plan is a series of boxes that define spaces and voids within the building. These boxes

serve the more intimate needs of the brief while their order and arrangement define the more open and public

spaces within.

The floor plate is an important element in this idea also. Between the boxes, the floor moves up and down, defining

the use of space and the land underneath. The floor light meets the land at one point of contact and allows entry

here into internal programme of the building above. In places, the floor disappears completely and voids are

created within the plan.

These voids pierce up through the structure, up to the sky above. They allow penetration of the elements down

through the building, down to the landscape below. Wind, rain and sun all pass through the structure and kiss the

land underneath.

The concept can thus be described as a series of boxes and void that sit on an undulating floor plane.


Villa Vpro_ MVRDV

The interest with this typology was the

geological form of the floor, the creation of

an artificial landscape and the reconciliation

between an artifical landscape and built

programme.

Greenery that existed where the building now

stands is replaced by a raised grass covered

roof under which lies a stratified series of

different floors. Conceptually, it seem that this

building is an extruded piece of earth.

Expo 2000 Pavilion_ MVRDV

Expo 2000 was the first World Expo in Germany

under the motto of Man, nature and technology.

This fascinating structure examines six different

ways of being of the landscape and how man

might shape his environment to suit his needs

in the future.

The exciting space here is the forested

landscape, the very idea that a real forest could

grow and thrive under a raised building is a

fantastic proposal and feeds into my earlier

concept sketches.

Inspiration


Metropol Parasol

This mushroom-like structure

is located in the city of Seville,

Spain.

It has an approximate height

of 26 metre and towers over

the central market space on

ground level. The world’s

largest wooden structure, the

roofscape can be accessed

by the public and acts as a

viewing platform over the city.

The appeal of this structure

is that it acts as a marker in

the landscape, a building of

clear civic use and intention.

The occupied roof gives the

building somewhat sculptural

presence in the city and lacks

the heavy footprint of a more

conventional market hall.

Furthermore, the open nature

of the ground levels allows the

natural elements to penetrate

the site but still provided suf-

ficient shelter in times of poor

weather. This building is very

much in tune with my concept

set out previously.


Agadir, OMA

This building can be read as two parts – a roof and a landscape.

A convention centre located on the beachfront, it is a generated landscape that runs underneath with its concave and convex domes,

the ‘forest’ of columns and its shafts of light.

The floor and the ceiling of the veranda are formed by concrete ‘shells’, using the sand dunes as a concept for the formwork. The

upper shell is supported by columns, which are different in height, thickness, and spacing. The locally sourced stone that adorns the

façade gives the building a rock-like appearance and connects it back to the land and its context.

This structure reflects many ideas that cross over with my thesis concept. Again, the idea of a building that sits above the land and

allows movement through the landscape underneath. The difference here is that there is programme that occurs underneath this

landscape and pierces through the artificial land. I feel that this clashes with the thoughts I have of my building’s relationship to the

land and what the natural landscape can offer.


Structural Exploration

PROGRAMME & DESIGN

The Organic School

GROUND FLOOR

Market Space

FIRST FLOOR

Reception

Café

Library

Study Room

Reading Room

Garden Workshops

Cooking Workshop

Theory based Classrooms

Community/Performance Space

Social spaces

Administration Office

Toilets

Hydroponics House

Greenhouse Space

Lab Space

Offices

Toilets

Live & Work Incubation Units

4 x one bed residential units

1 x two bed residential unit

Polytunnels

Storage Sheds

Irish Rail Ticket Shelter

Bicycle Shop


Designing Through Modelling Exploring the roof form and piercing the surface


Designing Through Modelling

_exploring the possibility of occupying the roof

_Introducting an orthogonal grid in plan

_extrapolating the grid into a more complex roof support system

_using structure to define spaces

_consideration of materials used

_occupying the market place underneath the roof


Designing Through Modelling

_exploring the possibility of defining spaces uses through lighting

-considering the various social groups and activties that could occur under the roof

_using roof undercroft as a light landscape

_using polygonal cells as sources of artifical light as well as daylight

_using building as a light post for evening social events

_a lighthouse in the landscape


Land Strategy

Far left:

Sketches exploring various

aspects of the startegy:

_built programme

_plot grains

_landscape circulation

_land use types

Left:

_Proposed location of buildings

on site

_Land use map

_Land type and area map


Site Map of Building Location

Note: trees and raised embankments provide shelter from

the winds in the open air market space

Roof Pattern with rain water paths


Drawings of Propsed Structure

Top Left: Ground Floor Plan_not to scale

Top Right: First Floor Plan_not to scale

Left: Section through the building_not to scale


CRITIQUE 1 Thesis:

The community building is the focus of the presentation as it is the largest

structure proposed for the site and is intended as an anchor for the

developing scheme. The solid and void concept can be seen clearly in the

plans. The building is a porous floating entity that allows penetration of the

elements to the ground below.

The early landscape strategy is examining the possibility of using the land

and tress to shelter the exposed space of the ground floor market space.

Antithesis:

- Clear span - what should the space feel like and what should the roof

do? What height should the building be?

- Educational aspect of your brief would work best above the market

- Land strategy needs clarification

- Look at Enric Miralles’ market building in Barcelona

Does the roof have an aesthetic similiar to that of the Hanover Exhibition

Centre?

- Consider how you access the upper level

- A more even spread of light is needed for basketball court on the ground

floor

- Fruit market & Iveagh market – they are semi controlled on ground floor.

You can screen off some areas of the ground floor in a similiar manner.

- Structure can be simplified and reduced. Structural regularity hidden in

roundness – look at Richard Mier’s columns on his 2.7m grid plans

- Try playing with the floor level more in section

Synthesis:

The educational element of my brief will be placed above the market

space as it too large a space to use solely as a community centre.

I am coming to terms with programming the landscape and one of the next

stages is considering how the landscape and the building meet. This will

help establish access to the upper floor and to create semi-defined market

zones on the ground floor.

The next priority is clarifying the structural system that supports the upper

floor and roof.


DEVELOPING THE STRUCTURE THROUGH MAKING

Exploring Structure of Education Centre

_16 m grid

_alternate peaks on portal frames establish a dynamic roof system

_roof form is tested

_structure accommodates solid and void plan concept


Exploring Portal Frame Forms


Exploring Structure of Education Centre #2

_16 m x 8m grid

_developing the portal frame form

_roof pattern is tested further

_inhabiting the structure


Exploring Structure of the Hydro & Residential Blocks

_16 m x 8m grid

_adopting the same portal frame system as the education centre

_junction of void and structure is tested

_height of structures is varied


1:50 Model of Single Bay

_16 m x 8m grid

_exploring the junctions between the glazed

voids, roof and floor plane

_invesitagting the panning options for the

floor plane

_exploring how the timber polygonal celled

roof sits inside the concrete frame work


1:100 Model of Education Centre

_investigation of complete structural system

and how this is resolved with progammatic

planning


OCCUPYING THE SCHEME

Inhabiting the Organic Hall

The Organic Hall houses the market space on the ground floor and an organic school on the upper floor.

Constructed of a series of portal frames, these precast concrete elements will be assembled on site and provide the form and framework that defines the order of the spaces housed

within. Occupying the space above the landscape, the school notes the significance of the land and the potential of the landscape above which it sits. On ground level, the open air

market hall provides a direct connection to the environs that feed it as local harvests ebb and flow through the shelter of this trading space.

The roof of the school is conceived of as a secondary landscape, an undulating series of polygonal cells that provide openings through the roof to the sky above. There are a number

of primary large rectangular voids that pierce this roof and the floor plane below, allowing light and the natural elements down through the building to the market hall underneath the

building.


A B C

A B C

1

2

3

4

86

7

1

9

10

8

11

12

13

14

15

13

Ground Floor Plan_not to scale First Floor Plan_not to scale

South Elevation_not to scale


Section A_A

Section B_B

Section C_C


Corridor overlooking the Central Void

Performance Space

Library

3D Renders


Modelling the Programme

Elevation of 1:100 model

Roof Structural SystemRoof Finish


Portal Frame System and interconnecting concrete crossbeams Relationship of the building to the rolling landscape underneath


Occupying the Model

View into the library View from central void into reception area View the cafe kitchen into the central void

View into the performance space View of north end of library



Woodlands

Orchard

Wild ParkAllotments

Enterprise

76


CRITIQUE 2 Thesis:

The organic hall has adapted a definite position to the landscape that

hosts it. Rising above and ramping down to lightly touch the ground, the

land is permitted to continue uninterrupted underneath the location of the

building. The portal frame system acknowledges the industrial context of

the site while developing an aesthetic that respects the land and gives it

centre stage.

Antithesis:

- Relationships to site and landscape?

- How productive is the landscape?

- Have you played with the landscape enough – does it have a narrative,

can it ground the pieces? What happens the landscape beneath the

building

- Undercrofts - do they work in Ireland? Will it just be dirt as opposed to

grass?

- Buildings relationship to the community? Where is the communal space

and identity?

- Is there a focal point for the public? What about a hierarchy across the

site, similar to 19 century gardens?

- Space underneath needs to be fully explained – what is the quality of the

market space here?

- Can the use of the portal frames be more subtle?

- Boxes can drop down and occupy spaces – this also allows access to

boxes roof space

- How appropriate is this language for the other buildings on the site? Do

you need to design them?

- Access the building, surely the ramp can be a bigger gesture

- Landscape strategy is a priority now.

Synthesis:

I found I could not defend the landscape strategy I presented as it felt

very underdeveloped and lacked any clear narrative. The idea of a viable

landscape under the building can still happen but it can take the form

of hard landscape with occasional planting to avoid any dead grassless

area. The floor plane and boxes an move somewhat to try and meet the

landscape underneath.

The school doesn’t operate under the traditional syllabus and so other

community aspects are included within the building. The market place, the

performance space, the café and the library are all new civic aspects that

can support and enhance the lives of the local surbanites.

A hierarchy across the site is not appropriate here as there are many entry

points into the grounds. What seems more suitable here is a series of

structures or follies that can guide and intrigue visitors into the park and

different zones within the scheme. In this manner, the ground becomes an

active plane where the architecture emerges as an improbable, fluctuating

figure. I do need to consider further the connection between the building

and the landscape, how the existing ramp can become more generous

and inviting than it appears at present.

At this time it seems unnecessary to design the smaller buildings on site

but rather to focus energies into fully resolving the Organic Hall and her

landscape strategy.


PROGRAMMING THE LANDSCAPE

The concept for the landscape is twofold - that of cellular organisation and organic fluidity.

The notion of organizing the various land uses into strict zones of use and occupation

relates the nature of these spaces, wetlands and allotments can mix for they each require

two different environments and land conditions. Segregation ensures stable and individual

micro-systems can emerge within each zone while their very separation serves to highlight

the differences to passersby and students alike.

The idea of a fluid circulation system stems from the amoeba-like form of the land

organization. Movement around the various micro landscapes allows access to all while a

secondary path system that pierces the cells allows for a full immersion in each landscape.


There is a notion that a composition of reference

points and location markers can be located

across the proposed landscape to allow interplay

between the land and the built environment.

The axes that the paths set up through the site

could hinge, terminate or frame views across the

site that will guide, reveal or disorientate the eye

for the purpose of the scheme.

In this way, the ground becomes an active

component with the variable architectural

elements across the site.


InspirationLafayette Greens

These raised beds were installed

on the site of the former Lafayette

building in Detroit. The public

nature of the project with its open

circulation off the streets provides

a real platform for an organic

education in the city. The raised

beds provide a container for soil

above the existing ground line.

These containers hold soil sourced

off site which eliminates the need

for treatment of the existing soil on

site.

The strong appeal with this project

is its close proximity to the urban

dwellers and their daily activities.

Here, in the heart of Detroit, the

raised beds literally provided a

platform for questioning, rethinking

and enquiring about productive

land in the city.

Shenyang Campus

This university demonstrates how agricultural landscape

can become part of the urbanized environment and

how cultural identity can be created through an ordinary

productive landscape.

The design of the campus is a response to the

overwhelming urbanization of China and its

encroachment upon much arable land.

What draws me to this project is its big idea combined

with a humble design. Producing rice for the locality

and engaging students in activities outside of their

normal academic curriculum also serves to further

connect people with the land.


Union Street Orchard,

London

During the London

Festival of Architecture,

Bankside Open Spaces

Trust created a place for

exchange between local

residents and visitors to

the Festival. Central to the

design of the orchard was

a plant exchange: people

contributed hundreds of

plants from their homes to

creating an ever-evolving

garden that was truly built

by the community. A series

of workshops and activities

took place in the Orchard

over the few months it was

open.

The interesting aspect of this short lived project was again its immediacy to the local community. The plant

exchange concept encouraged active participation within the ground and on street notice boards informed all who

passed about the goings-on behind the fence. The proximity of the project to the rail line also reinforced the idea

that productive landscape can occur without issue on the edge of infrastructural networks.

Tulip Fields

The tulip fields in Holland

are a feast for the senses.

The striking colours and

the scent filled air prove

a stimulating experience

for all who cycle through

these productive

landscapes.

Here, the canals service

the fields in terms of

transport access and

water supply, while paths

and roads allows for

hours of endless rambling

through this multi-coloured

landscape.

The most exciting part of

these landscapes is the

productivity and order of

the land, the hand of man

is clearly visible yet there

exists only natural and

native elements. This is

truly landscape on man’s

terms.


Summer Park, Governors Island

Within this matrix of parkland, forested areas of varying density

are defined, accommodating solid areas and voids, but also the

many buildings and sports and leisure facilities that will be built on

Governors Island. This grid is not applied in a strict

visual way, since ultimately its contours are destined to blur, even to

disappear.

Summer Park is an attempt to link the rhythms of urban life to those

of nature through a landscape structure that is directly inspired by

agricultural vocabulary and processes.

The appeal of this project is its potential to break down density on a

fringe landscape where there is a lack of transition from one dense

development type to another. Here, the landscape offers the potential

for a new suburban quality – that of quality rather than extensive

density and utilisation. Landscape can be consumed in a manner

more befitting the scale of man and the land, an idea of worth over

exploitation.


Site Visit: The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co. Leitrim As my interest lay in providing an organic school

on the Broombridge site in Cabra, I was eager

to see how such a service might be provided

within an Irish context. To this end, I paid a visit

to the Organic Centre in County Leitrim, one of

the most established and successful organic

centres in the country. Here, varied educational

programmes range from one day courses to a

FETAC approved Horticultural course that runs

over the course of a year.

Despite its rural location, the centre has thrived

and attracts many visitors from around the

country. The centre caters for the training of

individuals and small groups and is a popular

location for visiting classes from local primary

and secondary schools.

The facilities on site include gardens, a play

area, polytunnels, an orchard, willow nursery,

compost area, wetlands, crop rows and

vegetable gardens. The Organic Centre itself

houses a café, shop and a series of classrooms

and offices. The aesthetics of the building

mirrors that of a green ethos with its grass roof

and timber clad façade.

Interestingly, the layout of the grounds

establishes a clear edge and separation

between the various gardens and lands uses.

I found that this order made each plot easy to

navigate and study closely. While crop rotation

is encourages within the vegetable and crop

gardens, soil areas that contain the orchard,

wetlands and willow beds do not have the same

nutrient requirement for relocation. Polytunnels

provided shelter over an ever changing indoor

landscape and so these can remain in position

as new and used soils and plants are moved by

hand as required.

The Organic Centre The Apple Orchard Inside the FETAC Tunnel

Inside the ‘Garden’ Tunnel The Willow Nursery Geodesic Greenhouse

The Herb Garden The freshly planted crop rows

Right: The Organic Centre Grounds



84


Exploring the Landscape Cells

The Flower Field

Area: 6300 sqm

Varieties:

Michelmas Daisies and

Delphinium flower in the

Autumn, Daffodils and

Primula in the Winter and

Spring and Asters, Phlox

and Stock in the Summer.

Cosmos keep flowering

throughout the year

Predicted Yield:

200 -350 stems per

square metre

The Cotton Field

Area: 3545 sqm

Variety:

Narrow Row Cotton

Predicted Yield: 1

00 grams per square

metre

200 -350 stems per

square metre

Aquaponics

Open Area: 6390 sqm

Varieties: Lettuce,

radishes, sinach, yale

Predicted Yield: 5 times

the normal field yield

Polytunnel Area: 832 sqm

Use: Tomato growing and

Propagation Space

Predicted Tomato Yield:

40 kg per square metre

Water Surface Area:

1386 sqm

Fish Variety: Trout

Predicted Fish Yield:

3 kg per cubic metre

Grass Gardens

Area: 2205 sqm

‘Scientists estimate that

grasses make up 20

per cent of the Earth’s

vegetation’

Varieties:

sugar cane, corn, wheat,

rushes, barley, oats, rye.

Flower Fields 1:50


The Fruit Orchards

Area: 5935 sqm

Fruit Tree Area: 3582 sqm

Apple Tree Varieties:

Cairn Russet, Kerry

Pippin, Lady’s Finger,

Ecklineville

Fruit Tree Varieties:

Strawberry, Wild Cherry,

Juniper, Irish Peach, Pear

Wetlands

Area: 6045 sqm

‘Wetlands are among

the most productive

ecosystems in the world,

comparable to rain

forests and coral reefs’

Reedbed

Area: 788 sqm

Filter and re-use of

Organic Hall’s brown

water output

Allotments

Area: 17095 sqm

Allotment Types:

# 1 - 80 sqm: weekend

growing

# 2 - 160 sqm: single

person/couple

# 3 - 240 sqm: family

(4/5 persons)

# 4 - 320 sqm: family

(6/8 persons)

# 5 - 400 sqm: extensive

use

Orchard Path 1:50


The Organic Hall as seen from Bannow Road, partially obscured by the orchard


CRITIQUE 3 Thesis:

The landscape is presented as a series of cellular zones that define,

organise and direct movement through the site. A gentle undulating

surface that flows out from the Organic Hall and into the corners of the

suburbs that surround it.

The porous nature of the rigid school plan is reflected in the permeable

landscape islands that colonise the ground.

The symbiotic relationship of building and landscape allow each to be

exist independently and as part of a whole.

Antithesis:

- Sketches of cells very nice – your research comes across well.

- How do you link into suburban south and industrial north? Are existing

barriers good or bad – what’s your opinion on this? How do you change the

topography? By penetrating and encouraging engagement?

- How do you decide on the building’s position? Is there not a chance to

critique the industrial sheds?

Think about pushing/developing that porous nature and passage that is

in the building through the site. Don’t forget that you are also designing a

route.

- Be more aggressive – attack the urban. Find nodes in the city – create

tentacles. Make the park more porous –maybe demolish houses – your

scheme is giving back to the city.

- Your scheme is about education and reshaping lives, back gardens etc –

what do the locals get?

- Your structure and section – think a little deeper – is there something to

define market space?

- How do you rise up in the building? Make a more generous gesture.

Make the landscape meet the building.

- Again how landscape meets building is the most important thing. I’m not

sure its floating in the right place at the moment.

- Map and look at the landscape of the city to strengthen thesis.

Synthesis:

I agreed that I had neglected to fully explore the relationship between

the city and the landscape as I had been occupied with resolving the

relationship between the landscape and building. I need to clarify and

fully the connection between the landscape and the building and the

landscape’s relationship to the city.

The ramp and landscape connection into the building needs more

attention to fully resolve the entrance into the school. I believe the building

is located in the correct place, located at the heart of the landscape and

aligned with the midday sun. The fact that the building does not sit parallel

to the existing road and industrial buildings is a critique in the orientation

and ethos of such practices.

FINAL PRESENTATION


Satellite Image - Dublin 2013

Orange Box denotes limits of 1853 Map

Site in its Present State

Griffith Valuation Map of Dublin 1853


Site Scheme 1:2000

91


WetlandsTunnelsOrchard Wild Park

Grass GardensFloral LaneAquaponicsAllotments

a walk through the gardens...

Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page 93


Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page 94

THE ORGANIC HALL

The hall houses an organic school that floats above an open-air market space underneath.

The concrete portal frame suspends the enclosed programme above the land, sandwiched

between a shifting floor plane and polygonal celled timer roof.

Schedule of Accommodation

GROUND LEVEL

Market Space

FIRST LEVEL

Reception

Café

Library

Study Room

Garden Workshops

Cookery Classroom

Theory based Classrooms

Community/Performance Hall

Social Spaces /Pockets

Administration Office

Toilets & Showers

SECOND LEVEL

Reading Space

Gym

Recreational Zone

Performance Fly Space

Elevation & Landscape Section 1:400

Concept

The building was conceived as an occupied plane that floats

above the land.

Man’s needs are accommodated above the ground while

the landscape and her programme continue uninterrupted

underneath this floating space.

Vertical voids cut through the building and an open base allow

for the penetration of the elements and a reconnection between

land and sky.


THE ORGANIC HALL SITTING IN ITS GARDENS


Ground Level 1:200

a b

a b

cc

Market Space

Stair

Core

Fire Stairs

Level One 1:200a b

a b

cc

Stage

Cookery Room

Café

Kitchen

Staff

Room

Study Room

Admin

Office

Workshop

Workshop

Library

Classroom

Store

Reception

Hall

Classroom


Level Two 1:200

a b

a b

cc

Reading Space

Gym

Fly Space

Recreation

Inverted Ceiling Plan


Section CC_NTS


Section BB_NTS

Section AA_NTS


Market Space

Looking down over the entrance rampPerformance SpaceCafé

Recreational Zone

Overlooking the Main Entrnce Ramp

3D Images of Organic Hall


1:50 Sectional Model


View of Ramped Entrance Ramped Acces to Social Space above Cookery Classroom View of Reception Area with Library in Background

Social Space under Polygonal Celled Roof Library with Mesh Covered Glazing System Open Air Market Space underneath the Organic School


The Final Presentation


The Final CritiqueThesis:

For the final presentation, the thesis position was put forward and together

with the school of thought it explained the origins of the programme for the

building and landscape.

The concepts for both the landscape and the building were put forward

and their interrelationship was explained briefly. The cellular organisation

of the landscape was explained as a series of connected but singular cells

that accommodates soil, water and ecological requirements specific to

each cell’s individual use.

It was made clear that the aim of this project was to bring food cultivation

back into the consciousness of the city and initiate an agricultural dialogue

within the Dublin metropolis.

Antithesis:

- School of Thought well explained and this is a timely project.

- How did your brief develop such an un-organic cell like building?

- Brilliant site. How is balance achieved between the productive landscape

and the suburban landscape?

- Your objective seems quite clear; it’s really interesting – the rational of

control of nature.

- It is a zoo like building and this has given your great freedom – not for the

landscape but for the city.

- Powerful project, really interesting work.

Synthesis:

The final model did not make it clear that natural light does not penetrate

through all the polygonal cells as the roof membrane was removed to

expose the structure. The building itself developed as a cell-like structure

through working in models and exploring structural solutions for the

roofscape. The landscape scheme was always going to have a gentle,

undulating and soft flow to it and a rigid structure was intended as a stark

contrast to this; the solid habitat of man versus the fluid nature of the land.

Had more time allowed, further work could have been done to fully resolve

the meeting of the building and the ground. The entrance ramp at present

is somewhat underdeveloped and the market space underneath the

buildings needs some refining.

Productive landscape and suburban landscape are understood by the

author as two very different states of being. Suburban land collectively

is underused in terms of its out potential and so the call for a more

productive landscape seems appropriate within an ever growing city.

The proposed landscape at Broombridge is conceived of as a public

space that will educate and promote food production and growth at many

scales within the suburbs. It is hoped that this space would encourage

individuals and local bottom up initiatives across the expanse of private

suburbia to demand more output from their underused lands. Areas such

as back gardens and shared green spaces could be reimagined as new

agricultural resources within the city. In this way, a new landscape balance

can be established and defined by suburban citizens themselves.


CONCLUSIONAs the suburbs continue to surge outwards, more and more of Dublin’s

hinterland is consumed by land hungry housing and business estates.

Here, on the edge of the city, land is more affordable and widely available;

here the urban demands of the city core are weakened and dilute. In this

suburban sparsity, the city is mostly infrastructure and service zone, an

inactive in-between that is underutilised and under intensified.

The concern for Dublin today is the economic value placed on land within

reach of the city limits. In fact, the principle issue is the fact that this land

holds ONLY a commercial value within the urban consciousness. It is clear

that there no longer exists an awareness of the agricultural value of land

within the urban conscious.

In spite of this, there exists opportunities within the city to initiate an

agricultural intervention and reconnect the city with the land. Pockets of

forgotten ground or ‘wildscapes’ are evident across the city at present.

Wildscapes can be defined as landscapes whose function and form have

been shaped outside the normal forces of city control. These wildscapes

offer the chance for a new urban agricultural dialogue and the possibility of

re-establishing the relationship between the earth and the city.

The land at Broombridge is one of the key wildscapes identified within

Dublin City. This 19 acre site provides an unused landscape less than

4 kilometres from the city centre. The multifaceted landscape strategy

proposed for the site offers a variety of crops, land uses and cultivation

practices that co-exist independently within the scheme. These agricultural

gardens offer the opportunity to engage and observe agricultural practices

to both the casual city observer and the keen green fingered student. The

cellular layout presents a smorgasbord of produce and uses that range in

intensity from exhaustive aquaponics to a gently managed ‘wild’ parkland.

This collection of agricultural gardens offers various slices of productive

land uses with the city environment.

On an urban level, the landscape strategy knits together the diverse

suburban estates that border the site and connects for the first time

the various zones of work, leisure and domesticity. Day trippers, train

passengers, residents, workers, students, people at leisure and market

goers all share common circulation routes through this new landscape that

ties together the varied identities of this suburban matrix.

In conclusion, the position of this thesis is that the city cannot survive

without the agricultural hinterland that sustains it. A cultivation of the land

within the urban context is a call for a renewed collective awareness with

regards to the future co-dependency of city and land.

The Organic Hall at the heart of this proposed landscape strategy affirms

the potential of the land by rising above the ground and allowing land

related use and occupancy underneath the building. Uninterrupted by

walls or enclosed spaces, the ground becomes an active, constructed

plane where the architecture emerges as a fluctuating, floating figure.

Direct work upon the land is conceived of as work upon a manipulated

architecturalised void.

This proposal is conceived of as a starting point for the introduction of

agriculture within the city limits. Other wildscapes identified within Dublin

are ripe for similar cultivation and agricultural interventions. Each site can

in turn create a local awareness of land potential and production and

thus encourage bottom up projects and back yard farming at a smaller

yet wider scale. These projects and schemes will thereby generate a new

productive landscape for the future city.

THE FUNDAMENTAL AIM OF THIS THESIS IS TO INITIATE

AN AGRICULTURAL CONVERSATION WITHIN THE CITY’S

CONSCIOUSNESS.

‘Wildscapes’ Locations across Dublin


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to say a very sincere thanks to my family and close friends.

Without their constant support I don’t think I have could have ever

completed this degree.

I would like to take the chance to especially thank the following people:

- Mum and Dad – thank you so much for bank rolling my never ending

education. Is it ok if I pass on my debt to NAMA?

- My siblings Laura and Paul. Thanks Laura for all the dinners, lifts and

distractions, it was great to experience life outside the world of architecture

from time to time. Paul, you are too funny, I think you were made for the

stage! You make me laugh no end. You are a true tonic and I hope that

never changes.

-To all my architectural buddies, thanks for the laughs, freak outs and

general craziness that only a studio environment can nurture. It’s been fun.

-To all my non-architect friends both near and far, thank you for your calls,

emails, company and encouragement along the way. I’m looking forward

to more of this during the coming months and years!

-A special thanks to Laura (again), Irene, Jess, Clare, Celine, Naomi and

Caroline. All of your generous contributions made my thesis presentations

all the better thanks to your helping hands.

- And finally a big thank you to all the fifth year staff. A special mention

to my two mentors Dominic Stevens and Andrew Griffin, I could not have

asked for better tutors or sounder advice. Thank you both so much.

I have lived and learned so much during my time in DIT. It’s time now for

the next chapter of my life to begin…

Intensifying Broombridge - Productive Suburban Land

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